Since 2014, CharityEngine has had a single-minded focus: making sure nonprofits have easy-to-use, comprehensive software to manage donors and process payments. Why? You’re busy doing good. It’s our job to power you to be great.
To help you decide if CharityEngine is right for your organization, we’ve compiled a list of the top ten questions we get. Even if we’re not the right fit, we’re happy to offer some expert guidance to send you in the right direction. Either way, we’re looking forward to speaking with you!
CharityEngine is nonprofit Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software, which means it automates the management of your donors. Simply put, we can track and manage every interaction you have with your donors, as well as provide extensive reporting and insights to help you personalize the donor experience, maximize giving in a thoughtful way, and strategically grow your nonprofit. While we can customize the system to meet almost any need your nonprofit might have, our capabilities include:
While we do think we offer an excellent product, we also know that we aren’t the right solution for every nonprofit. If you can answer yes to several of the following questions, it’s worth your time to look a little more closely at what CharityEngine has to offer.
It starts with Phil Schmitz, our CEO, and his genuine desire to ensure charities aren’t held back by technology. That philosophy of existing to make your life easier touches every aspect of our organization and is unique in an industry of acquisitions and mergers. Building on that, we partner with every client. That means we are there long-term, ensuring your implementation and ongoing donor management are smooth and optimized to make your life easier. CharityEngine is also a PCI-certified, SOC 2-compliant payment processor, meaning we’re a secure, all-in-one donor management solution.
It’s logical to look at a PayPal button on your website and think, “Okay, that gets me donations. Why would I need a whole system, just to manage donors?” And we would say that yes, you are collecting donations. But let’s look at two scenarios.
As you see, donor management software elevates standard donor communication. It helps nonprofits build and sustain personal relationships with donors, which engenders loyalty and increases giving.
CharityEngine helps groups work (or “integrate”) with third-party accounting systems by mitigating the need for manual entry. At the same time, we give control to the nonprofit to verify the data before the transaction data is passed over to the accounting system. An accountant will want to reconcile the amount that was raised and see how much money was received in the bank account, depending on how the nonprofit operates.
For other third-party systems, we have some options:
Regardless of which approach we use, we will ensure all systems are seamlessly connected.
CharityEngine processes millions of transactions—worth hundreds of millions of dollars—every year. As a payment gateway, we connect donors, processors, and credit cards to ensure donations are swiftly and securely processed.
The gold standard for payment security is PCI compliance, meaning an organization follows and achieves the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. CharityEngine is both PCI-certified and SOC 2-certified, meaning that we are rigorously audited by third parties to ensure personal information and financial information are safe.
A good CRM will collect a lot of valuable data on your donors, and this data can be mined for insights that will help you connect with constituents. CharityEngine’s software offers business intelligence and insights that will enable you to develop highly targeted (and highly effective) emails, fundraising initiatives, and campaigns. You will be able to personalize your donor’s journey, which will increase interest, loyalty, and donations. With the ability to manipulate and customize reports, you will be able to look at donor data from any view, turning information into initiatives that help your nonprofit grow.
Upon contract execution, a formal handoff between sales and the CharityEngine Customer Experience (CX) team will occur. This group holds your satisfaction as the goal through the process, from requirements gathering to the system build to the training, testing, and launch. An average implementation takes about three months, and we do most of the heavy lifting. This is where our strong partnership with our clients is solidified; we know what you want to accomplish, and we follow a well-thought-out plan to get you there.
As part of the implementation process, the CX team will help you create a form on your website to collect donations. When a donor enters information and clicks “donate,” the data flows from your website and into CharityEngine’s database. The donation is routed to the credit card processor and shows up in your bank account in a day or two.
We have pricing plans that will suit any nonprofit, but we'd urge you to think beyond immediate dollars and cents. First, because you want to buy the software version that will suit you in six months or a year. If, for example, you're thinking that you'll grow a bit and then plan an auction, ensure your fundraising software has auction features. We're sure you'll grow using CharityEngine, so consider what you'll need when you grow quickly.
Second, there's value in considering the ROI of software. Sometimes it's helpful to shift the paradigm and realize you'll pay for features in the first month of using them.
As for the cost of CharityEngine, it depends on your size. If you're a growing nonprofit ($1.5M to $10M), we have four pricing levels that will fit your needs and budget. If you're an enterprise nonprofit ($10M+), we'd love to share the exciting things we've done with clients like Wounded Warrior Project and Easterseals!
Did we answer some of your questions? If you want to dive deeper into the CharityEngine solution, book a demo to see our software in action or see how it looks to work with us.