5 Best Holiday eCard Sites for Businesses & Associations

Businesses strengthening relationships with clients, employers recognizing staff, and associations engaging members share one thing in common: personalization as the golden standard of outreach. That’s why greeting cards are such a popular way to reach audiences, especially during the holidays. People value personal connections, and tailored messages are a surefire way to foster them.

Enter eCards: the digital spin on the traditional greeting card. If your organization wants to revamp its outreach strategy this holiday season—or any other time of year—you must leverage a holiday eCard site that makes digital greeting cards easy and engaging.

To help you find the perfect fit, we’ve compiled our list of best holiday and year-round eCard sites for businesses and associations. Here’s what we’ll cover:

We’re sure this guide will provide the context you need to choose the perfect eCard site.


Why Use eCards for the Holidays?

The holiday season is a popular time to wish someone well with a greeting card. The proof is in the numbers: Americans purchase over six billion greeting cards each year, with around one-third of those sales going toward seasonal cards. However, the rise of technology is making physical mail a strategy of the past, with total mail volume declining since 2006.

eCards offer numerous benefits for organizations that want to reach their audiences in a personal yet modern way. That’s because eCards offer these benefits:

  • Eco-friendliness: 66% of consumers report sustainability as one of their top five considerations when making a purchase. This means over half of your members, staff, customers, and other stakeholders are looking for sustainable alternatives. By avoiding paper and physical delivery emissions, eCards provide a waste-free option.
  • Customization: eCards are more flexible than their paper counterparts, allowing senders to customize the message and branding of each card. Since personalized emails receive open rates that are 82% higher than generic ones, your audience will be excited to see customized eCards in their inboxes.
  • Instant Delivery: Organizations must balance the thoughtfulness behind personalization with the administrative burden it places on their teams. For example, writing a Christmas card for each of your association’s members can be thoughtful but time-consuming, especially around the holidays when post offices often experience delays. Digital greeting cards can reach recipients no matter where they are with just a few clicks.

Not to mention, eCard sites empower you to engage with your audience in ways beyond seasonal greetings. For example, employee recognition eCards offer all the above benefits and foster a healthy workplace culture.

While these are just a few benefits that eCards bring to season’s greetings, different platforms have unique strengths that provide additional benefits to their users. Before choosing a platform for your organization, you need to know the basic features your eCard site should offer.

Criteria for Choosing the Best eCard Site

Whether you’re searching for community engagement platforms, bookkeeping systems, or an eCard site, there will always be must-have features that make your technology successful. For example, what would a community engagement platform be without event management tools? Or, how would bookkeeping software benefit your organization without the ability to generate financial reports?

Here are the baseline capabilities your eCard site should be able to handle:

  • User-friendliness: Whether your team consists of tech-savvy designers or first-time users, your eCard site should accommodate their needs. Look for a platform with an intuitive interface, including drag-and-drop design tools or pre-made templates. Also, customer support resources, such as tutorials and FAQs, should be available for help if needed.
  • Customization options: To achieve personalization, you’ll need a flexible platform with adequate tools for customizing your eCards. This includes the ability to add holiday-themed visuals, personalized greetings, and tailored calls to action. Prioritize integration capabilities to ensure you can leverage the data stored in your constituent relationship management (CRM) system or other relevant platforms.
  • Ability to reach the intended audience: Solutions catered to your organization’s specific needs ensure you can create eCards that resonate with your unique audience. For example, a platform built for retail businesses might not be useful for an association launching a campaign for its new members. Look for specialized features and integration capabilities to ensure your industry-specific software is compatible with your eCard site.

At the end of the day, your organization likely won’t implement an eCard site to celebrate just one day of the year. Choosing a platform that offers robust capabilities for year-round use is essential to engaging your organization’s audience 365 days a year.

5 Best eCard Sites for Businesses & Associations

With a list of must-have features you’re looking for in a holiday eCard site, it’s time to start your research. We’ve compiled a list of our favorite options, which you can compare to determine the best fit for your organization.

As you move through the list, request demos with your favorite providers to see their software in action. After all, the best way to experience a platform’s functionality is to try it yourself!

Here’s how our top choices break down:

Platform eCardWidget Hallmark eCards JibJab Canva Jacquie Lawson
Key Features Automation, customizable email templates, over 3,000 software integrations, mobile responsive design, easy-to-use interface Hundreds of templates, easy uploading, mobile capabilities Face personalization, animated templates, social media sharing Advanced design tools, collaborative tools, templates for every occasion eCard templates, address book, reminders for recipients’ birthdays, support helpline
Category Best Overall eCard Site Best eCard Site for Video Best Site for Humorous Holiday eCards Best Platform for Graphic Design Best eCard Site for Intricate Art

 

1. Best Overall eCard Site: eCardWidget

eCardWidget stands out as the best overall choice for its versatility and powerful capabilities. Its comprehensive suite of features is designed to meet the diverse needs of for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including associations.

 

eCardWidget is easy to use, from implementation to post-outreach analysis. Users can start designing holiday eCards in just a few simple steps:

  1. With the user-friendly designer, create professional eCards using free templates, graphics, fonts, and all the colors you could possibly need. You can even upload your own graphics, like your logo.
  2. Organize your eCards into campaigns, such as a Valentine’s Day or year-end holiday campaign.
  3. Either upload your eCards to your website or use the free hosted landing page eCardWidget provides.
  4. Start sending! Just show your team and supporters how to use the tool, whether they’re sending eCards to members, clients, or their peers.

Best of all, eCardWidget offers robust reporting tools, allowing you to see who sends, receives, and responds to all eCards sent through the platform. This way, you can easily track constituent relationships and engagement levels and adjust your approach as needed.

Some of eCardWidget’s other key features include:

  • Automation capabilities to send eCards without manual intervention
  • Fully customizable email templates
  • Over 3,000 software integrations
  • Mobile responsive design
  • Easy-to-use, drag-and-drop interface

eCardWidget combines customization and user-friendliness in a well-rounded tool for associations, nonprofits, and businesses. Whether you aim to improve member engagement, customer acquisition, or employee recognition this holiday season, eCardWidget has a long list of use cases to meet your specific needs.


2. Hallmark eCards: Best eCard Site for Video

When it comes to greeting cards, Hallmark is one of the biggest players in the game. Their online greeting card creation platform allows you to create eCards with photos and videos for a memorable design.

This eCard site’s standout features include:

  • Hundreds of templates for various holidays and occasions
  • Easy uploading to add photos and videos to chosen templates
  • Mobile capabilities for delivering eCards via text message

If your organization has the perfect photo to accompany your holiday eCard, browse Hallmark’s templates to find the perfect fit.

3. JibJab: Best Site for Humorous Holiday eCards

Famous for its quirky Christmas greeting videos, JibJab is the perfect eCard site for adding laughter to your holiday season. This platform offers unique features, including:

  • Face personalization, which allows users to add photos of themselves or their recipients to amusing animations.
  • Animated templates, ranging from videos of dancing elves to silly turkeys.
  • Social media sharing across platforms such as Facebook and Instagram

Because of its niche templates, JibJab may be better suited for creating and sharing eCards among peers or family members rather than organization-wide customer or member engagement campaigns.

4. Canva: Best Platform for Graphic Design

Canva is the perfect eCard site for creating eCards from scratch and accessing ultimate design freedom. Its extensive library of customizable templates enables users to adjust practically every element of the eCard to create stunning designs.

Its standout features include:

  • Advanced design tools, such as custom graphics and video elements
  • Collaborative tools so designers can work together on the same eCard
  • Templates for every occasion

For businesses or associations that want to build their own eCards (and other graphic design materials) this holiday season, Canva is a great pick. Keep in mind that as a graphic design tool, Canva doesn’t offer eCard-sending services, meaning your organization will need to send designs built on this eCard site manually.

5. Jacquie Lawson: Best eCard Site for Intricate Art

From watercolor creations to intricately designed animations, Jacquie Lawson is an eCard site known for its miniature works of art. A membership grants users access to:

  • A vast library of eCard templates with unique, hand-drawn designs
  • An address book and reminders for recipients’ birthdays
  • A helpline for troubleshooting any problems you encounter

While these designs are hard to beat, it’s worth noting that customization is limited on this eCard site. Businesses and associations using Jacquie Lawson’s eCards must find unique ways to incorporate their brand identity into campaigns.

More Tips and Tools for Engaging Your Community

Engaging your community—whether clients, employees, or members—is about more than a themed greeting card around popular holidays. Your organization must foster meaningful connections with its audience that last well beyond the holiday season.

eCard sites are a great starting point, but other tools are available to help you facilitate engagement year-round. Once you’ve chosen the right eCard platform, explore other tools that would make helpful additions to your existing tech stack.

To learn more about how eCards and other platforms fuel community engagement, check out these resources:

10 Best Community Engagement Platforms To Boost Renewals

Keeping members engaged year-round is no easy feat. Fortunately, community engagement platforms provide a powerful solution, helping associations build strong networks, centralize interactions, manage members, and encourage renewals.

Today’s top solutions foster community and boost participation among your members. With several options on the market, associations need to find a platform that supports their member retention efforts without blowing their budgets.

In this guide, we’ll introduce ten solutions that will help your association build a thriving, engaged community that renews year after year. First, we’ll explore five association-specific solutions before diving into community engagement platforms designed for a range of audiences. Our top five platforms are:

Platform Key Features Best For
Tradewing Groups, member directory, sponsorship management, resource management, reports, and integrations with popular association management tools All-Around Community Engagement
Breezio Discussion spaces, document management, video conferencing, and integrations Member Collaboration
Personify Community Member forums, groups, gamification, and a mobile app Large Organizations
Hivebrite Membership management, member portals, event management, and discussion forums Alumni Networks
MemberNova Multi-level membership management, automated workflows, basic event management, and site management Membership Management

With features like gamification, discussion forums, and event management tools, these platforms empower you to engage members, measure success, and boost retention rates. Before diving into our top recommendations, let’s walk through community engagement platform basics.

What Are Community Engagement Platforms?

Community engagement platforms are centralized spaces where members of a community or group can connect, share ideas, seek advice, and collaborate with others in their field. These platforms foster a sense of belonging through features such as discussion posts, webinars, educational resources, networking events, and surveys.

Commonly used by associations, nonprofits, and educational institutions, community engagement platforms empower organizations to manage member interactions and events while offering educational resources and networking opportunities.

Note that these platforms differ from association management software (AMS). While an AMS provides essential tools for managing daily operations—such as automated invoice generation and membership renewal reminders—a community engagement platform focuses on cultivating interactions and connections through a members-only online space.

However, these platforms’ features aren’t mutually exclusive. Some AMS solutions include community engagement tools, and community engagement platforms may

Why Does Your Association Need Community Engagement Software?

Community engagement platforms encourage meaningful member interactions and enhance the overall value of your organization’s memberships. Here are several reasons why your association should consider investing in this type of software:

  • Centralize member engagement.  A community engagement platform provides a central hub for all member activities, including discussions, events, resources, and announcements.
  • Increase members’ sense of belonging. A dedicated platform encourages members to actively participate in discussions, access educational resources, and connect with peers.
  • Provide value through gated content. Associations can promote exclusive members-only content on their community engagement platform, boosting event attendance and resource access.
  • Streamline event management. Many platforms come equipped with event management tools to manage registrations, promote upcoming opportunities, and host virtual events. This simplifies event logistics and boosts attendance.

Even with all these benefits, only 28% of associations invite new members to join an association-sponsored online community. Make your association indispensable by investing in community engagement software that meets evolving member expectations and empowers them to cultivate connections.

What To Look For In A Community Engagement Platform

Selecting the right member engagement platform ensures you have tools that provide value to members, measure engagement, and stay within your budget.

As you browse your options, look for these essential features:

  • Discussion space: Allow members to post questions, share their experiences, and spark conversations in a professional, members-only discussion space.
  • Event management tools: Manage registrations, reminders, and attendance for events. Consider platforms with integrated video conferencing tools if you plan to host hybrid or virtual events.
  • Member directories: Help members discover and connect with each other, making networking easy.
  • Privacy settings: Offer members control over their profiles and posts, ensuring a safe space for interaction.
  • Gamification features: Points, badges, and leaderboards encourage participation and recognize active members.
  • Analytics & reporting: Track key engagement metrics, such as which members are the most engaged.
  • Integrations: Ensure you can connect your community engagement platform with popular association tools like your AMS for streamlined operations.
  • Reliable technical support: Make sure your provider offers technical support to maintain smooth operations.

While not every feature may be essential for your association, choosing a platform with tools tailored to your specific needs enhances your ability to drive meaningful outcomes and boost member renewals.

Best Community Engagement Platforms Tailored To Associations

Let’s explore some of the leading online community engagement platforms designed specifically for associations. These solutions are optimized to address associations’ unique operational and member engagement needs, ensuring meaningful member interactions.

Tradewing: Best All-Around Community Engagement Platform

From member discussions to resource management, Tradewing provides everything trade and professional associations need to build thriving communities. Our out-of-the-box platform allows you to get up and running quickly, so you can immediately begin engaging members.

By centralizing online member interactions within a single platform, Tradewing focuses member attention solely on your association. Affordable and simple, our platform offers robust tools for interaction without the high costs or complexity of larger solutions. Plus, powerful moderation tools ensure your community remains safe and respectful, preserving the integrity of your network.

Check out this comprehensive homepage that members will see when they log into your online community engagement platform:

Key Features For Community Engagement

  • Groups: Create private and public groups (like one for your board of directors) where members can post, create polls, upload videos, and share resources. The social media-style feed makes it easy to comment and like others’ posts.
  • Member directory: Members can create profiles and adjust privacy settings to control what information they share with others. The searchable directory helps members connect through chat functionality.
  • Sponsorship management: Invite sponsors to build custom landing pages within the platform, which will be featured in a dedicated Sponsors tab. Members can explore sponsor pages and message these organizations directly. Additionally, you can feature sponsors in a side tab during virtual events.
  • Event management: Manage in-person, virtual, and hybrid events with ease. Both administrators and members can post event details and control whether events are public or private. For example, the board may schedule a private meeting viewable only by group members. Tradewing also offers built-in video conferencing, eliminating the need for external platforms.
  • Resources: Invite members to share resources through the Resources Tab. Administrators can upload resources directly without posting to groups, and members can preview files without downloading them. Group administrators can organize post attachments from group members into dedicated folders, keeping resources well-structured.
  • Reports and analytics: Gain insights into engagement trends with detailed reporting. Track individual activities, such as the number of posts or comments a specific member makes, and monitor group performance metrics, including size, likes, and interactions. These reports help identify areas needing additional member engagement.
  • Integrations with popular tools: Tradewing integrates with popular AMSs, so you can smoothly plug our platform into your current tech stack.

Tradewing In Action

The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) caters to physics educators at high schools and colleges. The organization is 10,000 members strong. However, AAPT only hosts two annual conferences, making it difficult for those members to connect throughout the year. Many also face challenges attending in-person events due to travel costs and an inability to take time off.

This is where Tradewing makes a difference! Our mobile-friendly, always-accessible online community engagement platform ensures AAPT members can communicate year-round, no matter where they are. Whether a physics teacher needs help crafting a lesson plan or advice on a specific topic, they can easily reach out to peers for materials, ideas, and support, creating a collaborative community that extends far beyond annual events.

Check out this video about AAPT’s journey with Tradewing:

AAPT is just one of many associations we’ve helped build strong online communities. Explore our success stories to learn more about our impact!

Breezio | Best Community Engagement Software For Collaboration

Breezio offers a dynamic platform designed to foster collaboration through real-time interaction, document sharing, and engagement tools. It’s especially popular with organizations that value collaboration across teams and projects.

Breezio’s user-friendly interface encourages member participation, making it ideal for knowledge-sharing and problem-solving. Additionally, it supports diverse content types, including videos, documents, and discussion threads, making it versatile for different communication styles.

Cons: Breezio’s collaborative features are powerful, but they lack the integration and automation capabilities necessary for associations and professional groups.

A screenshot of an article within Breezio’s online community engagement platform

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Key Features

  • Customizable discussion spaces
  • Easy uploading of documents, videos, articles, podcasts, and other content
  • Live chat and in-portal video conferencing
  • Integrations with popular AMSs and CRMs

 

Personify Community | Best Community Platform for Large Organizations

Personify Community is designed for large nonprofits and associations, offering features that enhance member engagement and community building. It excels at managing large-scale events and integrates with donor and membership management systems. Its analytics and reporting capabilities give organizations actionable insights into their community’s behavior.

Cons: Personify’s platform can feel overwhelming for smaller organizations seeking a streamlined community engagement solution.

A list of event sessions for an association using Personify’s community engagement software.

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Key Features

  • Member-to-member collaboration via forums, groups, and blogs
  • Gamification like badges, leaderboards, and contests
  • A mobile app to reach members wherever they are

 

Hivebrite | Most Customizable Platform for Alumni Networks

Hivebrite provides extensive customization options tailored to membership organizations, professional societies, and trade associations. Alumni coordinators in particular praise the online community engagement platform for its engaging, branded spaces that enable networking, event management, and content sharing. Beyond that, other engagement features include support for mentorship programs, job boards, and interest-based subgroups.

The platform also offers donation management, making it a versatile platform for alumni engagement and fundraising. Hivebrite also supports networking, continuous learning, workshops, and conferences. Trade associations can also use the solution to notify members of updates, gather feedback, support advocacy efforts, and foster industry collaboration.

Cons: Hivebrite offers extensive customization, which can lead to long setup times and increased maintenance. Look at our list of Hivebrite alternatives for similar options that resolve these challenges.

The member directory on Hivebrite’s online community engagement platform

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Key Features

  • Membership management and renewals
  • Branded member portals
  • Event management tools
  • Discussion forums and collaboration tools where members can share insights and provide feedback

 

MemberNova | Best for Membership Management With Basic Community Tools

MemberNova combines community engagement tools with strong membership management features, making it ideal for organizations looking for an all-in-one solution. It offers a centralized hub for streamlining administrative tasks and managing renewals, events, and membership data. Its ability to support chapters with independent portals and roll-up reporting makes it particularly attractive to larger, multi-layered organizations.

Cons: MemberNova focuses more on operational efficiencies and member administration than fostering engagement through dynamic community interactions. Some users also claim that the price tag is hefty.

A member profile, article, and member analytics dashboard from MemberNova’s community engagement software

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Key Features

  • The ability to manage multi-level memberships, chapters, and various membership types
  • Basic event management and engagement tools, including email campaigns and
  • Automated workflows to streamline member onboarding, renewals, and engagement tracking
  • Website management and integrations with other platforms to ensure seamless operations

Best Community Engagement Software With Association-Appropriate Features

While the following platforms don’t cater only to associations, they’re flexible enough to support your community engagement efforts.

Mighty Networks | Best Online Community Engagement Platform For Niche Subgroups

Mighty Networks provides tools for building niche communities. While designed primarily for businesses and individual creators, many associations and nonprofits use the platform. The solution offers robust subgroup creation, course delivery options, and paid memberships.

Its intuitive design makes it easy to set up and manage, with a focus on helping creators build meaningful connections within their niches. You’ll also make a positive first impression on new members with a welcome checklist, icebreakers, polls, and introduction posts.

Cons: Mighty Networks targets creators and small businesses. Therefore, larger associations and professional communities may find its features limited. Check out these Mighty Networks alternatives with comparable features that might be better suited to your needs.

A mockup showing different elements of Mighty Networks’ online community engagement platform

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Key Features

  • Course and content hosting
  • A branded community space with custom graphics and colors
  • Monetization tools for memberships and courses
  • Integrations with popular solutions like ConvertKit and Zoom

Discourse | Best Community Engagement Software For Simple Discussion Forums

Discourse is an open-source platform centered around discussion forums, offering straightforward features for managing conversations and threads. It’s designed for communities that thrive on dialogue with tools to support ongoing conversations, gamification, and community moderation. Plus, it was built for high-resolution touch devices, so members can participate across any device.

Cons: The platform’s open-source nature allows for extensive customization, but it requires technical expertise to fully leverage its potential. While excellent for facilitating discussions, Discourse lacks community-building features such as event management and member directories, making it less comprehensive than other platforms like Tradewing.

A screenshot of Stem-Away’s online community that they created with Discourse

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Key Features

  • Threaded discussion boards that enable real-time interactions, polls, post revisions, and more
  • Moderation and privacy tools for community management
  • Gamification features like custom badges to encourage community engagement
  • Open-source customization

Facebook Groups | Best Platform For Informal Social Communities

Facebook Groups provides a free and accessible platform for informal community building with features designed to encourage member interaction. Its ease of use and built-in audience from Facebook’s user base make it a popular option for small organizations.

Cons: Because the platform offers limited customization and data ownership, it may not meet the needs of associations seeking to establish branded, long-term communities. Additionally, Facebook’s algorithms and privacy policies limit control over how groups engage with their audience.

A mockup of a group admin posting a welcome message to new members in her Facebook Group

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Key Features

  • Accessible mobile app and push notifications to keep members engaged
  • Basic group management tools to invite members, ensure privacy, and moderate posts
  • Simple event creation to invite members, manage RSVPs, and send reminders
  • Member polls and announcements

Slack | Best Community Platform For Committee Collaboration

Slack is a popular real-time messaging tool designed to streamline collaboration, particularly for committees and internal teams. It integrates seamlessly with other productivity apps, enabling users to manage projects and communications in one place. Slack’s threaded conversations and private channels help teams stay organized, but the platform is better for short-term projects.

Cons: Ultimately, Slack is better suited for internal teams than member communities due to its lack of features to foster ongoing community engagement, like member directories or event hubs.

A mockup of a channel within Slack’s online community engagement software

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Key Features

  • Real-time messaging, file sharing, and polls
  • Private channels for focused discussions
  • Integration with other productivity apps
  • Mobile and desktop compatibility

Circle | Best Software For Course-Based Communities

Circle is a robust platform designed for online communities, courses, and paid memberships. It allows users to create interactive spaces that facilitate discussions, events, and content sharing. The platform also supports course creation and gated content, providing modular options for video, audio, and text materials, which makes it a viable choice for those running educational programs.

Cons: Circle focuses primarily on community-building around educational content and memberships. This can impose limitations on associations with complex event management needs or highly structured member interactions that require sophisticated workflows.

A mockup of a post within Circle’s community engagement software

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Key Features

  • Course and membership site hosting
  • Built-in payment processing
  • Community spaces for member interaction
  • Native analytics tools

More Community Engagement Tools

Member renewals don’t happen by accident—they’re a direct result of consistent, meaningful engagement. Community engagement platforms offer the tools needed to create ongoing connections with your members, keeping them involved and invested.

The platforms we’ve covered enhance engagement and give your organization the edge it needs to maintain high retention rates. Pick the right solution based on your needs and budget, and you’ll build a thriving community in no time.

To support your association’s community-building efforts, explore these free resources: