Should You Use Donorbox or GiveSmart? A Complete Comparison

Looking for GiveSmart alternatives? Maybe you’ve been using GiveSmart for a while and are wondering what else is out there. Or you’re just starting your journey to find the best fundraising platform available to you. Either way, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we’ll compare Donorbox vs. GiveSmart so you can decide which fundraising solution is the best choice for your nonprofit.

6 minutes read
Should You Use Donorbox or GiveSmart? A Complete Comparison

Decision fatigue and analysis paralysis are nothing new – especially if you’re trying to find the perfect fundraising solution for your organization. Endlessly comparing options and features to find exactly what you need is exhausting. We’re here to help with an in-depth breakdown of two popular options, Donorbox and GiveSmart.

When you compare Donorbox vs. GiveSmart, which solution comes out on top? We’ll look at markers like support options, available features, and pricing to help you make your decision.


Donorbox vs. GiveSmart


1. Donorbox

Donorbox has helped over 80,000 organizations raise more than $2 billion with its one-stop, easy-to-use fundraising platform. Available in nine languages and 45 currencies, the Donorbox donation form is a truly global option – with an average conversion rate of 22.6%.

With features like crowdfunding, peer-to-peer recurring donations, in-person giving, event ticketing, and more, Donorbox products work hard for nonprofits, schools, and churches of all sizes. Plus, the pricing structure leaves plenty of room for your organization to scale and grow.


2. GiveSmart

As part of Community Brands, GiveSmart offers mobile bidding and event solutions for organizations like foundations, nonprofits, and schools. While their primary focus is on auctions and events, they also offer online donation tools and peer-to-peer functionality.


Comparing Features and Capabilities

Let’s take a closer look at how these two offerings stack up against one another so you can decide whether Donorbox or GiveSmart is a better fit for your fundraising needs.


1. Donorbox

Donorbox offers robust fundraising solutions, event ticketing, world-class customer support, helpful resources to educate you, tiered pricing, and more.

Screenshot of Donorbox's homepage.


Features

  • Build customized, multi-step donation forms to embed on your website or host on Donorbox.
  • Send automated receipts with donor acknowledgments every time someone gives.
  • Turn one-time donors into recurring donors with the Donor Portal, where donors can log in to make changes to their recurring plan or give again with just one click.
  • Launch crowdfunding campaigns with features that help to raise more, like donor walls, goal thermometers, and updates.
  • Use a Sticky Donate Button and Giving Reminder to capture more donations on your website.
  • Enable peer-to-peer giving and have your supporters fundraise on your behalf to reach new audiences.
  • Create and sell event tickets with unlimited ticket tiers, ticket quantity limits, sales deadlines, promo codes, and more to make event management smooth.
  • Harness powerful donor management features like unique supporter profiles to bolster your relationships.
  • Collect on-site donations with cards, smartphones, and smartwatches with the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk app.
  • Unlock mobile giving with text-to-give and free QR codes generated with each campaign.
  • Accept donations of stock or crypto right through your donation form, offering many different giving options to your donors.

And more! Check out all the features here.


Integrations

Donorbox offers several native integrations with the tools you already use to run your organization, along with Zapier integrations with over 5,000 other tools.

  • Data tracking and analytics with Google Analytics and Meta Pixel.
  • CRMs like Salesforce, Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT, Bloomerang, and HubSpot.
  • Mass marketing platforms like Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign.
  • Accounting tools like Intuit QuickBooks.
  • Crypto and stock giving through The Giving Block.
  • Easy employer matching with Double the Donation.
  • Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

And more! Plus, choose from PayPal or Stripe (recommended) as your payment processor.


Which Organizations Use Donorbox

Because Donorbox offers so many solutions in one platform, it appeals to an assortment of organizations across 40 countries! These organizations include:

  • All types of nonprofits
  • Religious organizations like churches, temples, and mosques
  • Medical organizations
  • Schools, sports teams, and PTAs
  • Political organizations

And more! Check out Donorbox’s case studies to see how their tools help a variety of organizations.


Pricing and Plans

Donorbox has pricing plans to fit any budget – with plenty of room to grow and no start-up fees. Note that these plans don’t include Stripe or PayPal’s payment processing fees. You can also ask donors to cover your transaction fees.

  • The Standard Plan is $0 a month with a 1.75% platform fee for most features. This includes donation forms and pages, and some peer-to-peer functionality. The ability to enable Events, memberships, Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, and more peer-to-peer functionality is available for a 2.95% platform fee.
  • Donorbox Pro costs $139 a month with a flat 1.5% platform fee and includes everything in the Standard plan. It also includes integrations via Zapier, more tracking and analytics capabilities, the ability to accept crypto and stock, and custom branded receipts.
  • Donorbox Premium is a fully customized plan to fit your needs. With a 1.5% platform fee across all features, it includes everything on the Pro plan with the ability to choose additional perks like an account manager, more integrations, guided onboarding, a dedicated fundraising coach, priority tech support, and a custom domain.

Learn more about pricing, including payment processing fees, here.

Screenshot of the Donorbox pricing page.

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Customer Support

Donorbox’s world-class support team is available 24/5, with weekend availability as well. Additionally, access the Donorbox knowledge base whenever a question arises. Premium accounts receive priority technical support, too.

You can submit a request, report a fundraiser, and more here.


Resources

Finally, Donorbox offers a wealth of resources to help you with your entire fundraising journey, including the following:

These resources are designed to help all levels of fundraisers improve and use their tools more efficiently.


2. GiveSmart

Next, let’s take a look at what GiveSmart has to offer!

Screenshot of GiveSmart's homepage.


Features

  • Mobile bidding and auction support with item management, self-checkout, auction leaderboard, and more.
  • Ticketing with seating and group management.
  • Online fundraising tools that include mobile-responsive sites, embeddable donation forms, and custom form fields.
  • Support for raffles and games of chance.
  • Recurring giving functionality to raise more over time.
  • Virtual fundraising support through live streaming and chat features.
  • Event management functionality including sponsor recognition, event registration, custom event sites, and more.
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising and text-to-donate to boost campaign reach.
  • Reporting dashboards to increase data awareness.
  • Donor management tools including households and groups.

And more! Check out all of GiveSmart’s features here.


Integrations

While GiveSmart offers limited native integrations, they have some very useful pairings for their features with integrations like:

  • Live streaming platforms like Facebook Live, Vimeo Livestream, and YouTube.
  • Double the Donation for matching gifts.
  • Tracking and analytics through Google Analytics.
  • CRMs like Kindful, DonorPerfect, Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge, Salesforce, and more.

Which Organizations Use GiveSmart

Many different kinds of organizations can benefit from GiveSmart’s features, but their main users include the following:

  • Schools
  • Community organizations
  • Organizations with a heavy in-person presence

Typically, organizations that use GiveSmart need their auction tools.


Pricing and Plans

GiveSmart offers three pricing plans to fit your needs. While they don’t publish the price of these plans on their website, here’s what each plan includes:

  • The Champion plan is their most popular and includes unlimited users and access to all the features listed in the image below, plus a one-on-one consultant. Note that their Champion plan does not include access to their donor management features.
  • The Expert plan includes everything in the Champion plan, plus integrations and training on their event management tools. However, it doesn’t include donor management, which can be bundled for an additional cost.
  • The Donor CRM plan allows for full, unlimited access to their donor management tools. Note that this plan does not include any fundraising tools, but it can be bundled with the Champion and Expert plans.

Screenshot of GiveSmart's pricing page.

Request a demo from GiveSmart to learn their pricing.


Customer Support

GiveSmart offers several add-on services to access more hands-on customer service for an additional cost. This includes live event support. They also offer chat support 24/7, along with email and help center offerings.

Contact them here.


Resources

GiveSmart offers many excellent resources to help you with a variety of fundraising tasks. These include:


Why Nonprofits Choose Donorbox Over GiveSmart

When you compare GiveSmart vs. Donorbox, some key differences stick out. GiveSmart offers great functionality for organizations managing an auction or a more complicated event with assigned seating. On the other hand, Donorbox offers a suite of innovative tools to support organizations through every step of their fundraising – with online and in-person donation-collecting tools, event ticketing, and more.

With limited time and resources, many nonprofits prefer to get all of their fundraising tools and resources from one easy, streamlined platform. Donorbox offers just that!

Plus, Donorbox’s transparent pricing makes it easy to understand exactly what you’re getting. With the ability to ask donors to cover your transaction fees, you’re accessing powerful fundraising tools for free!

Nonprofits also love Donorbox’s robust donor management features that are completely free, vs. GiveSmart’s CRM plan. Easily pull the data you need to keep your fundraising on track with no additional cost.

If you’re ready to take your fundraising to the next level, watch this short video and sign up to get started!

Start Fundraising Today


Conclusion

Despite their comprehensive event features, many nonprofits end up searching for GiveSmart alternatives. Whether you’ve been using them for a while or are just hunting for the perfect fundraising solution, comparing Donorbox vs. GiveSmart is a good place to start! Donorbox comes out on top as an easy, effective, all-in-one platform.

Review all of Donorbox’s robust features and sign up to launch your campaign in under 15 minutes!

For more articles about fundraising platforms, check out the rest of our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to get fresh insights delivered to your inbox every month!

Lindsey Baker

Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.

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