Little Green Light Reviews

Pros

Very Nice Interface and a simple system for entering and searching donor records.
Designed with non profits in mind.

Cons

Multi-item donations are annoying to input due to a single line field for donated goods.

Pros

LGL gives or org an easy solution for CRM, Events, Giving and volunteer tracking. It was easy to pick up and train people on and fits our needs.

Cons

Some of the email features take a bit of tweaking found it easier to use MailChim or others.

Alternatives Considered

Benevity, Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT and Givebutter

Reasons for Choosing Little Green Light

More features and a better cost point for our organization.

Switched From

DonorPerfect

Reasons for Switching to Little Green Light

It met the most needs for the best price. We do use givebutter for other giving.

Pros

Simple to use, amazing support/help team, and intuitive overall.

Cons

There are a few export features missing (like including multiple specific date ranges for a donor to compare FY gifts over 5 years). I'd also love for an add-on where you can create a sort of thermometer that updates real-time on a webpage when compared to a specific campaign in the database.

Pros

Inexpensive, good for small organizations who are just starting out

Cons

Reporting was not intuitive or easy to use. Lacks fundraising and email marketing capabilities that come with other competitors.

Pros

I like that it's modular so you can use the parts you need and develop detailed history on donors.

Cons

some of the screens are too spread out and a bit clunky. could be streamlined a bit

Pros

1. The price absolutely cannot be beat, especially compared to Blackbaud.
2. It's just so simple to use. Intuitive, quick, and easy, yet still packed full of useful features.

Cons

Initially, what I liked least was that there was no live phone or chat support; email only. But, the longer I use LGL and see how little I need support, the more I don't mind it at all. Plus email support usually replies quickly and has the solution I need.

Alternatives Considered

DonorSnap, DonorPerfect and Salesforce Sales Cloud

Reasons for Choosing Little Green Light

Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge is probably amazingly fantastic software, IF you have an entire team devoted to managing it. In our organization, it was just me, and it was far too much to handle, especially with plenty of other duties, and what we got out of it was far less than the price could justify. LGL is everything we need, and more, for several thousands of dollar less per year, and much less frustration (none, actually).

Switched From

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT

Reasons for Switching to Little Green Light

Price and simplicity. Other products had functionality wrapped in that we would never use, and it was reflected in the price.

Pros

I self-taught myself LGL, and to me that says a lot about the software. It's really easy to use, and the integration to Constant Contact is a big help to us. I also love the bulk edit option, because as I learned more about the software, I decided to change how I coded some gifts. The bulk edit option made it really easy to change those gifts.

Cons

I wish that there was a field for gift fees, versus inferring the fee from the difference between the gift amount and the deposited amount. I also would like a fee for deposit amount, because sometimes I make multiple deposits on the same day. But ultimately, these would be "nice to haves".

Alternatives Considered

Bonterra Guided Fundraising

Reasons for Switching to Little Green Light

It looked much easier to use and was recommended more often (in several Facebook groups) than Network for Good.

Pros

It is so simple to use. It is cost effective. The ease of pulling data out are a huge benefit to our organization

Cons

There are minor customization that would be helpful.

Pros

The thoroughness of the offerings including the ability to include volunteers, send letters, track top donors and those who have not donated for awhile

Cons

Very difficult to learn. The tutorials and videos go so fast it's hard to follow. Some instructions are not intuitive at all. Good for Tech people, not so good for those of us who are not tech gurus.

Alternatives Considered

QuickBooks Online

Reasons for Switching to Little Green Light

Cost reduction using Tech Soup for nonprofits.

Pros

Comprehensive, able to track data, segment our members and donors, and communicate with each segment appropriately.

Cons

I wish I had more time to enter the level of information for each constituent and use it to its full potential as a development product.

Alternatives Considered

Bloomerang and Bonterra Guided Fundraising

Reasons for Switching to Little Green Light

Ease of use, met us where we were in our organizational evolution.

Pros

As a fundraiser, it's intuitive and has all the features I appreciate and need to support my moves management work. As the database administrator, chief data entry staffer, list- and report-creator and website integration specialist, it's intuitive with great customer service and on-line resources to allow me to meet our organization's needs.

Given the opportunity, I would have selected LGL for my previous organizations. It's got all of the meaningful and useful features to support fundraising and data management needs without requiring us to pay for bells and whistles that sound great to upper management (and those who aren't on the front-lines for fundraising) but keep the majority of users from being able to take full advantage of the system.

Cons

There are a lot of great integrations, but since we don't use the bulk emailing products supported by LGL, we've had to try to create our own.

We LOVE the ability to create web forms that integrate with LGL and the ease of adding them to our website, although sometimes figuring out exactly how to map the data is beyond us without a fair amount of trial and error. On the other hand, these are tasks I never would have attempted with other systems and that we're able to do without paying thousands of dollars to consultants - which is vital with our very limited budget. We've got access to big-budget possibilities and investing the time and energy generally makes them possible for us. That said, without experience working with bigger systems in the past, I'm not sure I would understand the opportunities or be able to figure out how to tap into them.

Pros

For a small non-profit, affordability and ease of use are critical requirements and LGL offers both + more features than we could have ever hoped for. I knew from the first moment, after using the Flex Importer to upload a list of donors from a cumbersome old Excell SS, that LGL would forever change the way we organize, track and communicate with our donor base. The ability to easily enter constituents then segment and organize them with mailing lists, categories & tags has helped us achieve a maximum return on our appeals and events. LGL's integration with MailChimp has helped us quickly and inexpensively reach out and stay in touch with our donors. Our Letter and Email templates ensure that we send the right message to the right people at the right time. The Dashboard is a delight, both aesthetically and functionally - easy on the eye with quick access to everything I want to see and do. I am pleased with the reports and the ability to edit or build new ones as needed for specific purposes and audiences. My last top "pro" is LGL's Customer Service - best on the Web! Admittedly there are some features of LGL that I have yet to explore but as all non profits know , there is never enough time. That is why LGL is so perfect. Whatever type of non profit you are, be it large or small, however you might be staffed, be it by a low tech volunteer or a FT development director, LGL offers features and functionality at all levels that will help you grow and thrive

Cons

LGL offers so much more than any comparable program that I am just grateful to have you around! Cannot think of anything that I dislike about a company that is offering such a fantastic service to the non profit community.

Pros

I evaluated multiple products and highly recommended Little Green Light to my organization. It had the functionality we needed and, even though I was new to donor management software, I found it intuitive to use. Almost everything I've been able to figure out how to do on my own. A few times, I've had to use the Knowledge Base, which I've found to be very helpful. The very few times I couldn't find my answer there, I sent email and the response has always been phenomenal. I've received responses very quickly, even outside of their posted hours for responding. The help has been clear, concise, and friendly, including sometimes setting up a search for me on my account. Once, the response led me to wonder about a better way to accomplish my task but I had further questions. Again, the response was very quick and useful. I've attended multiple webinars and they, like the personalized help, were very informative, clear, and informative. I'm looking forward to what I'll learn in my upcoming webinars. The Flex Importer is very useful to us because we already receive much of our donation information as spreadsheets. We also appreciate having donations as well as volunteer information all in one place. I certainly haven't stressed LGL, but it is providing us the functionality we need with an easy-to-use interface and multiple systems of support so I'm never waiting days to learn how to do what I want.

Cons

I initially had trouble with creating a mailing because I misunderstood that a screen was a sample screen and should not be changing even though I made changes. When I used the mailer to send a test message to board members, the feedback I received was that the email address made the message appear to be spam so they didn't read it. That was over a year ago, so the system may have changed. We're a small organization and haven't needed to send emails during the pandemic.

Pros

We're a modest organization and some of the fundraising software is incredibly expensive, up to 5-10 times LGL's modest $400 yearly cost. LGL is extremely reasonable, but also very powerful. It lets us record all the key data about our donors and prospects. It lets multiple staffers enter and access the data, all for one reasonable price.

I love how you can do a BCC to their dropbox address on a letter to a donor and it gets automatically added to the person's record. There's a slight learning curve to segmenting donor lists and spitting them out in reports, but it can really do pretty much anything you need. So we're very happy with it and will continue to use it.

Cons

I would like to be able to delete some of the standard fields that are designed for schools, which is where the product got its start. And it would be nice to be able to call for help, but their staff is very quick and responsive when you email them. Maybe they could offer a premium option for some phone help. But honestly, it's just a really good product, especially if you look at their extensive online help section of how to explanations and videos.

Pros

Little Green Light is intuitive, easy to use and fast. Data entry, updates, searches, reports, etc., are all at your finger tips, accessible from a variety of ways depending on what you're doing (context sensitive). Bulk editing speeds along what used to be (pre Little Green Light) painfully slow and cumbersome; import/export functionality is easy and powerful; gives you control over your data. Little Green Light just makes getting "stuff' done fast; way quicker than a glitzier but slow-to-navigate product we previously used. Little Green Light is terrifically designed and executed; rock-solid stable; server/db response is lightning fast - usually immediate. Using Little Green Light is akin to driving a sports car. At its heart, Little Green Light is nimble. Customer support (via email) is excellent; quick, knowledgeable, helpful/friendly.

Cons

We don't have anything we don't like about Little Green Light.

Pros

We like best how easy LGL is to use and understand, along with how flexible it is. Our organization had been preparing to migrate our data and begin using LGL for many weeks prior, when Hurricane Harvey hit on August 25th and our organization mounted a huge response, along with a huge fundraising campaign, in the midst of the chaos of a natural disaster. We had expected to completely transfer over to LGL at the end of September. In the first 10 days after the hurricane landed, we had donations pouring in, and our previous donor management system was just not handling the work. It was actually getting in the way of fundraising. So in the middle of a chaotic natural disaster response, during our busiest fundraising days ever in our history, we decided to make the jump early, without having really trained our staff nor fully learned the system. The transfer was nearly seamless. The system was so easy and intuitive to learn and use that we changed over to it without a hitch, and it has been smooth sailing every since. We love everything about it -- the ease of recording data, the power and ease of reporting, the responsive help line -- everything. We would--and have--recommended this software to other nonprofits without reservation. We have only used LGL now for a little over 3 months, and have not yet fully explored its performance in tracking data for major gifts stewardship and corporate sponsorships longer term, but so far we couldn't ask for a better system.

Cons

The dashboard/home page is jam-packed and not visually appealing -- and yet it does give a nice snapshot of lots of data.

Pros

It is sophisticated and, yet, easy to use. Support staff is responsive and helpful. It has all the features we want and is able to give us the data and information we need without writing SQL statements, like some other top-name products require. In fact, the dashboard gives us our membership numbers without even having to run a query. Excellent value. I love the comparatively low cost to other similar products. I love Little Green Light so much, I have implemented it in three organizations I'm associated with.

Cons

Linking forms to the Little Green Light database can be complicated. Occasionally, I'd like to talk with a support person to strategize a solution, rather that just communicating by email.

Pros

LGL is great value for money, especially when working within a nonprofit budget. The platform is fully featured and easily customisable. I especially like the recently released Zapier integration, as this allows us to automate the importing of donations from our fundraising software. The support team are also very responsive and helpful.

Cons

While LGL Forms is a well thought-out and fully featured piece of the CRM, the ability to style the forms leaves a lot to be desired. Because of this, we have reverted to using another platform for donations, and importing them into LGL using automation.

Pros

Little Green Light interface is straightforward and intuitive. It is a basic database, but really has everything you need for most small fundraising shops. The on-line forms and payment integration as well as integration with Constant Contact or MailChimp are a big plus. While it may not have the fancy dashboard with graphs, it really has all the basics you need for an incredible price. The big selling points for us were 1) the fact that LGL does not jump price significantly when you cross a 2000 or 5000 contact threshold, and 2) customer service and tech help is included in the very reasonable price. While they do not have phone support or big trainings, the on-line support has been great with a very quick response time.

Cons

I would like for there to be more pre-formatted standard fundraising impact reports available. I also have had some challenges integrating with MailChimp and Constant Contact. But granted, I am new to the software and have not fully versed myself in these features.

Pros

I've worked in nonprofit accounting and management for the past nine years after a long career in public accounting and industry. We used a very expensive legacy system, and I was constantly frustrated at the human resources required to perform the simplest duties like gift entry and reporting.

LGL is simple to learn to use, intuitive and insightful. When I want to know something, it doesn't take any time at all to see a highlighted hyperlink that will help me drill down to the information I need. Exports and imports are a breeze. I can't say enough good things about LGL.

Cons

I haven't found anything so far that I would add or change. LGL was obviously designed by and/or took took extensive advice from experienced fundraisers and donor database professionals.

Pros

Little Green Light (LGL) looks great, which makes it enjoyable to use. It is stable and fast. It is also flexible so that you can easily customize it to work for your own context. Their customer support is amazing; it is personal and responsive. I normally do not take the time to write a review, but LGL is worth it. It delivers much more than what you pay each month.

Cons

When we first started with LGL (about 7 years ago) they did not support Canadian tax receipts to the same degree they do now, but they did at the time help us with a work-around. They now do support our requirements so that is no longer an issue.

Pros

Clean, intuitive, and great tech support for when it gets tricky.

Cons

Hard to make attractively designed emails, you can’t attach PDFs to emails, and form mapping isn’t automated.

Pros

LGL is a great tool- it's very flexible in the data management and storage so it can scale up as our non-profit grows. The integration with forms is terrific for setting up appeals and events/tickets/etc. The support team has always been great and has even incorporated one of my suggestions for enhancements. And it really is so affordable for all it offers.

Cons

Initial set up of the software wasn't too arduous - the information and FAQs were all good and the import tool was very helpful (along with the ability to roll back imports!). I'm hoping for more integrations to link in some of our other payment processors.

Pros

The features that come to mind as being most valuable to our day-to-day operations are how easily our teams can collaborate and share information, the accuracy and depth of the data we have access to is superb, the ease of managing events of every kind, and the ways we can build and execute successful fundraising appeals.

Cons

Integrating our data with other software can be a bit challenging but that's the nature of the beast as far as we're concerned.

Pros

I like how user friendly it is. It offers great tutorials if there is anything I haven't figured out yet. The more I use it the more I realize how robust it is. It has made life a lot easier! It also has capabilities to realize customize---and even has a events component. You can send thank you letters easily. Just as good as the better known systems, in my opinion.

Cons

It is a little time-consuming to import excel spreadsheet info on donor records. But once you change headings to align with LGL fields, you can really save a lot of time.

Alternatives Considered

ExceedFurther

Reasons for Switching to Little Green Light

Better value for the money.