Blackbaud Luminate Online is used by organizations to manage donor and constituent information alongside online fundraising and communications. Teams use it for donation pages, email campaigns, event fundraising, and related reporting.

What company sizes and industries is Blackbaud Luminate Online the best fit for?

Blackbaud Luminate Online has positive use across organization sizes, with mid-market organizations and nonprofits especially prominent. Small organizations and larger enterprises also appear among the positive experiences.

Organization size: Mid-market organizations are especially represented, alongside small businesses and enterprise organizations.
Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management is the clearest concentration, with healthcare and philanthropy also represented.

How long does it take to implement Blackbaud Luminate Online across a team?

Implementation timelines vary, but the most commonly reported time to go live is 1–3 months. Other reported timelines range from under a month to more than a year.

Time to go live	Relative frequency
1–3 months	Most commonly reported
Less than 1 month	Also reported
3–6 months	Also reported
6–12 months	Less commonly reported
More than 12 months	Less commonly reported

What customer support options does Blackbaud Luminate Online provide, and how do users find the overall support experience?

Support includes chat and 24/7 access to a live representative. The support experience is mixed: users appreciate friendly, accessible help in some cases, while others describe slow responses, difficulty resolving issues, or support that was hard to reach.

What is the experience like for teams switching to Blackbaud Luminate Online from another tool?

Teams have moved to Blackbaud Luminate Online from tools such as Raiser's Edge, NetCommunity, Sphere, and email or fundraising platforms including Lyris and Mailchimp. The appeal is often bringing fundraising, donor information, websites, and communications together, or gaining more connected campaign and donation workflows; however, users describe the transition and ongoing integrations as demanding, with setup and data synchronization sometimes requiring considerable effort.

What features or capabilities could make Blackbaud Luminate Online even more useful?

The product could be more useful with a more modern, intuitive experience and smoother day-to-day workflows. Users also point to opportunities to strengthen reporting, integrations, and data management.

Modernize the interface and improve the email and page-building editors so common changes are easier to make without technical work.
Make reporting more flexible and straightforward to build, run, and export.
Improve integrations and data synchronization with other systems, including more reliable handling of records and duplicates.
Streamline complex tasks and make key forms and tools work responsively on mobile devices.

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Verified User in Individual & Family Services

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/7/2017

"Development Associate"

3.5/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

Ease of access to donor information, giving history, ease of reporting Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

Editing emails should be easier and more user friendly Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5/23/2017

"Does a lot but has some big issues"

2.5/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

I like that you can create surveys, send emails, create reports, process and track online donations, track event attendance, and integrate with Raiser's Edge. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

there are a lot of functionality and flexibility limitations that are a problem with the system - the surveys don't allow for dynamic results (showing how many people chose a given answer or unique results per person), the WYSIWYG editor for email does not always function correctly, layout options are limited, text for events is limited and not always clear Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Blackbaud Luminate Online:

Be prepared because customer service can be slow to respond and there are a lot of things that cost extra in order to customize it the way you need it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Blackbaud Luminate Online solving and how is that benefiting you?

event sign ups and tracking, online marketing and fundraising, online donation processing, integration with Raiser's Edge Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Edwin B.

Email Production Specialist

Non-Profit Organization Management

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

1/17/2017

"Integration and Ease of Use"

3.5/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

The thing that I like best about Luminate Online is that it integrates well with our eCRM so that we're able to personalize and provide conditional content across channels based on constituent information. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

I dislike that, at times, the system can run slowly when running reports, queries or building email lists. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Blackbaud Luminate Online:

Definitely an easy system to jump in and get started using. Provided tutorials and knowledgebase posts can help further understanding of the system and its capabilities. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Blackbaud Luminate Online solving and how is that benefiting you?

I'm raising un-restricted revenue through donations via the email channel. Because Luminate Online syncs with our eCRM, I'm able to use previous giving history to make more compelling donation asks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Caitrin M.

Communications and Marketing Director

Non-Profit Organization Management

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

10/24/2016

"One stop marketing solution"

5/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

After years of toiling through LyrisHQ, etc., the integrated features of Luminate make it easy for a one-person marketing department to seamlessly manage development and e-mail campaigns. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

I wish the dashboard were a little more intuitive at times. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Blackbaud Luminate Online:

Luminate offers helpful applications to fully staffed marketing departments and small non-profit staff alike. Because it's a Blackbaud product, it's incredibly helpful for e-commerce use, and the e-mail/form campaigns are easy to develop and use.

Just a pro-tip for those less accustomed to such intensive software: do make sure to complete each of the form/campaign trainings - it's more user friendly if you have a level of comfort with more technical platforms (e.g., the polar opposite of something like, say, Constant Contact, which relies strictly on visual editors). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Blackbaud Luminate Online solving and how is that benefiting you?

We're better able to segment our campaigns, both fundraising and e-mail, on one singular platform. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

7/27/2017

"Convio Luminate"

4/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

personalized messaging to constituents about fundraising for an svent Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

The ability to add flash into emails like embedded videos or graphics that can change Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

11/17/2016

"Pretty User Friendly Software"

3.5/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

I like that it's pretty user friendly. I used Listrak in the past which was not user friendly at all. I've only been using LO for 7 months and I am often able to figure out anything that I need to accomplish. My manager was pretty impressed when I was able to pull reports and refund transactions without needing to be trained on it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

I've tried to use "Help" links on occasion and pretty much all of them are broken. My biggest gripe is the "Send" button. It's very scary to hit "Send" when you are planning on scheduling. When I set up emails, I select the time and date I want them to go, but if I'm going to run an A/B split, it deletes that time and changes it to "immediate". One time I accidentally sent one immediate when I first started. Talk about stress! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

10/20/2016

"Review of Luminate Online"

4/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

The fundraising emails we send out via Luminate Online look great. Updating donor information and pulling simple email/fundraising queries is simple and straightforward. I'm a big fan of the Raiser's Edge/Luminate Online integration plugin (for the most part). Since my organization sends out emails for a variety of purposes not limited to fundraising, it's very useful for all those emails to be able to come from one place -- useful both logistically and for branding consistency purposes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

Luminate Online as a whole is not intuitive at all. Building and exporting reports is needlessly difficult. Email coding isn't straight CSS but has some kind of special coding (as I understand it), when having it be straight CSS would make coding troubleshooting a lot easier. I wish there was a way to conduct duplicate management both in Luminate Online AND through the Raiser's Edge/Luminate Online integration plugin. I'm not entirely sure why Luminate Online has its own support portal when Blackbaud support is much better. Not to mention: why is it still called Convio support? Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Blackbaud Luminate Online:

Prioritize training, because you will need a lot of it. Learning some CSS is helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Blackbaud Luminate Online solving and how is that benefiting you?

We have been using Luminate Online since before I started at this organization, so I am unsure what was solved specifically through this product. That being said, I doubt that whatever we used before was as easy to integrate with our CRM (The Raiser's Edge) and as easy for every one of our departments to use for their own purposes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

10/18/2016

"Great tool but training is essential "

3.5/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

I love how luminate online can link your donor info to email campaigns and website content. It's a really great way to segment your supporters and really target your email blasts based on their choices. I also love the autologin feature. It makes donating to your cause a much faster process for them. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

I dislike that there aren't more tutorials that show you how to do more of the advanced stuff. You can take classes from blackbaud but they are pricy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Blackbaud Luminate Online:

Consider investing in training for the individual that will be running it. It's a great tool if you know how to use it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Blackbaud Luminate Online solving and how is that benefiting you?

We just made our virtual food drive responsive. We worked with a 3rd party blackbaud vendor to get this accomplished using luminate online's teamraiser tool It looks so much cleaner and easy to navigate. We are hoping this will help us raise more money this year via our online virtual food drive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

1/17/2017

"not my favorite"

1.5/5

What do you like best about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

I think this software appeals to a large variety of needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Blackbaud Luminate Online?

It's so accommodating that it's overwhelming for my organizations back end users/needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering Blackbaud Luminate Online:

Take the webinars, use customer support. I do think this software will meet your needs but you need to understand it first. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is Blackbaud Luminate Online solving and how is that benefiting you?

We do love the variety it allows but figuring out the settings to give us our best outcome has been difficult. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.