Blackbaud Luminate Online vs Fundraise Up
Fundraise Up: the smarter alternative to Luminate Online
Built for a different era of fundraising, Luminate Online prioritizes administration over performance. Fundraise Up helps nonprofits achieve 3× higher donation conversion rates and grow giving.
4.8/5
Migrate from Luminate Online with confidence
Switching fundraising platforms doesn't have to put donor relationships or recurring revenue at risk. Our migration team helps nonprofits move from Luminate Online smoothly, with expert support every step of the way.
migration and setup
included at no extra cost
migrated recurring donors retained
in the first year
satisfaction rate
for migration process
Why nonprofits switch from Luminate Online
Organizations switch to Fundraise Up for higher conversion rates, larger donations, transparent pricing, and more innovation.
| Feature | Fundraise Up | Blackbaud Luminate Online |
|---|---|---|
| G2 rating | ||
| G2 rating | ||
| Conversion rate | ||
| Conversion rate | 30% average | 8% industry |
| Customer support | ||
| Customer support |  95% support satisfaction | Delayed and inconsistent support reported |
| Donor experience | ||
| Donor experience | Personalized, AI-optimized | Limited personalization |
| Payment methods | ||
| Payment methods | 10+ global payment methods | Limited global options for recurring giving |
| Global giving | ||
| Global giving | 23 languages, 135+ currencies | Limited |
| Ease of use for teams | ||
| Ease of use for teams | No-code tools for fundraisers | Requires technical resources |
| Self-serve donor experience | ||
| Self-serve donor experience | Built-in, intuitive | Requires developer customization |
| Integrations | ||
| Integrations | Free, native | Additional cost |
| Donation analytics | ||
| Donation analytics | Built-in real-time insights with optimization tips | Requires significant configuration |
| Contracts | ||
| Contracts | No lock-in, 100% performance-based pricing | Multi-year commitments |
| Handle spikes in donation traffic with ease | ||
| Handle spikes in donation traffic with ease | 0 downtime during Giving Season, 600+ TPS | Experienced outages during Giving Tuesday |
| Data ownership | ||
| Data ownership | Full ownership and access | Locked-in data access controlled by Luminate Online |
| Continuous optimization | ||
| Continuous optimization | 70+ refinement A/B tests per year | Static donation experiences |
| Migration support | ||
| Migration support | Free white-glove onboarding and migration | Challenging process, additional cost |
| Overall fit | ||
| Overall fit | Growth-focused fundraising platform | Legacy nonprofit management platform |
Ready to try Fundraise Up?
Most organizations see measurable lift within their first 90 days. White-glove onboarding and migration are included at no extra cost.
See pricing
Why nonprofits choose Fundraise Up
Raise more with smarter technology
Fundraise Up: AI trained on millions of donations
Luminate Online: Limited optimization capabilitiesBuilt for the future of fundraising
Fundraise Up: 70+ donation growth-focused tests annuallyLuminate Online: Outdated donor experienceA partner invested in your success
Fundraise Up: Transparent pricing and year-round supportLuminate Online: Complex contracts, support issuesYour donor data stays yours
Fundraise Up: Full ownership of donor and payment dataLuminate Online: Data portability requires effortWhat nonprofits say after switching from Blackbaud Luminate Online
Above all else, donor experience took priority. We were willing to trade off an all-in-one approach for an integrated solution using best-in-class technologies for donations, email, text messaging, website, and CMS. Fundraise Up’s ease of implementation and speed of deployment was fantastic.
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Harper Grubbs
Vice President of Digital Fundraising and Transformation
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increase in Giving Tuesday donations
of monthly gifts through Upsell feature
additional revenue in just 3 months
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How does migration from Luminate Online work?
Migrating fundraising technology shouldn't put your donor relationships at risk. That's why Fundraise Up provides white-glove migration services that help nonprofits move faster, retain donors, and start seeing results sooner.
Keep the donors you've worked so hard to earn
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Every day on an underperforming donation platform is revenue left on the table. The sooner you migrate, the sooner you can start raising more.
See the platform in action
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Keep what works, fix what doesn't
The fundraising industry spent years chasing all-in-one platforms. Today's leading nonprofits are choosing focused solutions that outperform them.
The result:
Better donor experiences
Faster innovation
More fundraising revenue
| Feature | Fundraise Up | Blackbaud Luminate Online |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | ||
| Focus | Donation conversion and revenue growth | Broad operational functionality |
| CRM integrations | ||
| CRM integrations | Works with your existing CRM with native integrations | Designed around Blackbaud ecosystem |
| Implementation | ||
| Implementation | Add to your existing stack | Larger migration and platform management effort |
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Raise more from every donor
Most donation platforms are designed to collect donations. Fundraise Up is designed to maximize them.
From the first click to recurring donor retention, every interaction is continuously optimized to increase conversion, donation amounts, and donor lifetime value.
The result:
3× higher donation conversion rates
30% larger average donations
80% of recurring donors retained after one year
| Feature | Fundraise Up | Blackbaud Luminate Online |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile giving | ||
| Mobile giving | Mobile-first by design | Legacy mobile experience |
| Donation experience | ||
| Donation experience | Continuously improved through 70+ A/B tests annually | No public evidence of ongoing platform-wide testing |
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AI that raises revenue
While Luminate Online uses AI to help fundraisers create content, Fundraise Up uses AI to help donors complete more gifts.
For nearly a decade, Fundraise Up has trained its models on millions of donation transactions
AI is continuously optimizing donation experiences to increase conversion rates, donation amounts, fee coverage, and recurring donor growth
| Feature | Fundraise Up | Blackbaud Luminate Online |
|---|---|---|
| AI focus | ||
| AI focus | Optimizing donation outcomes | Assisting fundraising workflows |
| Learning model | ||
| Learning model | Millions of donation transactions and donor interactions; learns and adapts from donor behavior | Static rules and predefined logic; no public evidence of fundraising-specific optimization models |
| Suggested donation amounts | ||
| Suggested donation amounts | Personalized in real time for each donor automatically | Fixed rules configured by staff |
| Fee coverage | ||
| Fee coverage | Dynamic donor-level optimization | Rule-based eligibility logic, no AI optimization of when or whether to prompt individual donors |
| Recurring giving | ||
| Recurring giving | Behavioral optimization based on donor intent | Sustainer automation relies on rule-based targeting rather than a trained predictive model |
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Turn every page into a donation opportunity
Most nonprofits only ask for donations in one place: the donation page.
Fundraise Up turns your entire website into a fundraising experience with embedded forms, sticky donation buttons, goal meters, and more.
Instead of: Website → Donate Page → Donation form
You get: Website → Donation opportunity everywhere
| Feature | Fundraise Up | Blackbaud Luminate Online |
|---|---|---|
| Embedded fundraising Elements | ||
| Embedded fundraising Elements | 20+ ways to engage donors across your website | Limited fundraising touchpoints |
| Gift Cart | ||
| Gift Cart | Let donors support multiple funds, campaigns, and appeals in a single transaction | No out-of-the-box e-commerce experience |
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Technology you can trust when it matters most
When generosity peaks, your donation platform should be the last thing you worry about.
Whether it's Giving Tuesday or an emergency appeal, Fundraise Up is built to handle surges in donor traffic without downtime
No slowdowns or emergency troubleshooting
Your team can focus on raising money, not fixing forms
| Feature | Fundraise Up | Blackbaud Luminate Online |
|---|---|---|
| Security | ||
| Security | Enterprise-grade security with no security incidents ever | Historical security incidents |
| High-traffic performance | ||
| High-traffic performance | Proven at scale with 600+ transactions per second and zero downtime during peak fundraising periods | Reliability concerns reported by customers |
| Compliance | ||
| Compliance | PCI DSS Level 1 v.4.0.1 ; SOC 2 Type II; ISO 27001; GDPR; PIPEDA | PCI DSS Level 1 |
After switching to Fundraise Up, Boys Town found 30% of donations now come through mobile — a platform they can rely on during critical donation periods.”
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FAQ
Fundraise Up is the digital fundraising platform that helps nonprofits raise more by optimizing the donor giving experience. Through AI-powered conversion, modern checkout, and a 100% performance-based pricing model, Fundraise Up delivers 3× higher conversion rates and 30% larger average donations than legacy fundraising tools — with no contracts and no risk.
Fundraise Up is a digital fundraising platform focused on conversion optimization; Luminate Online is a legacy suite built around administration. Fundraise Up has been refining AI-driven donation experiences since 2017, delivering higher conversion rates and larger gifts.
No. Fundraise Up is not a CRM. Many organizations continue using Blackbaud CRM, Raiser's Edge NXT, or other systems while replacing only the donation experience.
No. Fundraise Up has migrated 600+ organizations and helped retain 99% of existing recurring donors in the first year. White-glove migration is included at no extra cost.
Fundraise Up uses 100% performance-based pricing. You pay nothing until you process a donation, with no contracts, no setup fees, and no lock-in. See the pricing page for details.
No. Fundraise Up is not a CRM. It integrates natively with the systems you already use, including Salesforce and HubSpot, at no additional cost.
Yes. Fundraise Up maintains 99.99%+ uptime, including during Giving Tuesday and crisis-driven surges, and processes 600+ real-time transactions per second. A public status page documents reliability in real time.
Yes. Fundraise Up integrates with Blackbaud CRM and other leading nonprofit systems, allowing organizations to improve fundraising performance without replacing their existing database.
Yes. Fundraise Up uses AI trained on millions of donation transactions to optimize donation amounts, recurring giving prompts, fee coverage, and donor experiences.
Yes. Fundraise Up is designed for fundraisers rather than developers, with no-code tools for creating campaigns, updating content, and managing fundraising programs.
Most campaigns can be launched in minutes using built-in templates and no-code tools, without requiring ongoing developer involvement.
Yes. Fundraise Up meets enterprise-grade security standards including PCI DSS Level 1 v4.0.1, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, and PIPEDA.
You do. Fundraise Up gives nonprofits full ownership and access to donor and payment data. Organizations maintain control of their fundraising operations without vendor lock-in.
Fundraise Up customers receive white-glove onboarding, migration support, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager. Many organizations evaluating alternatives to Luminate Online are looking for a more hands-on support experience and faster access to fundraising expertise.
Ready to see what's possible?
Talk to our team to see how Fundraise Up can help you improve donor experiences, increase conversion rates, and raise more online. White-glove onboarding and migration are included at no extra cost.