Fundly Software

I will NOT use this company nor suggest using this company or fundraising again.

Pros

The ease of starting the fund, it was easy to start up and upload pictures

Cons

They use a financial system called STRIPE. It is a secondary business. To start a fundraiser for a friend i used FUNDLY, not knowing the money i was raising was going to be held hostage by STRIPE. They treated the fundraiser as a business. I had no EID because it is not a business and there is NO profit to be made. The customer support was anything but helpful. I could not stop the fundraiser without loosing the current funds. So the family in NEED is still in need while Stripe holds the funds.

Pros

Nothing. It did what I needed it to when I was able to donate monthly.

Cons

All I wanted to do was cancel a recurring donation. It was like being in the equivalent of a Vegas casino, where you can't escape. I'm very frustrated.

We continue to have problems that have lost us thousands of dollars. The response we get from company reps is more about protecting Fundly than solving problems. The previous staff at our nonprofit must have selected Fundly based on expected costs, but the reality is that the opportunity cost and real costs are literally threatening the survival of our organization.

Pros

A few things are easy, but a lot is lacking, and for end users, the system is very frustrating.

Cons

We do events nearly every week and have to field dozens of calls and emails each week from people who are not able to register due to confusing user experience, timeouts, and technical issues. When people want to reset their password, they often don't get the reset message. Monthly members/donors keep getting kicked out by the system, so we often get people who think they're still members, but the system won't recognize them. When we try to fix this on the back end, it doesn't "stick." Reporting is frustrating and often inaccurate, especially around events and membership. The customer service is defensive and usually insists that there isn't a problem.

Pros

Nothing so far. I stopped donations because there seems to be to too many unsure features.

Cons

No way to communicate. no way to email or call or withdraw funds. I stopped donations.

Pros

You can record a lot of information about donations including where the money is coming from, where it is going, details about who it came from, etc. The acknowledgement feature for sending receipts helps track communications with donors.

Cons

I've found it extremely difficult to report on data after it's entered in the system. The reporting tool is not intuitive. There are several "tricks" that you wouldn't know unless told specifically. I run into many errors and can't seem to get the reports to pull the information I want, especially in fairly straightforward scenarios. I also found the system to be quite slow as compared to other cloud/internet-based softwares. It takes a long time to enter one small task or piece of information and search for contacts or navigate through the site.

Efficiency, support, ease of use for myself and other internal customers.

Pros

The support is fantastic, the software is easy to understand graphics; ease of use of the various input and access systems, detailed reporting, and price.

The software is extremely easy to access, and utilize.

Pros

The software is so easy to use, even for people like myself who are not so "technology literate"! Anytime I need assistance the staff avails themselves immediately. I can keep track of every single item regarding our organization in ONE place, this is most helpful for me especially since in the position of ED I wear many hats.

Cons

Occasionally the system will freeze up on me, but this is generally the only issue that I've encountered. I do not have any other cons to report at this time. The system has been for the most part AWESOME.

More automation of recurring donations. Great for managing our events. Peace of mind knowing that support is available and responsive.

Pros

The best thing about Fundly is their customer support. A great system is nothing without support to get you up and running and help you when you have a question. Their webinars are great, especially the Friday drop-in webinar. I also like how it helped us get our recurring donations mostly automated. All I have to do is go in and click to send the acknowledgment emails. They also have great ways to recieve donations and event registrations online. The donation widget we have on our website definitely increased our online donations.

Cons

The reporting feature can be hard to learn. It's very powerful and can do a lot when you get up to speed but the learning curve is steep. Luckily, they have the Reporting Huddles. I have gotten a lot of help from going to those.

There is nothing like Fundly. Everything is all in one package for any of your fundraising needs. Our nonprofit, Race for Kids, solely uses Fundly for everything. We love it!

As a young startup team, we at Old Sol Music Hall were looking for a customer relationship management tool that would grow with us and our nonprofit organization. With the dedicated support of the Fundly team, we were able to develop an awesome website; manage the abundance of information about our volunteers, donors, and concertgoers; and finish our first fiscal year feeling organized and ready for years to come.

This was a great company and product when it was nonprofiteasy, but ever since becoming Fundly CRM is has gone to the birds. Used to be a simple, user friendly experience. Now it is cluncky, not user friendly and some of the features are impossible to use unless you are a computer programmer.

Customer service does not exist with this company - be prepared to be thrown into the wolf's den. At best they will give you a list of instructions a day later, but that's all. Or they will tell you to watch a webinar. If you have nothing else to do but mess with a computer all day this might work for you, but most of us fundraisers do not (or probably don't know how because that is not our job!). Then the support personnel talk to you like your stupid because you can't figure out what they are talking about from their written instructions and they then want to charge you just for the privilege of talking to them on the phone.

The reporting feature is absolutely useless unless you are a computer engineer. Seriously! They farm out the reporting to a company called Exago that is for market research. I'm totally not kidding - check it out http://www.exagoinc.com/. This is what you have to look forward to. Nothing but headaches and anxiety.

Please do not fall for these people; especially the sales guy Dan. They do not care about you. They're only objective is to add more clients and definitely not to help you or your organization.

Pros

NONE

Cons

THAT IT EXISTS

Advice to Others

STAY AWAY! Don't believe a word they say

I started using this when it was NonProfitEasy. It seemed to be 5 guys running out of a garage. I ran into a number of bugs, that they fixed quickly, but I had a hard time matching their report numbers to outside sources. However, my real issue arose when first one, then a second employee promised something on pricing, but didn't follow through. Our company got a surprise charge. My emails went unanswered. Turned out first employee left the company, the other was out on leave - no one was checking their email. The company was very slow in resolving the issue, and communicated poorly during the resolution. I cannot recommend this company, there are others with same functionality and better service.