Competitive Analysis Matrix

Overview

Oriented toward not for profits and member-based organizations. Well integrated components for contributions, memberships, pledges, events, case management, and emailing. Very good integration with Drupal and Joomla! CMS's. Highly configurable and customizable via browser. Supports more significant customization through overriding templates and programming hooks.

Based on top of SalesForce.com, targetting small and medium enterprise sales force automation. Customizes Salesforce for the NGO/NPO space, but leaves a bit too much sales force automation for some NGO applications (eg pages regarding account ownership during contact importing). Requires payment of both Salesforce per license, per month fee and additional Convio per license, per month, fee.

Targets small and medium enterprise sales force automation. Free open source community edition with limited feature set available.

Oriented toward member-based organizations. Hosted solution. Per license, per month, fees. Paid support.

Windows-based full blown donor and fundraising management system for NPO's. Based on Microsoft SQL server. Several optional modules. Several levels of maintenance support available. 

Cost
(should be determined for each organization, as per user fees are highly dependent on number of users)

Software downloadable for free. Custom service providers available to assist in deployment, configuration, customization, etc.
Initial: $
Annual: $

Initial: $
Annual: $$

Initial: $
Annual: $$

Initial:
Annual:

Initial: $$$
Annual: $$$

Contact info

- best standard fields for non-profits
- best at handling multiple addresses, phone numbers, locations, etc
- good support for households
Minor Itches:
- required to select type of phone as there is no default

- generally good usability
- Salesforce has largest market share by far

Minor pluses:
- allows Opted out and Invalid to be marked for each Email during creation and edit
Minor Itches:
- poor tabbing on contact edit: First name, then Office Phone, then Last Name
- uses Select buttons to pop-up window to do a search then select, eg for supervisor; also provides in-field auto-complete via ajax
- provides button to copy Primary address to Other Address (Is this a common use case? helps with city state country, but street address?)

- Organization and person (individual) - type contacts
- Rigid relationship between org and indiv (can't easily have standalone indivs). Individuals are viewed through the perspective of the organization.
- Primary indiv address is fixed to org address. Home address available for indivs. Other addresses can be handled through custom fields, but with limited functionality.
- Page layout and interface is very readable and well-laid out except that it can extend too far in width, requiring horizontal scroll.
- Column choose when viewing people associated with an org: ability to decide which columns you want to view, with cached memory.

- for individuals and organizations
- contact data accessed by clicking on a tab
- tracks multiple addresses, relationships, appeals, contributions, notes, variety of gift types, pledges

Activities

- Activities can be used to track multiple types of interactions (phone call, meetings, other)
- good scheduling, task assignment and search ability
- little ability to structure workflow

- provides a few additional fields out of box: team to which activity is assigned, and whether an activity is outbound or inbound
- allows an activity to be related to a large number of objects (account, bug, case, contact, project, task, etc) with an ajax widget helping with selection

Ability to create custom activities, but too much is lumped into this one "container." For example, memberships, event registrations, and payments are all considered an "activity."

- "Actions" are stored in a table that is user-configurable

- Actions are applied to constituents

Usability - simple search

Effective and fast.

Effective and fast. Search form in the sidebar. Resultset displayed in sidebar with name and organization listed.

- "Quick Find" is effective and fast

- opens up main contact form

Usability - advanced search

Has large number of options. Errs on side of additional functionality and specificity rather than simple and easy to use.

Decent. The advanced search page allows you to select (checkbox) which fields you want in the resultset, and also define the criteria. Search builder tool. When using the search builder, you have the option of search for orgs and retrieving associatad people, searching for just orgs, or searching for people and retrieving their primary org value.

- "Open a Constituent" search displays a user-friendly form with several search options

- Specific "queries" can be selected and used on the open a constituent form

Stored Custom Searches

Can be created using the advanced search function.

- The "Query" module, which is included with RE, allows a user to easily create "custom" queries (searches) that range from simple to very complex
The query creation process is fully menu driven and very user friendly

Customization

Numerous customizations particularly of fields and fieldsets (called profiles) can be made through web interface with no knowledge of PHP, css, etc.
More advanced customization is possible through changing the templates for particular pages and by using hooks and APIs.
Code base is well architected, but has a significant learning curve due to extensive use of external libraries and n-tier object oriented architecture. Lines of code required for extensions/new modules (as a very rough proxy for effort) is higher than for say, a Ruby on Rails application or a Drupal module.

- includes "Studio" (for modifying things) and "Module builder" 
- provides ability to mark fields as auditable, which enables tracking of changes
- provides ability to mark fields as importable, and what to do on duplicate merges
- pop-up hover tooltips are placed and dynamically sized to avoid covering up text
- provides ability to add relationships (one-to-many, many-to-many) between 'modules'
- provides ability to drag and drop fields between default (displayed) and Hidden areas of subpanels

All core fields (such as contact fields) must be created/modified via customer support. No ability to manage those through the admin interface.
Custom fields/values for events, membership, etc. can be handled in the interface, though limited.
No ability to customize the interface itself.

- Customization "tools" are available as add-on modules

- Advanced customization with RE:VBA Customize The Raiser's Edge to accommodate your organization's policies and procedures by writing business rules or designing custom screens using Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications

- Application development with RE:API Create a "front-end" to The Raiser's Edge or design custom interfaces to other software, such as ticketing, patient tracking, subscription, and case management applications.

API documentation for
integrating external signup
widget data

Good, including working unit test code.

No ability to access database except through the interface. Database is hosted remotely (by the provider).

- Tables are accessible via any ODBC compliant software BUT no documentation or support is available unless you  have the higer level of maintenance support

Ease of import for individual
contact info

Good.

Good.

Good.

Customer support. No options in the interface.

Ease of import for organizational
contact info

Good.

Good.

Good.

Customer support. No options in the interface.

Ease of import for activity
history data

Customer support. No options in the interface.

Outlook integration for
scheduled meetings

Available via iCal feeds

Yes, with scheduled synchs, and option to synchronize, export or import

None.

Outlook integration
for contacts

vCards from CiviCRM can be opened from browser and saved into Outlook.

Yes, with scheduled synchs,  support for custom fields, and option to synchronize, export or import. 

Good.

None.

Outlook integration for tasks

Not available.

Yes, with scheduled synchs, and option to synchronize, export or import. Integration of emails with salesforce tasks confused by non-NGO model that includes leads, opportunities, contracts, accounts, etc.

Outlook integration for cases

Internationalization / Localization

Yes

Yes

Yes

Performance

Dependent primarily on server specs and load, rather than client browser. PHP object oriented design means significant memory footprint of web server (Apache). Highly normalized database design requiring more joins leads to higher load on database server.

Pages are generally not fast to load, and occasionally fairly slow.

Generally, page loads are very slow even on demo site. In addition, select boxes popup windows which are fairly slow to load. Have heard this alone has led to abadonment of system in production. 

Generally, page loads are very quick, which overcomes some functions where it takes 1 or 2 too many clicks to perform an action. Because it's purchased as a service and hosted on the Computility servers, they can ensure a high-end server environment.

-  A "System requirements" document is provided on Blackbaud's website. If the requirements are met or exceeded, performance is very good for internal network users

- Performance would be very slow for external users without the aid of e.g. Windows Terminal Services or Citrix

Availability

Dependent on hosting provider selected.

There have been issues with lack of availability for a number of days per year. High cost work-arounds have been offered to some customers willing to pay.

No information

Overview

Optional CiviContribute component provides management / tracking functionality and online donation functionality

Optional Fundraising module provides online donation functionality. Requires Constituent360 module to connect to Common Ground, which replicates some of Common Ground's functionality. Optional TeamRaiser module supports special events. Optional Personal Fundraising module supports in memoriam giving.

Single Gift

Yes

Yes

Recuring Gifts

Yes

Yes

Installment programs (benefits based on total from custom giving schedule)

Yes

Accepts Credit cards

Yes

Yes

Accepts bank account withdrawals (EFTs)

Yes

Yes

Accepts debit cards

Yes

Tracks Cash donations

Yes

Tracks In-kind donations

Yes

No

Tracks Volunteer time donations

Yes

No

Joint donations

No

Yes

Anonymous gifts

Via custom fields to filter whether name is shown

Yes

Pledge Gifts (with flexible giving schedules)

Yes

Yes

Batch Gift Entry

Yes

Yes

Matching Gift Tracking

Yes

Gift Designations

Yes

Yes

Campaign thermometers

Yes

Summary Giving Totals

Yes

Yes

Soft-credits (auto-create donation transactions for persons other than donor)

Yes

Generate receipts

Yes

Track thank-you notes

Yes

Premiums (thank-you gifts)

Yes

Revenue Forecasting

Yes

Yes

In Memoriam / In Honour of Gifts

Yes

Yes

Personal Fundraising Campaigns

Yes

Tell-a-friend

Yes

Pre-populate donate fields of non-logged in users

Yes

Import / export contribution info to / from accounting or other packages

Yes

Contribution widgets

Yes

Personal Campaign Pages

Yes

Paid events

Yes

Free events

Yes

Maximum tickets

Yes

Multiple registrations

Yes

Discounts for members

Yes

Self-service membership signup and renewal pages

Yes

Paid and Free Memberships

Yes

Support for multi-level organizations (eg chapters, federal / state / municipal political parties)

Yes

Configurable Membership Statuses and rules

Yes

Configurable Membership Types

Yes

Fixed Period Memberships (expire on fixed month/day)

Yes

Rolling Period Memberships (expire after 1 period (eg year) from joining)

Yes

Household/Couple/etc Memberships

Yes

Support for contributions split between membership and other purpose

Yes

Target mailings based on ad hoc or saved groupings, or previous mailing recipients, or opens / click-throughs

Yes

Personalized mailings using standard contact field info

Yes

Personalize mailings using custom contact field info

Yes

Batch limits

No

Click-through tracking

Yes

Open times / rates

Yes

Auto-manage bounce and unsubscribe requests

Yes

Configurable Case Types

Yes

Configurable Case Roles

Yes

Configurable Activity Types

Yes

Activity / Task Scheduling

Yes

Admin Interface

Extensive administrative screens for customizations pose learning curve for new and infrequent admin users.

Left sidebar contains context-specific navigation, main menu options, recently viewed contacts, search form. Sidebar is collapsible, allowing more space for body region when wanted.

Other Features

Time tracking for activities, including those used in case management.

Time tracking and ability to define workflow processes (ordered steps taken on a record, similar to case management). Ability to merge directly to Word (labels or merge letters). Some nice financial tools, such as ability to run invoices, attribute single payment to multiple accounts, attribute multiple payments to a single account. Exports data for import into Quickbooks.

Strength of Open Source / Developer Community

Solid full-time core team with little turn-over of key personnel.
Consistent growth in community contributed code each release.
Maturing community of professional developers and service providers.
Growing adoption.

Very large SalesForce team working on underlying platform, also a Convio team for Common Ground. App Exchange assists with holes in Common Ground functionality, eg bulk email.

Good open source community following. SugarExchange provides add-ons and extensions.