Netcommunity VS Luminate

shani traum

Hi all,


We currently use NetCommunity.  It has been suggested that we switch to Luminate, but I have heard that whether or not to switch depends on how you use the platform - that there are advantages and disadvantages to both.


So - for those who have used both...what do you see as the pros and cons?


For those on Luminate...One thing we heard is that it's not so event friendly - true?


We use NetCommunity for donations and event registration (primarily ticketed events).


Thanks!


Shani

Joanne Felci 2

Hi Shani,

I've used both products, but have not used NetCommunity since 2014 so some additional improvements might have been made


The main pro I see with Luminate, which was not available at NetCommunity at the time I used them, was the ability for the donor to log in (called Luminate Service Center) and update their credit card information. We have a lot of monthly donors so this is a really cool feature


We have events, but do not use the Luminate event area


Besides the service center I really haven't noticed a ton of differences


I would use neither for email or webpages as both have limitations (hard to use, HTML code doesn't stay, etc.)


The one pro of using email with BBNC IMHO is that there is an log of what emails were sent in RE and updates go back and forth (not sure if Luminate updates RE records/email tab, but updates happen)


Another thing I prefer in Luminate is the reporting capability is far superior. You can write custom reports and get a lot more information out.


If you have more specific questions let me know and I can try to answer them


Joanne

shani traum

Thank you Joanne,

 

Yes, what I’ve heard from Blackbaud is that
reporting is better on Luminate, but that event registration (other
than peer to peer fundraising) is better on NetCommunity.

 

We use it for both donations and event
registrations, so….

 

Interesting about RE updates… We’ll have to
ask about that if we actually move closer to making the switch.

 

Thank you for the information!

 

Shani Traum

Research and Database Systems Manager

Development Office

Hebrew SeniorLife

1200 Centre Street

Boston, MA 02131

 

617-971-5787

traum@hsl.harvard.edu

 

www.hebrewseniorlife.org

https://give.hebrewseniorlife.org/giving

 

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Cody Karst

We are in the process of switching. It has taken much longer than we anticipated and we keep finding unexpected issues popping up in regards to what data Luminate can actually pass to RE. We might be using Luminate a little different than most people as we are only utilizing the API it has to handle donations and report it back to RE.  We may use it for email in the future but from our testing and playing around the email feature just doesn't compare to our current ESP Mailchimp. We also found better deliverability with Mailchimp vs BBNC's email system. 


The process has been a major undertaking and not a simple switch over sorta of thing like we thought. We started the process at the beginning of this year and we are still a few months out at best.  Had we known it would take this long and be this difficult we would have at least reviewed other alternatives before embarking on this journey.  That said, staff supporting us are all very helpful and all around awesome but the product itself seems like a big mess.


I think the biggest shock for us was that not everything in Luminate can be sent to RE through their RELO connector and in order to achieve what we want it looks like we have to purchase a 3rd party integration. We hope that isn't the case because it will add even more cost to the already expensive LO platform and are waiting to find out.


All in all, at this point I would only recommend LO as an upgrade to BBNC if you plan to stay on RE for the future. 

shani traum

This is very helpful.  Thank you!