Sumac Reviews

Suma is a great product. You have to subscribe.

Comments: Sumac is an excellent product. Have had great success with Sumac. Highly recommend it.

Pros:

Our organization relies on the database feature of this software on a daily basis. We also rely on the Donor Management abilities. We are now using the Board of Directors platform, which is very useful.

Cons:

I really do not have any cons to mention. I have always had great tech support as long as I have been using it.

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

Sumac Nonprofit software is fabulous and very USER-FOCUSED!

Comments: Money saved, and a whole lot of hassle and time saved!

Pros:

They provide great customer service; regardless of whether you are a small or large nonprofit. Their software is very well organized and user-friendly. Their documentation and training are excellent and again, very user-focused.

Cons:

Mail merging to Microsoft Word is not flawless. Sometimes we get errors, and many times spaces that follow mail merged values are deleted, which has caused problems in our donor letters. Sumac can't find a solution, so I plan to mail merge only to tab delimited text files in the future, and use the Microsoft Word built in mail merging, which works better anyway.

Sumac is very user-friendly. I like how we can use it for donors, volunteers and clients.

Comments: The best benefit is being able to maintain all information in one database. Many donor management systems do not allow for volunteers and clients. Also, I believe this software is flexible with many features, yet you can still use it with other software systems like Constant Contact, etc.

Pros:

You are able to add categories and information you need for your organization. You are able to personalize the database. In addition, the reporting helps you to save time managing and sharing information with your nonprofit board and constituents.

Cons:

The only con is you have to take the time to learn how to use it. Sumac has the ability to have so much information that you need to know how to utilize that information for you. Luckily, the Sumac tech team is always available to help you and they have great tutorial videos for all aspects.

Sumac was a life saver when our privately designed database stopped working.

Pros:

That we were able to combine both our client management system and donor system into one where before it was two different softwares. Also the reporting in sumac is so much more advanced

Cons:

That you can not upload actual scanned documents only a link to where the document is stored. This is disappointing as we now must continue to store hard copy files when we were hoping to eliminate them.

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.

Excellent and good value for money

Pros:

Flexible and good value. It provides just the right structure yet flexible enough to customize for emerging needs.

Cons:

Could use more ease of use features. WOuld love to have documents stored on individuals so that all users can access.

Using Sumac for my Not-for-Profit

Pros:

I like that it creates my charitable tax receipt numbers for me automatically. I like the new interface, it's very user-friendly.

Cons:

I don't like that I have to store the receipts locally. It's not in the program itself so if someone is using the program or having to find the receipt itself, they have to find it on the local computer. Fine for me right now, as I'm the only one using Sumac at my organization, but I can see how this can be a nightmare for larger orgs.

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.

Case Management for Community-based Epilepsy Supports and Education

Comments: Positive - ease of implementation, good price point.

Pros:

Enhanced File Management: Sumac has improved the sharing and management of client files among support workers, ensuring a seamless service experience for clients.Efficient Case Management: Front-line staff now have access to a professional case management system, optimizing their efficiency and effectiveness in delivering services.

Cons:

Still working to refine reporting processes with the goal of enhancing proficiency in creating standardized reports for donors and funders. Our hope is that we can train and assign a dedicated member of the team to helping manage tools and assets within an increasingly digitized operating environment.

Overall Positive Experience. Easy to use and navigate. Good Customer Service.

Comments: An easy way to manage our membership and donations programs.

Pros:

I like the Membership and Donation platforms. Compared to our previous system it is very easy to update records, put in payments, and track donations with certain campaigns. Its also easy to run numbers for my director and give detailed stats.

Cons:

There is not much to dislike but probably the search functions on the Contacts page. It would be great to have a search bar to search last name, organization name, province, etc...

SUMAC - CRM review

Comments: After struggling for several years with an expensive database that was not intuitive and did not meet our needs, our organization looked into several others to replace it including Sumac which was recommended to us by another not-for-profit. We scheduled a demo with a Sumac Guru for our entire team and we were all captivated by the ease of use and functionality it offered almost everything on our wish list (and much more). We then decided to purchase Sumac and have not regretted our decision. While there were a few hiccups with our data migration, overall we have been very impressed. It is very user-friendly, fast, and has features that we are still discovering a year after we started using it. The Sumac team is amazing and has been very responsive, accommodating and helpful when we have needed assistance in using the tool and putting through change requests when we have suggestions and identified areas for improvement.

I have found it easy to use for the program I work with.

Comments: Access to information and statistics quickly

Pros:

I like that I can choose what to see based on my needs. it is easy to change my preferences within a few seconds.

Cons:

There is not any concern at this time. Recently there was a switch with two categories and a few sections did not transfer over and I had to re-enter family sizes.

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.

Customized Database

Comments: With hundreds of attendance records from various partners being submitted each year, Sumac allows us to store, sort, and report on all of this information with ease. Allowing this level of customization ensures that tracking of participation across the collaborative meets our exact needs, and lets us retrieve important data easily and accessibly. PRO:
Customization: our non-profit is a collective of 8 partner organizations that each offer their own programming, but unite under one common collaborative. In this, we require our database to operate as 8 separate databases, with the ability for data to be tracked across all partners and programming. Sumac was able to construct a database for us that met this need, with fields customized to manage youth participants in exactly the way we need it. As our collaborative grows, Sumac has enabled our database to evolve with it, always finding creative solutions to meet our changing needs. CON:
With such a complicated structure for our database, unfortunately it can be tricky to upload our data in the correct format. Files have to be meticulously formatted within a certain file type, and the set of steps from data gathering to completion is sometimes frustrating and unforgiving of minor errors. Again, this need for rigorous process is because of our operating such a complicated and layered database.

We couldn't live without Sumac!

Pros:

Sumac is incredibly easy to use, is customizable, and the free support is outstanding. They are always happy to help!!

Cons:

The only con I would say is that there isn't a built in email template creator, but it integrates with MailChimp and Constant Contact.

We had a very difficult time getting Sumac up and running from both a user and admin perspective.

Pros:

The customer service was great; Brandon was very patient and kind with me and provided great support throughout the process.

Cons:

The instruction manual was not helpful whatsoever and actually quite burdensome. I was given documents to help us begin our work, but they were scripts, not instruction manuals. Because of this, I had to literally work through a script word for word (even had to search for specific words), as opposed to simply an instruction sheet with headlines of simple things like "How to create reviewers... 1... 2... etc". Further, the scripts informed me that I could watch video tutorials, but there was no video tutorial for Awarding Grants so I spent time searching through the videos and watching the wrong videos in the hopes that I could find this specific video. Only after I emailed cust support,I discover that the video was not yet available. This was not only not helpful, but it set me back significantly. Instead of having an option to simply read step by step instructions, I had to continuously re-read and scan these scripts or email him for specific instructions.

It's a great tool for our organisation!

Pros:

Entering and managing all the contacts in the database. Being able to connect contacts and have all the history of each contact is very useful.

Cons:

Lack of editing features for e-mail campaigns. The whole program lacks user friendlyness. It is hard to find easy ways of personalizing the database.

We love Sumac!

Comments: After doing extensive research on several software solutions, we chose to go with Sumac because it allowed us to keep track of our clients, donors and volunteers all in the same database. We are easily able to track our clients participation in all of the groups and services that we provide to those who are ill or bereaved in our community. We are able to collect the statistics that we need to report back to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and our Local Health Integration Network. We are able to provide a comprehensive history of our volunteers involvement with our organization including the matching of volunteers with clients. The fundraising and donor management aspect of the database is second to none. We are able to generate our tax receipts from the system and the many built-in reports and fundraising tools has allowed us to analyze data and view donor history to develop a case for support which will help us to continue to grow and support more people who are in need of our services. Thank you to Peter and the team at Sumac!

Sumac - a great tool for non-profits!

Comments: As a non-for-profit artist-run centre, we use Sumac primarily for ticket sales, memberships and donations. It's an extremely powerful tool for data management, and has been essential to tracking our membership, customers and donors. As a new user, I found that while the software wasn't always immediately easy to use, I found their customer service to be incredible, and always very friendly. Not only do they have great orientation videos, they have excellent customer service on the phone (very patient, friendly, and efficient). Since we had a changeover in our staff, they were able to give us a online training session to answer all our questions about functionality, and they gave us some great tips. While we continue to refine how we use Sumac to best suit our organization, I feel more and more confident the more I use it. To have memberships, donations, and general communications all streamlined in one program makes life a lot easier, which makes a big difference in smaller organizations like ours.

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.

Great once you get the hang of it

Pros:

Software comes with loads of features including contact management, accounting, event management, and donor management.

Cons:

Too difficult to access contacts, there didn't seem to be an easy way to find a group - say donors who gave once. I could always find what I was looking for eventually, but it always took longer than it should.

We are just starting to use the software and so some of the features have not yet been implemented.

Comments: We are still very new using the software so most of the potential benefits haven't been realized yet.

Pros:

i like how easy it is to use the search features. With the ability to refine details for searching you can really narrow a search and get the information you require without having to look trhough long lists.

Cons:

There are multiple information windows for every contact and it can very time consuming ensuring all information is up to date and accurate.

Best I've Ever Used

Comments: I can't say enough good things about it. If you are used to working w/spreadsheets this is the best and most intuitive product I've used or seen. Have worked w/Raisors Edge, FIMS, and Giftworks. All of them fall far short in design, flexibility, and the ability to customize it and extract the information you want out plus it is less expensive. Have been working with SUMAC for six years in two different companies and converted a third to it. Customer service is still good, although not as good as it used to be. However, the tutorial videos are very easy to access, use and follow; so most of the time (if it's after-hours or if you are impatient like me) you can figure the question out yourself. Bottom line I think you are doing yourself and your organization a disservice if you don't check it out.