Certain is a leading provider of enterprise Event Automation software to Fortune 1000 companies. The vendor’s value proposition is that Certain gives users everything they need to plan events, engage attendees, and achieve sales and marketing results. The vendor says their software helps data-driven marketers and event professionals capture and integrate rich buying signals and attendee insights into omni-channel marketing campaigns to improve sales and marketing results and deliver credible…
$9,990
per year
OneCause
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
OneCause supports fundraising with online and event fundraising solutions that help nonprofits reach more and raise more. Since 2008, OneCause states they have helped 14,000 cause-driven organizations to raise over $8B through more than 90,000 fundraising events and campaigns.
Certain is great for easy-to-use registration sites. It collects all information and user can upload reports easily. It's great to copy the event if you are doing an annual one where the information doesn't drastically change. I love being able to create the link in under an hour and send it out to all attendees. I can also send one large email out to all participants
I'm not sure if it is because I have used it so much, but OneCause is the easiest self-explanatory event platform. After 15-20 minutes of use, anyone should be able to navigate at a basic level. It is very user-friendly, and I have been able to train volunteer staff effectively.
Customer service during planning phases- reps always get back to me to help answer my questions.
Event managers are always great to work with at our Gala. We really need someone to make sure the whole program runs well, and OneCause never disappoints.
Variety of events that we can use this for is awesome! No need for paypal, venmo, etc.
Mobile bidding has been a game changer for us. People can participate in our auction even if they cannot attend the event!
Platform is relatively easy to use- intuitive even for those who are not techy!
Dashboards: It's quite important for leadership to get a visual of what their event registrants look like (with graphs, for example). Now, Certain does not present a feature to create dashboards, so we have to export their reports and create our dashboards ourselves.
UX when setting up an event: Now this can be quite complex, as it's not as easy to use or intuitive. Many different tabs with many different sub-items can present a confusing experience for newcomers when building an event.
We are a very small non-profit and are actually looking to use another service just to cut costs, but we may not stay with them and will coming running back to OneCause if we can't make the other option work! The ONLY reason to move would be to reduce the over-head cost of the platform.
I think that OneCause is a very intuitive, user-friendly platform on the non-profit user's side and also from the donor's perspective. They have created a software that is good for both mobile devices and desktop computers. The customization allowed for your campaigns is also incredible - you can make each fundraising website feel like a true extension of your non-profit
The OneCause staff is knowledgeable and willing to assist. When we have had questions, they are quick to respond and provide assistance. Our assigned event manager each year has been very good about checking in with us to make sure planning is running smoothly. Additionally, the onsite team has always been friendly and helpful. They stay with us throughout the event to address any issues that may arise.
We hired OneCause to guide us through our first event after we signed up with them. The staff they sent were pros. They gave us professional guidance and support. Once we had been shown the ropes, we knew we could take the reins and confidently run our next event
I don't know if my insights are key but I can say that implementation was done in-house without any outside support for the solution. The staff influencing the solution had very little technical expertise and ability as well which showed just how easily the software was to implement.
Sympla or Eventbrite are great for smaller events that don't require a lot of information from your audience or extensive communication from your event owner. They are better suited for those events, since they are easy and quick to set up. Certain comes in for your tradeshows or recurring events, since it presents a calendar view of your field marketing events, as well as full form customization, automation of email sequences, reporting, etc. It's more complex to use, so you might as well hand it over to people who are well used to setting up events.
We looked at Auctria and GiveSmart, though we didn't go into great detail with either. We ultimately selected OneCause based on the recommendation of another local school that used it for its auction software. The customer service and support as we made this decision and transition was a confirmation for us.
Certain helps to deliver a great customer experience, since it facilitates automatic email delivery and your company can keep them connected well before or well after an event.
Certain presents a wide variety of reports, which perfectly addresses any request for visibility coming from your organization.
Certain's configuration settings are quite complex, so our newcomers are not comfortable using the software at first.
In case you need a more visual representation of your audience, Certain, unfortunately, does not generate dashboards.