Keela Reviews

Keela for a small non-profit

Pros:

Keela just works. There are very few times where it doesn't work as it's designed, and the system is quick, responsive, and reliable. They are quick to push out new features.

Cons:

Nothing comes to mind - the things we were wishing for were solved within 1-2 years of product development.

Hearty Recommendation

Comments: We've loved having Keela since the beginning. It is an integral part of running our company and the software does everything we need it to do.

Pros:

Customer service is amazing. Constantly updating to make better. Very easy to navigate and use.

Cons:

Not a fan of paid add-ons. Wish they were included but understand why they aren't. SendGrid integration doesn't work with Wix and causes a lot of bounced emails for us.

A reasanably good software, with usability downfalls

Comments: It is positive, but definetely not ideal. The platform was sold to us as basic but powerful, in reality it is basic and need a lot of work, in some instances to get the basics correct (i.e. invoices, integration with payment gateways etc.). Keela lacks a lot of key features we already provided feedback on. We do feel that Keela priority has been in functionalities that are tertiary and not a necessity (i.e. have details of transactions going to stripe description, invoices being more customisable, being able to edit recuring donor accounts without having to recreate them etc ). Those can be very frustrating and we had went backwards in our internal processes, specially with accounts, due to the platform lack of basic business customisation, things we had in our previous software.

Pros:

Keela is happy to listen to customers. They are quick to provide support and the platform offer the basics needed.

Cons:

The basics are not well polished. Usability is a big issue and the navigation is clunky - we find ourselves going back and forwards a lot, some would be easily fixed with a simple "right click to open in new window" but that is not available. We end up using the export feature way more often than we should in order to get the data we need. We have provided a list of cons in the past.

Keela is better than most

Comments: Keela is better than most of the other products we've utilized but there isn't really a wow factor when it comes to using this platform. It gets the job done but leaves you wanting for more.

Pros:

Keela has a relatively clean interface with lots of features. They are continually upgrading which is very nice to know that there is a team committed to constant improvement.

Cons:

When there are issues, support is lacking and slow. Some of the integrations don't seem to work well and the payment portal, KeelaPay, doesn't work over 50% of the time.

Keela keeps us organized

Comments: Our team has used Keela on a daily basis to stay organized as a team, manage volunteers and donors, track goals, and send out communications. The customer support is great whenever we encounter an issue and we love that new features are continuously being added.

Pros:

Team access helps keep everyone on the same page regarding fundraising and communications. We love that we can see our volunteers, donors, campaigns and communications all in one place.

Cons:

As we grow as an organization and gain more contacts we need to pay more for our subscription which isn't easy. It's a tool we use daily, and at this point, we need this type of software to operate and stay organized, but it can be challenging to find funding that will cover the cost.

Excellent way to manage donors and donations

Comments: It's a great data management system and I like that it is specifically geared to donations. The set up has been slow for me - just because I'm doing it as a volunteer and had to work on it in dribs and drabs, rather than a concentrated amount of time. Can't say enough good things about the support team - they are amazing. Overall - I'm very pleased that I chose Keela.

Pros:

The support is top notch. Their knowledge base is extensive, answering most of my questions without need to contact support. The videos produced to explain basic functions are excellent. But - when I can't find the answer - an email to the support team is answered within a day with just what I need to proceed.

Cons:

Setting up reports is not an easy task. But - still learning!

Keela is Easy

Comments: In the time I have used Keela I have had no issues with it. The ease of use is great! You can input donations directly into Keela without using a spreadsheet and then importing. Businesses are listed separately with associated contacts attached to them. Finding and changing information of a donor is quick and easy.

Pros:

It is easy to navigate and is very user friendly.

Cons:

Some items that we flag with donations were not able to be flagged as we did before without setting up a separate segment.

Review of Keela as an admin and user

Pros:

I like that it has features we can use on a daily basis all in one system.

Cons:

Any new product enhancement isn't automatically added to your subscription. Often has to pay additional fee.

Amazing product and customer service support!

Comments: I enjoy Keela as I used Blackbaud Raiser's Edge for many years and it was horrible.

Pros:

The migration process was smooth and the customer service support is quick and efficient. It is also user-friendly and easy to for donations processing.

Cons:

The access form a mobile app/iPhone is not super easy. MFA process is tedious and slow.

Administrative work made easy

Comments: My overall experience with Keela was great.

Pros:

I love how easy it is to tract monthly giving and yearly renewable memberships. It really makes my job so much easier and less stressful. Emailing made easy and contacting members simplified. Everything is one place and I am no longer concerned of anyone falling through the cracks.

Cons:

Honestly I can't think of anything I don't like.

Review for small charity with staff of one looking to grow our capacity

Comments: Overall Keela is excellent and I love using it. More than that, I love the Keela brand and what the company stands for. There's a warmth and personal approach that helps me feel confident that the Keela team are in my corner. Since I'm the only staff member for my charity, I can't overstate the importance of feeling like Keela are an extended part of my charity team - you help me feel supported and less alone. Thank you!
(Also love the annual capacity conference - please keep it coming!!)

Pros:

The price point is REALLY amazing for very small, young charities. For the functionality, Keela offers huge bang for our buck. My charity Board love that Keela are specifically aiming to help small charities like our grow our capacity. Switching to Keela has allowed me (the ED and sole staff member) to streamline our work flows and automate a bunch of things (like tax receipts and donor thank yous!) that were taking up a lot of my time.

Cons:

One thing that bugs me a lot is when someone uses the contact form that is embedded into our website I seem to need to click through several layers in Keela to actually get to their message (notifications > contact > interactions > contact form > message). It'd be amazing if somehow those messages were easier to access - it took me a few goes to figure out that I need to look up "interactions" for a contact, and not "emails".

A Modern and Innovative Tool that Helps Us Manage Our Donors and Sponsorships

Comments: Keela has helped our organization have a centralized data management center that multiple volunteers can access to perform tasks that keep us in compliance with our local and national government. In simple terms, it's made everyone's job a little bit easier!

Pros:

It was fairly easy to switch from our previous CRM database that we were unhappy with. This software has given us the ability to communicate effectively with our donors, keep track of sponsorship pledges, and track our yearly fundraising goals. All of this has been easy to customize to our organization and add the custom fields that pertain to us.

Cons:

To be fair, it's hard to be a "one size fits all" for any product, so of course there could be things that could be enhanced or added. For us, I would like to see when a pledge payment is past due and be able to create a segment or report that could show who is behind and by how much. Also, I would like the ability to create custom reports that would allow custom queries. The nice thing though about the Keela team, is they REALLY listen when you have a particular need like I just mentioned and they provide an Ideas Portal for just that!

Very happy with our experience!

Comments: Overall we are very happy. Keela is easy to use and has helped us improve our donor experience. Our staff can now check donor accounts and see all relationship details at a glance.

Pros:

As a smaller charity we are most impressed with the integrated features on Keela. Being able to direct our donors to give online and know that they will automatically receive a tax receipt and thank you makes us very happy. Tax receipts are now branded and our charity is listed on our donors credit card bill. This helps tremendously with brand recognition! We are now able to save a lot in administration costs by no longer having to be dependant on third party processors. More importantly than money saved is the improved donor experience that we can now provide. We never have to direct our supporters to a third party to resend tax receipts, update credit card information, stop or increase monthly donation, etc. The BCC and FWD email features are a real time saver as well!

Cons:

There are some features that need improvement to completely satisfy our needs but we find Keela always makes the effort to continually improve their product and is open to suggestions through their Ideas Portal. At the moment our biggest challenges with the software are: limitations in reporting, e-blast design features are limited and donor interactions are not able to be imported.

Very satisfied with Keela

Comments: Our experience with Keela has been amazing from the original sales presentation, to onboarding, to learning how to use the software, to ongoing customer support. Their team is fantastic and probably one of the main reasons that we continue to stay with them. The product is great but the customer support team is just as good. Always very responsive and helpful. Quick to listen to suggestions for improving existing features or adding new capabilities. The Keela DRM has also been extremely helpful to us as a small nonprofit because it puts every aspect of our fundraising, communication and donor management all in one powerful and easy-to-use tool.

Pros:

Keela provides all of the tools we need in one place. Not only can we manage all of our donors' information, interactions, and transactions, but we can also organize multiple donor campaigns, create various donor and subscription forms, send out all of our email newsletters and fundraising email blasts. Keela allows you to run just about any type of report that you can think of, set up multiple dashboards for monitoring various metrics, and gives us the ability to set up powerful multi-step automation sequences that can be triggered by various actions. Keela is very affordable and their customer service team is one of the best I've seen anywhere. They're very responsive and listen to their customers for new ideas, potential bugs, and much more. We are very satisfied with Keela and would highly recommend it to any other nonprofit that is looking for a DRM.

Cons:

There is not much that I do not like about Keela because whenever I encounter a problem or limitation, I just contact their support team and usually get a response very quickly. Probably my least favorite thing about Keela is their mobile app. It is good but is just a little limited in it's functionality.

Very happy with our nonprofit's first CRM

Comments: I've only had positive experiences with Keela; the staff are all super helpful, they truly listen to customer feedback and make changes accordingly which is what's made Keela 2.0 more or less perfect for our small non-profit.

Pros:

Keela's interface is easy to use and intuitive. The Help articles are easily searchable and clear and if you're still stuck the customer support is the best I've experienced from any software provider. Keela has made managing donor data a breeze and I can easily segment donors with the tag feature. The reporting function in Keela 2.0 seem greatly improved from 1.0. Donation forms are easily created, customized and embedded on our website.

Cons:

There were a few things I didn't like in Keela 1.0 (the reporting function, custom columns to view certain bulk contact info at a glance, monthly donation only form) but as far as I an tell so far they've all be fixed in Keela 2.0.

Keela is King of CRM

Comments: Very enthused and satisfied with our experience with keela. We have gained greater customer insights and the donor tax receipt system is very much improved from our previous software

Pros:

The software is easy to use and has a number of features. The customer support is outstanding which is valuable because there are so many features.

Cons:

The communications software and integration with the segments and tags can be cumbersome and requires more steps than other programs like mailchimp. However, Keela is constantly improving its offerings and we see these as minor compared to the benefits

Keela streamlined us

Comments: Overall our experience has been very positive, and I am happy to use Keela for work every day.

Pros:

Our intro to Keela was fast and furious, but the customer service team made starting up very easy. The interface is user friendly, and everything is clearly labelled. We now have all of our contacts in Keela, and use the form feature to embed all of our forms onto our website. Keela forms look so much more professional than the Google forms we were using. Looking for info or data on Keela is quick and easy, and it's also simple to edit or change things as needed. It has made our paperwork load lighter, and for that we are grateful!

Cons:

The only con I can think of is that you have to manually integrate duplicate contacts, but other than that it's a great service.

Very Responsive Customer Service

Comments: Keela is an easy-to-use, glitch-free software with a great team behind it.

Pros:

Keela was easy to implement and start using. The help desk team are fantastic and responsive to all inquiries and problems. It has sufficient functionality for our needs at a small nonprofit. Their developers are responsive to feedback on our needs.

Cons:

Keela really needs a mobile platform and it would be great to have more robust reporting capacity; I still need to do some report-building in spreadsheets instead.

Keela Review

Comments: We are now able to track all of our sponsors and communicate more effectively with them. When we have fundraisers, we can create e-blasts and link them to our website. Support in is up! I am so happy.

Pros:

This software is so user friendly. When I began using this software, I had extremely limited knowledge of computer use and I was still able to figure it out quite easily. The software is able to accommodate all of our needs and do what we need it to do to help our animal shelter and fundraisers run smoothly and with accurate data. It is easy to track everything we need. I am so impressed. And for the price... I can't imagine using anything else. There is no need to spend a lot of money on some of these other programs when Keela and do ALL you need!

Cons:

So far, the only thing that I don't like is that I cannot print off an e-blast that I design to post in various vet offices and at the shelter. I have to create a separate brochure for anything besides e-blasts. Maybe this is possible and I just don't know how to do it. But to me, this is the only draw-back.

Good "first-time user" system for basic needs

Comments: We had hoped to use Keela for grants and donation management, as well as the primary email blast tool to replace MailChimp and Salesforce. Our expectations exceeded the capabilities of the system. Still, I would recommended it to small organizations that are moving from Excel spreadsheets and other less sophisticated ways of managing contacts.

Pros:

The project management tool is exceptionally well done and easy to use. It's the feature I use the most. The online donation/payment tool is also very well done, easy to set up and manage, and user friendly for both the administrator and the donor/payee.

Cons:

There are some significant limitations in the contact management tool. It is not designed to link or associate individual contacts (persons) with organizations. This creates some difficulties in parsing lists for email blasts and analysis. As a basic contact list, it's okay, but not adequate for our contact and donation tracking needs. The e-mail form is limited. There are not a lot of design features. It's fine for basic messages, but don't expect to get too fancy with the layout and design.

We love Keela!

Comments: Keela has fundamentally changed how I manage my organization's donors and how I communicate with our community. The interface is so easy to use and affordable for a small community museum like ours.

Pros:

I love that Keela is Canadian based and offers a complete cloud-based CMS and donor management system. It's a great value for the money and their onboarding and customer service are fantastic. I know the name of the person who helps me when I run into problems.

Cons:

Some features are still in development. I'd like to be able to customize receipts and automatic replies a little more than currently offered. However, Keela's development portal makes it easy to submit recommendations and see what's next for product roll out.

Quite easy to use as a total newbie to (though technically proficient) donor management software

Comments: The pricing feels expensive to a small nonprofit that doesn't usually spend money on anything but the animals in our care, but compared to others software programs, it is seems like a good price for the value. This software works well for a small nonprofit animal rescue that adopts out about 500 cats and kittens a year. After 3 years we had a bit over 1000 contacts (including adopters, so not just donors) and the next level in Keela (since it's based on contacts) we shouldn't have to buy until a few years down the road.

Pros:

Their customer service is very responsive. The software sends automatic donor thank yous/tax receipts. It's easy to upload past donations (like from PayPal, Facebook or other ways you've raised money and have a list - you must format the data correctly) and easy to upload your contacts. You can have different donation forms. You can have different campaigns. I haven't delved deeply into the reporting, but it looks very powerful and probably pretty easy to create custom/ad hoc reports on almost whatever criteria you need.

Cons:

The tax receipt/thank you letter is my biggest con. The letter and tax receipt look great in the preview when you're creating/modifying it, but the actual letter that gets sent has tiny print, and you can not modify what it looks like.

Great for Overstretched Staff and Good Value

Pros:

Keela's simple design makes project management and customer relationship management very easy and for the value it cannot be beat. I would recommend Keela to any young start-up organization where principals are doing multiple tasks yet need an easy platform for synchronizing information and tasks.

Cons:

I would prefer that the reporting function be simpler and more flexible. I have been unable to run some reports currently.

Easy to use!

Comments: Keela has been easy to set-up, use, and teach to our team. Their customer service has also been excellent and easy to communicate with.

Pros:

I like that this software doesn't seem to overwhelm you with features and 'bells and whistles.' It does everything we need it to do, in a simple and digestible way.

Cons:

It recently underwent an upgrade to Keela 2.0. I liked the dashboard / format of the previous version better but it still works the same so I will adapt!

Good bang for your buck!

Comments: Amazing customer support and service. They go above and beyond to make sure their customers are happy and using the program to the full potential!

Pros:

It is such a great, simple to use CRM. I love that you can easily track all your donations, communicate with your donors, run reports, create forms to imbed on your website and it even sends out donation receipts!

Cons:

The one con would be that I can't create a form to sell a large variety of items. We sell gift cards as a fundraiser and would love to be able to create a form with all the cards and denominations we offer. This would allow us to be completely online with our fundraising. Also, the fact that it can only integrate with Eventbrite doesn't help us. We use different platforms like Auctria and EventCaddy and would love to see those integrated so we can essentially be using Keela exclusively for our fundraising.