Sumac Reviews

The IT guys have been great and very helpful.

Comments: Accuracy. Mail merge. Email mail merge. Donations management. Excellent. They understand the work of a non-profit.

Pros:

It is accurate. Based on the cloud and reasonable for all you get. I can customize the columns, data that I need which is quite different from other non-profits. I can have different "offices" which really helps with the multiple projects that I am responsible for.

Cons:

I still need help in using the Campaign feature. It might be me, but I haven't quite got that figured out.

We looked long and hard to find appropriate software.

Comments: We are a non-profit ministry and needed software that tracks donors/donations, accommodates product sales, tracks memberships and renewal dates, and handles event tracking. It is VERY CHALLENGING to find non-profit software for a mid sized organization that handles all of these functions. Sumac does all of this in addition to being a very affordable solution. Also, we needed rather extensive custom programming to handle some of our more specialized batch processing functions. Sumac did the custom programming for us. I think one of the most compelling reasons to use Sumac is their customer service and support. I have done business with a large number of software companies during my career and few if any have been as responsive to customer needs as Sumac.

Pros:

If support is paramount, Sumac is a great choice. Sumac covers a broad scope of functions, including donations, memberships, sales and events. The software is very easy to use. Built in import functions are very user friendly and very complete. Transferring data into Sumac from another system is not difficult and the error checking before import is very good. Contact history is strong and allows drill downs into all the underlying documents. Contact records allow the addition of extra user-defined tabs and fields which is a great asset.

Cons:

Inventory tracking functionality could be more robust. Mail merges currently allow links between contacts and one other view, such as donations, memberships, etc. It would be helpful if more than one additional view would be supported. Reports could be improved, but this problem is easily resolved with a good report writer that links with an ODBC driver.

TOO Expensive

Comments: Tech staff are helpful

Pros:

I like that you can do reports and have it for different categories, the tech support staff are helpful

Cons:

Beware: We have had two exuberant price increases of almost $100.00 each time. We are only a small charity so this has had a huge impact on us. We had a 4500 donation capacity but only had 3000 donors in our database and they bumped us to 6000 donors and our price jumped by almost $100.00 for a 2nd time. There were no improvements to the program with these price increases. I asked to be dropped to a 4000 donor capacity and was told we had to sign a new contract. Before the last price increase they would have dropped our package to a 2000 donor capacity but being small with few staff; we did not have the time or man power to eliminate 1000 donors. After 2 price increases I am very unhappy with the product and would not recommend it. It was a great product for $100.00 month, but not for $267.00

Thrilled with the highly customizable functionality of SUMAC & wonderful customer service support.

Comments: Universal usefulness for nonprofit work, customized fields and data tracking, unified database across multiple departments within the whole organization, relatively simple-to-use interface, fantastic and responsive customer service and training, and so much more!

Pros:

The ability to customize the software for every need we have, from volunteer records, student progress tracking, donor management, and everything in between!

Cons:

There is a slight learning curve for anyone not already familiar with manipulating reports from raw data, but the training, customer service, and tutorial videos are extremely helpful in building those skills for full software functionality.

Okay.

Comments: Nothing special.

Pros:

Fairly easy to customise, fairly intuitive, once gets into it. Search Builder is nice, once understood.

Cons:

Cluttered. For example, Having all gifts in the same group as any other notes and points of donor contact is rather frustrating due to the cluttered nature. Likewise the Contacts page- much prefer single Search field, then a full list which is searched. And I have no idea if there's an easy way to see direct mail statistics (i.e., % of responses, average raised based on responses, etc.). That's a feature I've become very accustomed to and am missing greatly. Not a bad donor database; but honestly? It's not DonorPerfect.

Customizable, easy to set up, affordable

Pros:

There's a wide variety of add-ons you can choose and our custom module works great. The website integration is seamless and saves us a lot of time. The pricing is reasonable and customer service is great.

Cons:

The web forms (for website integration) are not as customizable as I thought they would be; you can't change certain fields or add much intro text. Full usability requires intermediate HTML skills, which is currently an issue for us so we're still using an email app as well.

Sumac is a great value if you are a small nonprofit, even for an arts organization.

Pros:

It is very basic and easy to use. The support is great. It is also on the cloud. Reporting is great for most functions.

Cons:

We were never able to integrate our ticketing and donations so have to import everything from other systems. We were not able to batch import so it is very time-consuming. Same is true of our marketing email.

Sumac is Customizable, but Cumbersome

Pros:

It's a good product overall. You can customize it to do what you need it to do. It takes awhile to get set up and going, but once everyone in your organization has been trained you should be clear sailing.

Cons:

PCI Compliance isn't included which means each nonprofit is responsible for keeping up with PCI Compliance. This has been a nightmare for one organization I work with.

It has helped modernize our donation and course procedures.

Comments: Improved data tracking and reporting. Time savings.

Pros:

The software is easy to use. I personally did not do any training with it, but I am able to go in and access data whenever I need.

Cons:

With any software, there are limits to the customization. Sumac has been great in providing some customization, but we are a very unique organization and sometimes it is difficult to fit what we need into a software.

Customer focused company!

Comments: Sumac has been a fantastic productivity enhancer that results in us getting more done with less time invested. We are always looking for ways to be more donor centric and this is another great multiplier of those effects. I also have the highest respect for customer focused companies who take the time to actually listen, but when they act on suggestions words can't describe my appreciation. The Sumac team has earned our respect and business for a job beyond well done.

Sumac has been extremely helpful to our organization to track our client and donor database.

Pros:

I especially like the facility for reporting. I like how it interfaces with other programs such as Excel and Simply Accounting. I also love how it does automatic credit card transactions.

Cons:

I can honestly say that It has been rare that I have had issues with this program. It has always been because of my lack of knowledge of it's capabilities. A phone call will usually clear up any issues I have. The only problem we have encountered is to link our website donations to the program. We are still not sure where this glitch lies.

Intuitive isn't usually a word used with databases. It is with Sumac.

Comments: We are a small, non-profit, educational foundation based in Northern California. Prior to having Sumac, we maintained all our donor records in Quick Books and on Excel spreadsheets. Needless to say, that method made generating reports and extrapolating useful data a tedious task. Since installing Sumac, we operate so much more efficiently now. Multiple users at a time can access data in real time for quick answers to questions that would have normally taken hours, sometimes days, to get. Intuitive isn't usually a word used with databases. It is with Sumac. For the most part, almost anything you need to do on Sumac can be figured out due to it's user-friendly interface and design. And if you can't figure it out, there are hundreds of video tutorials that show you step-by-step how to get the task done. When a video tutorial just isn't enough, we call Sumac's technical support. They are OUTSTANDING. They are knowledgeable, friendly, patient and professional. It's so reassuring to know that if you need help, there is a live person available to walk you through what you need. SUMAC LISTENS TO YOU. Recently we discovered that we had many duplicate records in our database. Batching them together two-by-two to resolve the duplicates was taking a lot of our valuable time. We contacted Sumac to ask if there was a way that this process could be streamlined. Sumac worked on a fix and has now just updated their entire system to be able to accommodate resolving four records at once. Because of a suggestion we made, they rolled out an improvement that will now benefit all Sumac users. This type of boutique service is why we love Sumac and why we are grateful to have them on our team.

Sumac is a great option for not-for-profit organizations that are looking for database management.

Comments: management of 5000 items in a database; tracking attendance, sending newsletters, and tracking donations and issuing tax receipts, sending mailouts

Pros:

A great way to manage show attendees, we like that we can track who has donated and who has seen performances and what dates; contact types are very useful, as is the search builder function.

Cons:

Very difficult and time consuming to upload batch information, especially if we do it infrequently enough that we need to relearn each time. Not intuitive in that way, annoying that you have to go through and have events set up first before you can attach an email or campaign to them - not very flexible in that way and requires you to always remember how the system works and the multiple steps involved with each new data capture.

We use Sumac because it consolidates member and donor data in one place at a reasonable rate.

Pros:

I think the history tab, where I can see an entire person's donation, membership and communication history in one place.

Cons:

I don't like that it's not terribly flexible and that the web integrations aren't mobile compatible. I also don't like that online membership purchases require a log in before purchasing, which is a barrier to getting more people.

Sumac is quite easy to use and has great support staff

Pros:

The website integration is great and easy to use. It has saved us a lot of time and money. It is great that users are able to sign in with their login

Cons:

I wish you were able to build your own reports. It can be difficult to pull the information I need in a timely manner

Sumac has been very useful with my everyday tasks for our adult literacy program.

Pros:

I like that I'm able to keep track of all my students activities in one place. I'm able to track and log any and all communications, their records, any book distributions, book inventory, and so much more.

Cons:

I do have some trouble with reports, where one area of Sumac doesn't speak to the other. I also don't like that I can't delete/dropping a student from one area without deleting their whole history.

Good value for the price for not for profit organizations. It does everything that we need it to do.

Pros:

Excellent features and value for the price, especially for not for profit organizations who do not have a lot of funds but really need and can benefit from this software. Excellent customer support, not a long wait either.

Cons:

Sorting and queries are complicated and not as automated or easy as I would like and there are some limitations.

Sumac is not easy to use. There are to many steps to create thank yous.

Comments: I couls not reccomend this software.

Pros:

The new reports are fine. The data entry is easy. I like that it is in the cloud. The telephone support is very helpful.

Cons:

You can not export to excel. You cannot delete mistakes. You are not able to make custom reports, with name, address and donation amount.

Using SUMAC to record donations to our church has freed up time to focus on other tasks.

Comments: Increased time to do other things, great reports, easy tax receipt preparation, simple updates to donors' information, tracking pledges, and ability to move someone from active to inactive and back again so I don't have to input their info again.

Pros:

SUMAC is easy to use. Recording gifts and preparing tax receipts is simple. The reports are a great way to double-check donations each month.

Cons:

I cannot think of anything I don't like about SUMAC. it is so much better than what I used previously.

An OK Program

Pros:

It did seem to have a lot of options. I found that the short period that I did look at Sumac (we purchased it, but in the end did not use it because some of the other issues outweighed continuing the use of it). It had decent records, and I liked that you could enter a lot custom ifnormation

Cons:

The biggest thing I did not like was in order generate the tax receipts was you needed to use Mail Merge. In fact, that was the one reason we did not use the program long term. It was too time-consuming.

Cost-effective, easy-to-use, flexible and improves Crow's organizational capacity.

Comments: Sumac fits our needs: it s cost-effective, easy-to-use, flexible and improves Crow's Theatre's organizational capacity.

Pros:

I can attest that improved efficiency in our data management and communications in the last five years is directly associated to Sumac. Most notably, it has assisted our strategies to more fully integrate audience development and private sector fundraising campaigns. When I recommend Sumac to colleagues at other not-for-profit organizations, the first thing I endorse is their terrific customer service which seems in tune and crafted perfectly for organizations with limited overhead and resources. Sumac support staff are responsive, approachable, knowledgeable, caring and willing to adjust programs so that they work for our organization, rather than our organization working around their system.

Cons:

Nothing specific.

Sumac is a difficult program to navigate and the cost of a basic platform is extremely high.

Pros:

It has the ability to generate Charity Receipts It is usable as a stand-alone customer relations program

Cons:

Generating Charity Receipts is not an easy task - coding is always an issue The software cost is not designed for smaller charitable organizations Terminology for reporting is not consistent with the accounting/bookkeeping profession

I find SUMAC easy to use and the customer service great.

Comments: User Friendly

Pros:

The system was easy to setup - very user friendly. Easy to change as requirements change. The custom support is very friendly and helpful. Training is a huge bonus.

Cons:

Reports. I would like to create and save custom reports. The built in reports do not allow different optionss

Took our Segmentation to a whole new level

Pros:

Sumac is powerful and customizable. With a little prep work, we were able to take limited information from our (separate) box office and turn it into a strong patron database that we can slice into innumerable segments for precise messaging and campaigns. I was also quite pleased to see feedback I'd made to Sumac turned into a real product feature.

Cons:

The interface is a little cumbersome, but not unusually so for a software in this category.

Awesome program!

Comments: We went from using a variety of Excel sheets to keep track of donors and workshop alumni. It was a bit cumbersome. When we moved to Sumac, it became really easy to enter people, add them to an organization and then track donations, workshop attendance, etc. It's also pretty easy to pull up all of the information that we need and access it quickly.

Pros:

It's so easy to use and we can customize it and add modules for our own purposes. Really intuitive and it doesn't take long to get comfortable with it.

Cons:

We don't use some of the features often enough, so sometimes we have to relearn things - like doing a campaign.