GiveSmart

Overview

GiveSmart is a fundraising and donor-management platform for nonprofits, schools, and associations. It is best suited to organizations that run campaigns alongside auctions or events and want those activities under one roof. Its broad toolkit is appealing, but the choice between its two custom-priced models comes down to whether an annual subscription or a transaction-based rate better fits the budget.

Key features

Fundraising and auctions

Online fundraising, recurring giving, peer-to-peer campaigns, and text-to-donate cover several common ways to raise money. Mobile bidding supports silent and live auctions, max bids, outbid alerts, item management, and self-checkout. That combination is useful for organizations that want supporters to give or bid from a mobile device without separating the auction from the fundraising operation.

Events and virtual formats

Ticketing and guest management include seating and group management, contactless check-in, guest communication, and tax receipts. For virtual and hybrid events, GiveSmart adds livestreaming, chat, donor recognition, proxy bidding, and text-to-donate. This breadth makes it a stronger fit for event-led fundraising than a tool focused only on donation records.

Donor follow-up, reporting, and security

Campaign management, donation forms, donor segmentation, recurring donations, and automated receipts support work beyond the event itself. Advanced reporting includes real-time campaign reporting, dashboards, exports, and autogenerated receipts and tax letters, giving teams several ways to review activity and handle follow-up.

GiveSmart identifies Salesforce, Google Analytics, YouTube, and Vimeo among its integrations and supported services. It says its system is PCI and SOC 2 compliant, with encryption, restricted access, vulnerability testing, and independent audits. Those controls are relevant for organizations handling payments and donor records, though they do not replace an evaluation of an organization’s own security requirements.

Pricing

GiveSmart is paid, has no free plan, and uses custom pricing. Both models include full platform access, unlimited events and unlimited campaigns, plus 24/7 customer support, dedicated implementation support, a Help Center, and an assigned Client Success Manager.

• Annual Fee Subscription: Custom pricing with no per-transaction fees. It is the more natural model for organizations that prefer an annual subscription over a transaction charge; the subscription cost still needs to fit the budget.
• Pay-As-You-Go: Custom pricing with a disclosed transaction rate. It may suit organizations that prefer this payment model, but the rate should be weighed against the volume of transactions before committing.

Neither model gives up platform access or imposes an event or campaign quota, so the meaningful trade-off is the pricing structure rather than a reduced feature set. Ask for the subscription cost or transaction rate, as applicable, before choosing.

Platforms

GiveSmart is available on Android, iOS, and the web. Supporters can bid or donate from mobile devices, and fundraising pages are mobile responsive, which helps organizations reach participants beyond desktop browsers.

Who it's for

GiveSmart is a strong candidate for nonprofits, schools, and associations that combine donations with events, auctions, or peer-to-peer campaigns and need guest management, donor follow-up, and reporting in the same platform. Organizations seeking a free plan, or those that need to know costs before speaking with sales, should look elsewhere. The company identifies itself as part of Momentive Software and was founded in 2011; it is headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Fundraising, auctions, ticketing, and virtual-event tools share one platform, a practical advantage for organizations coordinating several kinds of campaigns and events.
• Pro: Both pricing models include unlimited events and campaigns and the same support provisions, avoiding a lower-tier feature trade-off.
• Pro: Advanced reporting, donor segmentation, and autogenerated receipts and tax letters support campaign review and donor administration.
• Con: There is no free plan, and both models require custom pricing, making budget comparisons harder before requesting a quote.
• Con: Pay-As-You-Go carries a transaction rate, while the annual subscription avoids that fee; organizations need to compare the actual terms against their fundraising volume.

Alternatives

For a freemium option, Funraise has a free plan for organizations raising under $1 million annually and is available on Android, iOS, API, and web. Its paid premium plans require a sales conversation, so it is worth considering when the eligibility-based free plan and platform coverage matter more than having a published premium price.

Keela is a web-based freemium alternative with annual contact-based plans shown at $243 a month for 1,001–2,500 contacts and $316 a month for 2,501–5,000 contacts. It may be a better fit for a team that wants a stated annual price tied to its contact range.

DonorForge offers free plans with limits of one user and two campaigns on Starter, or five users and 10 campaigns on Pro. It is a reasonable alternative for organizations whose needs fit those small free-plan caps.

Donorfy has a free Essentials plan for up to 250 constituents, with a charity or work email required. That makes it a possible starting point for organizations that meet the eligibility condition and have a small constituent base.

Karpura offers a free plan with two admin users, 100 emails per day, and no online payments. It is better suited to a team that can work within those limits and does not need online payments on its free tier.

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud offers eligible nonprofits 10 free Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud or Sales/Service Cloud licenses through its Power of Us Program. Consider it when qualifying for those free licenses is the priority.

Donation Manager RedCloud Suite is a free alternative for organizations looking for a free donation-management option.

OyamaCRM is free, self-hosted, and combines five modules without per-seat fees. It may suit nonprofits that prefer self-hosting and want to avoid per-seat charges.

Explore the Donor Management Software, Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Software, Charity Auction Software, Fundraising Event Software, Donation Management, and Nonprofit Text-to-Give Software categories to compare more options by specialty.

Verdict

Choose GiveSmart if your nonprofit, school, or association needs fundraising, auctions, and event operations together, with donor follow-up and advanced reporting alongside them. Its main advantage is breadth across the fundraising cycle; its main drawback is that custom pricing and the transaction-rate trade-off require a quote before you can judge the cost. Organizations that need a free starting point or transparent pricing should compare alternatives first.