NetCommunity v. Online Express

Michaela Walker

 I am looking into switching from NetCommunity to Online Express. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts pros and cons of switching? I would be using it for email, membership, donations and event registrations. The goal is to have the most user-friendly process possible. 

Angela Bertrand 2

Hi Michaela! We just switched from NetCommunity to Online Express last fall at my organization! We use it for donations and event registrations, so I can't speak to email (we use mailchimp so it's more accessible to our 20+ programs) or membership, but I'm happy to share what I do know!


We have been very happy with our switch- we don't have anyone on staff who knew enough code to make anything in NetCommunity look good, which had the result of making it REALLY inflexible. While technically possible, we just didn't have the ability to create donation forms for various programs or appeals like we wanted to. In addition, we didn't love that the donation & event forms were hosted on another site, taking traffic away from our website. With Online Express, we love that we can create as many donation forms as we need quickly and easily and update them whenever (even without any technical expertise). 


You definitely lose some functionality in going from NetCommunity to Online Express... but we weren't able to access that functionaility or use it to our advantage, so Online Express has made things SO MUCH easier and more efficient. 


If you have specific questions, I'm happy to answer them more here or if you want to PM me, we can find a time to chat on the phone. 

Michaela Walker

Thanks, Angela! 

Helpful information. I totally agree with the forms going to
another site (for NetCommunity). We don't like that
either. 

What functionality are you referencing that you lose from
NetCommunity to Online Express?

There isn't anyone on our staff that knows coding either...so
our form extends beyond the actual design of the page. Which makes
it look ridiculous. 

Thanks again for your thoughts. 

Best,

Michaela

Angela Bertrand 2

Some of the functionality lost was the ability for donors to create a username to log-in and update their pledge payments/credit card information (...that we weren't using), there are a couple more advanced things you can do with the forms in NetCommunity (again, that we didn't use, so I don't know exactly what), and the email capabilites are much more complete. 


If your staff isn't super tech savvy, Online Express will probably do everything you need. 


In case you want some examples, here are some of our donation forms -- all through one Online Express. We did these all just using the editor - the form automatically takes the CSS from the page it's on to match the look. 

• Our general donation form: https://www.solid-ground.org/donate/online-donation/
• Our field trip payment form: https://www.solid-ground.org/field-trip-online-payment/
• One of our departments operates fairly independently, and has their own donation form: https://www.povertyaction.org/join-make-a-donation/

We also have monthly giving and tribute forms, and do all of our fundraising event registration (but we don't have any events coming up.)

Michaela Walker

Oh, okay. We don't use the ability to create a
username either. So that's good. 

I plan on speaking to a Blackbaud rep - so I'll get the
specific differences. But it's nice to hear from people who
actually use Online Express. 

Thank you for the examples. That's really helpful. 

Have a great weekend!

Michaela

Peggy McBean

Angela Bertrand:

Some of the functionality lost was the ability for donors to create a username to log-in and update their pledge payments/credit card information (...that we weren't using), there are a couple more advanced things you can do with the forms in NetCommunity (again, that we didn't use, so I don't know exactly what), and the email capabilites are much more complete. 


If your staff isn't super tech savvy, Online Express will probably do everything you need. 


In case you want some examples, here are some of our donation forms -- all through one Online Express. We did these all just using the editor - the form automatically takes the CSS from the page it's on to match the look. 

• Our general donation form: https://www.solid-ground.org/donate/online-donation/
• Our field trip payment form: https://www.solid-ground.org/field-trip-online-payment/
• One of our departments operates fairly independently, and has their own donation form: https://www.povertyaction.org/join-make-a-donation/

We also have monthly giving and tribute forms, and do all of our fundraising event registration (but we don't have any events coming up.)

 

Hello Angela,  thank you for the comments regarding online express.  We are also considering moving to online express.  I looked a your posted donation pages, I hope you don't mind a couple of questions:


Can a constituent create a pledge with set payment schedule (for example providing options of quaterly or annual payments)

Does OE allow for confirmation emails (to donor/constituent) with sufficient detail  (# of tickets, cost, recurring gift amount, payment schedule, etc) - I ask becasue we are currently using onMessage & confirmation emails are extremely limited

Can you batch donations directly from OE

Can we customize payment options - at our school we offer a student account charge (essentially a pledge that we charge to a student account)  in addition to cheque and credit card.

Which version on RE are you on?


thanks so much for you help on this, I have read most of the information about OE & viewed webinars but I find the best learning is from other users.


Peggy 

Angela Bertrand 2

Hi Peggy! I'm happy to answer more questions!

• Yep, you can set up a pledge with a set payment schedule. We only allow for recurring gifts online, but there is also the option for pledge payments. I'm not too familiar with what it can and can't do since we don't use it, but it looks like the org selects to process gifts monthly, quarterly, or annually - but not the donor. You could set up separate donation forms, but that seems like it could be a pain.
•  OLX does allow for confirmation emails. It also will display a confirmation page, and can email someone on staff every time a gift is received if you want. They are customizable with merge fields. Not everything can be merged in, but we haven't found anything we need to include that isn't available. You can include transaction details as well as a receipt number. 
• You can batch donations directly from OLX - the process is pretty similar to what you do in NetCommunity. You match up the constituents, then select all to process into a batch. One thing we liked about moving to OLX is that NetCommunity we had to open up a different version of RE just to process NetCommunity gifts, then move to the 'real' RE to do everything else, OLX opens right in the standard version of RE
• We only allow CC gifts through the website... I think there's an option to make a pledge and not pay it, but I'm not sure. That's probably what you would want to do, then create an attribute to show up on the form to ask payment method. But, like I said, we only do CC via our forms, so I'm not sure on the functionality around other payment options.
• We are on 7.95, and have NXT. OLX is a part of the NXT package, so in the fall when we were looking to move to OLX, it made sense to go all in on the NXT package. We were already hosted, so it was pretty simple.

Hopefully that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions - I'm happy to help. 

Faith Murray

Hi! Just a quick note to add to Angela's excellent replies. Regarding payment methods in OLX, I believe that pledges and recurring gifts are only available on the Donations form, not the Events form. Both forms have a "Bill me later" option.


OLX allows Direct Debits (ACH/EFTs) in addition to credit card. However, we have noticed a hitch with Direct Debits, in that they are not automatically processed by BBMS as the credit cards are. Instead, once the gift is downloaded into a RE batch, you must manually initiate the EFT transmission files, which also means you must have the EFT module to use this functionality. I've never used NetCommuntiy, so maybe this is the same for you already.

Michaela Walker

Thank you! 

We currently do not do ACH/EFTs - and I don't think we will be
starting. But thank you for the helpful information.