GiveSmart vs PaddleUp

GiveSmart provides fundraising and donor management tools for nonprofits, schools and associations. Its platform covers online fundraising, recurring giving, peer-to-peer campaigns, text-to-donate, auctions and ticketing. Mobile auction bidding supports maximum bids, outbid notifications, item management and self-checkout. Event tools include seating and group management, contactless check-in, guest communication and tax receipts; virtual and hybrid events can add livestreaming, chat, donor recognition and proxy bidding. Campaign reporting includes live reports, dashboards and exports, with receipts and tax letters generated automatically. GiveSmart lists Salesforce, Google Analytics, YouTube and Vimeo among its integrations and supported services. It says its system is PCI and SOC 2 compliant, with encryption, restricted access, vulnerability testing and independent audits. Support includes 24/7 customer service, implementation help, a Help Center and an assigned Client Success Manager. The platform is available on Android, iOS and web. Both pricing models provide full access, unlimited events and campaigns, but prices are available on request; there is no free plan.

PaddleUp provides event and fundraising software for schools and nonprofits, covering jog-a-thons, galas, auctions, and online sales. Campaign dashboards bring fundraising goals, settings, and related activities together. The platform supports live, silent, and online auctions, with mobile bidding; staff can use its iOS app to set up and monitor events in person. Ticketing covers registration and attendee check-in, and seating links tables and guests to the ticket roster. Bid sheet tools include printable sheets with QR anchors, photo uploads, and AI-assisted read-back against registered bidders. Stripe processes card and ACH payments, and the staff app can pair with Stripe Terminal Bluetooth readers for on-site sales. Organizations can use API keys and webhooks, with staff MCP tools for custom workflows and AI-assisted operations. The maker says sensitive attendee and bidder contact fields are encrypted with AES-256-GCM and per-organization keys managed through AWS KMS in production; service traffic uses TLS. Stripe handles card numbers and records payouts and refunds. There is no monthly platform subscription; Stripe processing fees apply, and AI tokens are pay-as-you-go.