If you’ve looked at fundraising and alumni engagement platforms for educational institutions, you’ve probably seen Almabase and GiveCampus get mentioned frequently.

With two great options, it might seem a difficult choice at first. However, depending on your needs for a peer-to-peer fundraising platform, an all-around digital engagement solution, or other needs, your choice can vary greatly. With this blog, we’d like to provide a buyer’s guide to help you make an informed choice to see what each platform does well and which of the two might fit your team better. Let’s get started:

Introduction to Almabase and GiveCampus

Almabase:

Almabase is a SaaS platform designed to empower alumni teams across schools, colleges, and universities. It integrates with existing CRM systems to enhance digital engagement, event management, and online giving campaigns. Almabase is effective for small teams looking to amplify their impact without expanding resources.

GiveCampus:

GiveCampus is a fundraising platform specifically built for educational institutions. It streamlines the fundraising lifecycle by identifying, engaging, soliciting, and stewarding donors. GiveCampus is known for its user-friendly interface and robust volunteer management features.

What Makes Almabase a Good Choice

1. Integration and Efficiency: Almabase seamlessly integrates into most educational institution CRM systems, especially those based on Raiser’s Edge NXT thanks to a long-standing partnership, which ensures:

• smooth implementation
• best-in-industry sync
• reduces manual data pulls and discrepancies

2. Digital Engagement Tools: Almabase offers advanced digital engagement tools that help institutions build lifelong relationships with alumni through a comprehensive alumni directory, personalized emails, text communication, etc. to reach out to alumni more effectively.

3. Excellent Customer Support: Almabase offers both email and chat-based support that can be reached at any time, with a focus on quick response and resolution time.

What Makes GiveCampus a Good Choice

1. User-Friendly Interface: GiveCampus is praised for its intuitive design, making it easy for both fundraisers and donors to use. It simplifies the donation process, leading to higher conversion rates.

2. Volunteer Management: GiveCampus offers a robust volunteer management system that empowers volunteers to track their outreach efforts effectively. This feature is great for successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.

3. Extensive support for mobile payment: GiveCampus supports most popular mobile/digital wallets and a large number of cryptocurrencies, allowing more flexibility for donors.

‍

Factors to Consider When Choosing the Right Tool

1. Scope:

If you are an educational institution that already has a digital engagement platform and only needs a fundraising module, both solutions will provide with you a robust fundraising and event solution. However, if you are looking for all-around alumni engagement on top of fundraising, Almabase might suit your needs better.

2. Integration Needs:

If your institution already uses a CRM like Raiser’s Edge NXT, Almabase might be more suitable due to its seamless integration capabilities. While GiveCampus also has several amazing integrations, it incurs additional charges for third-party integrations.

3. Volunteer Engagement:

If volunteer management and peer-to-peer fundraising are key priorities, GiveCampus offers more robust features in this area.

4. Payment Platform Support:

Almabase supports several payment platforms and is a great choice due to its integration with Blackbaud Merchant Services (BBMS). However, if you are looking to support as many platforms as possible including cryptocurrency, GiveCampus does give you more choices.

5. Pricing:

Both platforms have slightly different pricing structures. Almabase’s pricing primarily depends on the size of your institution, the number of records, and how many modules you need. On the other hand, GiveCampus has different plans depending on the number of features you need, and may also charge fees for exceeding goals on top of integration charges. You should ideally consider both options to get a quote that fits your needs and your budget.

6. Nonprofit needs:

If yours or a related nonprofit wants to make use of either option, it is certainly possible. However, Almabase has more experience working with nonprofits while GiveCampus exclusively caters to educational institutions.

‍

Wrapping it up

What we advise when picking any platform is that you consider the budget, skillset, and time available to your team above all else (even if that means you choose a platform that’s not ours). What works really well for a similarly sized school might not work for you due to nuanced aspects like state regulations, donor experiences, extra fee scaling, etc.

Once everything seems aligned, make sure to pursue a demo or free trial (ideally one that’s personalized for your needs) to confirm. That being said, we hope you are able to make a decision you, your team, and your alumni are comfortable with.