Gnosis for Nonprofits Pricing, Features, Reviews & Comparison of Alternatives

After a long and extensive search for a Church Management Software, we chose to move to Gnosis from one of the most popular other systems. Unfortunately, we've decided a year later that the move wasn't a good one for us and we're searching again for something else. Overall, it's a great product, but for certain kinds of congregations/faith groups - those with good technological sophistication, and those that are definitely OK with using a product that was developed first and foremost with nonprofits - not churches - specifically in mind. Pros - super powerful back end with extreme customizability; very quick and powerful searching of members; powerful (though difficult to learn) report creator; full-featured scheduler; a decent integrated web platform; lots of new features in development that I've heard about (e.g. a more powerful email newsletter tool.) All in all, it's got a huge feature set that I'd say is larger when compared to almost every other competitor in the Church Management Software category. And unlike a few of the big ChMS competitors (be sure to read those Terms of Service carefully!), they don't discriminate against some churches because of their theology. Cons - it really isn't the most intuitive product when you need to get past the basics. We ran into a few bugs - most of which were addressed fairly quickly, but some either never were for a few months or else we just never heard that they were fixed. No user group. The interface is a bit cluttered. Promises were regularly made about when certain things or data would be transferred, fixed, added etc. but frequently deadlines weren't met and we often never heard if a request was taken care of. The program is definitely better suited to nonprofits than to churches, as a lot of the language is just "off" a bit (e.g. sending a member an "invoice" instead of a pledge statement.) Pricey, though there are certainly some that cost more.

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Gnosis is without a doubt an amazing software package. The more one works with it, the more capabilities one discovers. Prior to installing Gnosis, we had three separate databases that were not compatible with one another - the programs were unable to communicate with our donor records; email was separate, requiring constant syncing of data. After installing Gnosis we had one comprehensive fully-integrated database. All departments are now able to effectively communicate to serve our community of over 10,000 names. Gnosis is used to create web blasts, general communications, handle donation management, program registration and attendance tracking and all calendaring, webcasts and reporting for all departments. This has greatly increased our capability and efficiency. The beauty of Gnosis is the ability to individualize the modules for different work environments. Modules can be used as needed and customized to address specific requirements. Because of the flexibility of the system, it is useful to have at least one person with business process or technical expertise to manage the system, and the individual departments become acquainted with the modules that are needed for their specific activities. It can take some time and effort to become familiar with all of the capabilities of Gnosis, but the more one learns, the more it will benefit the entire organization. Tech support is excellent. There are instructional videos to explain and demonstrate how to perform different tasks and if more assistance is needed, tech support is extremely responsive and available to assist with problem solving. Finally, the financial investment and maintenance cost is more than reasonable for the product features that are available. I have yet to see any product on the market that matches Gnosis in price or function.

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