Benchmark Email vs Blackbaud Online Express Comparison: Everything You Need to Know Before Choosing

Blackbaud Online Express is an online fundraising and donor engagement platform from Blackbaud, the specialist software provider for the non-profit sector, designed primarily for small and mid-sized organisations. Many charities want to accept donations online, register people for events and communicate with supporters by email, but lack the technical staff or budget to build and maintain these capabilities themselves. Online Express, often known as OLX, was created to give such organisations a ready-made, easy-to-manage toolset that connects directly with Blackbaud's donor management system, Raiser's Edge. Its approach is to combine donation forms, event registration and email marketing in a single hosted service, so that gifts and registrations flow straight into the organisation's supporter records without manual data entry. The product is intended to be managed by staff without web development skills, with configuration handled through templates and guided settings rather than code, allowing small fundraising teams to launch appeals quickly. Core features include customisable, mobile-friendly donation forms with support for one-off and recurring gifts, event registration forms with ticketing options, and an email tool for newsletters, appeals and acknowledgements with templates and basic performance reporting. Integration with Raiser's Edge allows transactions and constituent updates to be downloaded and matched to existing records, supporting accurate gift processing and segmentation. Payment processing is handled through Blackbaud's merchant services, and forms can be embedded on the organisation's existing website. Dashboards provide visibility into campaign performance and online revenue. The platform is cloud-hosted and administered through a web browser, with Blackbaud providing training resources and support. It is aimed at charities, schools, faith-based groups, arts organisations and other non-profits already using or considering Blackbaud's ecosystem, although Blackbaud has increasingly steered customers towards newer offerings. Pricing is quote-based and is not published in this listing, and no free trial or free version is indicated.