Classy vs. Classy Alternatives: Which Fundraising Platform Best Suits Your Nonprofit?

If you’re reading this article, you’re likely in the middle of a fundraising software selection process for your nonprofit organization. We understand how critical it is to select the right tools to fuel your digital fundraising experience and ultimately fuel your mission. So if you’re deep into your research journey, you’re in the right place.

At Classy, we believe effective online fundraising begins with world-class conversions, but it doesn’t end there. It’s also about connecting people with your mission through impactful storytelling and taking your donors on an end-to-end journey.

Classy’s comprehensive fundraising platform empowers nonprofits to build lifelong relationships from moments of generosity. How we do that is unique from Classy competitors, which we’ll expand on below, but our goal to help nonprofits advance their causes is a through line.

Learn more about Classy’s fundraising solution versus Classy alternatives and how our technology empowers thousands of the world’s top nonprofits to amplify real-time impact.

Evaluating Nonprofit Platform Alternatives to Classy

There are several factors to consider during your nonprofit software evaluation, and the process can quickly become overwhelming.

Today’s nonprofits can power their fundraising efforts through a comprehensive nonprofit fundraising solution or buy into a set of individually-sourced point solutions that, together, make up a comprehensive tech stack. These point solutions may include online donations, crowdfunding, event management, payment processing, or donation forms, all sourced from different software providers.

At Classy, we know that cohesion across various giving experiences builds connection and trust with supporters. Offering the right experience to the right donor at the right time fuels conversions, amplifies donors’ levels of support, and keeps them coming back. We’re so confident we shaped our product suite around it.

Classy’s diversified fundraising platform offers a comprehensive, customizable set of tools that fuel a holistic strategy. In addition to our world-class direct giving experience, Classy offers virtual, hybrid, and in-person events, online peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, and recurring giving.

Outside of Classy, there are options for additional fundraising management tools, like customer relationship management or CRM donor management software, email marketing technology, and volunteer management tools. Many software programs, like Virtuous and Salesforce, integrate seamlessly with Classy.

How Direct Relief Tops 35% Conversion With Classy

Point Solutions: The Risk of Going Too Narrow

Point solutions are software built to solve a single problem. This applies to fundraising technology when platforms zero in on one aspect of the online giving process, like direct giving or event ticketing.

While a program may excel in that singular area, it often leaves nonprofits managing multiple fundraising tools to build a complete tech stack. This introduces a complexity tax for staff and supporters, leaving staff to learn multiple tools and supporters struggling with donation management.

For example, a recurring donor that’s also a peer-to-peer team captain now has two different systems to manage fundraising activity.

The cost of managing multiple tools quickly adds up, resulting in decreased efficiency, return on investment, and donor satisfaction.

All-in-One Solutions: The Risk of Going Too Broad

All-in-one platforms, seemingly the simplest solution, often try to be everything to everyone at the cost of innovation and user-friendly experiences. The idea of a one-stop shop sounds alluring, but the typical reality of going too wide in your solutions could render your efforts fruitless in achieving any of your goals.

For example, it’s hard to be a best-in-class CRM, digital fundraising, marketing, and financial management platform all at the same time. The use cases for an email tool and CRM are totally different from fundraising platform. For that reason, we don’t recommend selecting a tool that does everything because we don’t believe it’ll serve your team or do what you need.

Rather than evaluating potential fundraising platforms solely for the breadth of solutions, it’s critical to evaluate the depth of each product within that fundraising suite as well.

Threading the Needle With a Comprehensive Fundraising Platform

Classy balances breadth and depth to provide a online donation platform solely focused on digital fundraising that offers comprehensive tools to engage and nurture donors in diversified ways.

Again, sustainable fundraising is about offering the right experience to the right donor at the right time. With Classy’s comprehensive direct-giving solution, complete peer-to-peer experience, world-class recurring donation platform, and industry-leading nonprofit fundraising event software, organizations can double their revenue and double their impact.

In Classy’s 2023 State of Modern Philanthropy report, we found that supporters who participate in multiple campaign types are 4x more valuable than supporters who participate in a single campaign. By increasing engagement across numerous campaign types on Classy, your organization has the potential to keep donors more involved and more loyal to your cause.

Additionally, every donor who gives on Classy can access a supporter dashboard. From their dashboard, they can keep track of their donation activity, resend themselves receipts, and edit any recurring giving plans or fundraising pages in one place. This empowers supporters to self-serve, which frees your team to focus on other priorities.

Why Today’s Nonprofits Prefer Classy

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the impact of channel fragmentation on nonprofits’ ability to connect and effectively communicate has become more pronounced. Successful nonprofits can cut through the noise by offering elevated stories, emphasizing the impact supporters have in driving their missions forward, and using data to inform supporter engagement.

Classy knows that every nonprofit’s story is unique and their giving experiences should be, too. Our platform maximizes flexibility and configurability, placing your story front and center while driving connection to every supporter:

• Our direct giving experiences integrate seamlessly with your website to drive 2x-industry standard conversion and revenue.
• Our events platform helps create memorable, authentic experiences, deeply connecting your supporters to your story and impact while empowering them to engage in other ways.
• Our peer-to-peer solution extends your reach beyond your network of supporters to theirs, driving increased supporter acquisition.
• Our GoFundMe partnership aids in realizing the full potential of peer-to-peer fundraising and its role in the overall giving landscape.

Classy also supports integrations to the leading CRM and marketing platforms, which allows you to carry the personalization of your marketing all the way through to your giving experiences.

Each of these experiences, when woven together, helps engage donors across multiple touch points. We know this is key to driving donor acquisition and building a loyal supporter base to increase donor lifetime value.

Discover What Classy Can Do for Your Nonprofit

Personalization and connection matter more than ever. To unlock the generosity of new and existing supporters, you first have to learn how to engage with them through various giving experiences that resonate online and offline.

We encourage you to request a demo of our product to see how it works and what it can do for your nonprofit. Classy Academy is another resource at your fingertips that provides step-by-step coaching on how to take advantage of all our world-class features.