Changing from Net Community Spark to Online Express - Pros and Cons

Blythe Pritchett 3 · February 2016

Hello Online Express users!

We are in the beginning stages of researching the switch from Spark to OLX. We use the email function (or attempt to with much frustration) and usually move to another form (constant contact) a lot and are looking for an easier way. I have a couple of questions though regarding implementation.

Does OLX replace the individual donation pages that we have set up on our website? We have six different ones with different funds associated with them as well as a general donation page.

How difficult is the transition?

How is the ease of sending emails? Do they stay formatted consistantly across multiple email types, yahoo, outlook, hotmail, etc?

Any challanges that we should be aware of?

Thanks so much for your help and insite.

Rene Rosengren · February 2016

Hi Bythe,

We are in the same boat, just beginning to plan for how the transition will work for our giving pages. The biggest change so far is that Online Express donation forms need to reside on webpages. If you have the ability to create or already have pages in place you can embed Online Express forms into your pages. Our situation is complicated by the fact that we are a hospital foundation & our pages reside on the hospital site, so we have to work through the hospital's web team to create the addtional pages we will need for the Online Express forms that will replace our existing NetCommunity forms that are linked to webpages rather than embedded onto the webpages. If you have folks with the skills & "security clearance" to create your own pages, this won't be nearly so involved for you.

We haven't even begun to test the e-mail newsletter features of Online Express yet.

Candy Reichert · February 2016

We currently are using both NetCom Spark and OLX. There are a few things that we still need in NetCommunity that OLX is not able to fulfill.

Thank you emails: OLX is very limited to design. I can put in an image for our logo or a picture. I'm still testing this feature. NetCommunity is much more indepth in being able to design what the emailed acknowledgement will look like.
Lists: OLX email blasts will not work as a stand alone for us because it is limited to Queries in RE. NetCommunity: is much more flexible because we can export lists from RE, make adjustments as needed, and then upload them into NetCommunity and send emails to that list. I personally do this for emailing pledge reminders.
Email Blasts: We haven't used this much due to the issue with not being able to import lists.
Donor Giving History: We still need the ability for donors to view their giving history.
Donor parts: We utilizing the OLX donor part on a few of our NetCommunity pages to test the waters. They are easy to set up and embed on an existing web page. We are hoping that the Givealanche will be very beneficial for some of our departments. I am eagerly awaiting the ability to edit the email that is sent to encourage giving. I do like the look and feel of the OLX donor part. I really like the ease of making changes. But am not happy with the look of our acknowledgement email yet.

I think those are the major points right now that are keeping us from switching away from NetCommunity. I would suggest that you do quite a bit of testing of all the things that you do with NetCommunity and see how they are handled in OLX before cutting the strings.

Candy

Blythe Pritchett 3 · February 2016

Thank you both so much! Some of that functionality we haven't utilized yet here even though it is available, such as the donor history. I appreciate the time it took to answer my questions.

Blythe

Candy Reichert · March 2016

Candy Reichert:

We currently are using both NetCom Spark and OLX. There are a few things that we still need in NetCommunity that OLX is not able to fulfill.

Thank you emails: OLX is very limited to design. I can put in an image for our logo or a picture. I'm still testing this feature. NetCommunity is much more indepth in being able to design what the emailed acknowledgement will look like. Update: I have been able to update the confirmation page and emailed acknowledgement to match our NetCommunity ones. This will work great for us. I have also figured out how to add a Comments section that is included on the confirmation page and emailed acknowledgement. Now I am happy with the Thank you emails.

Lists: OLX email blasts will not work as a stand alone for us because it is limited to Queries in RE. NetCommunity: is much more flexible because we can export lists from RE, make adjustments as needed, and then upload them into NetCommunity and send emails to that list. I personally do this for emailing pledge reminders.

Email Blasts: We haven't used this much due to the issue with not being able to import lists.

Donor Giving History: We still need the ability for donors to view their giving history.

Donor parts: We utilizing the OLX donor part on a few of our NetCommunity pages to test the waters. They are easy to set up and embed on an existing web page. We are hoping that the Givealanche will be very beneficial for some of our departments. I am eagerly awaiting the ability to edit the email that is sent to encourage giving. I do like the look and feel of the OLX donor part. I really like the ease of making changes. But am not happy with the look of our acknowledgement email yet. Now I am happy with the look of our acknoledgement emails. See note under #1.
I think those are the major points right now that are keeping us from switching away from NetCommunity. I would suggest that you do quite a bit of testing of all the things that you do with NetCommunity and see how they are handled in OLX before cutting the strings.

Candy

Changing from Net Community Spark to Online Express - Pros and Cons

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