112 Reviews and Ratings
9 Reviews and Ratings
It works well enough for fundraising purposes and donor tracking. I think it would be less appropriate for instances or industries where you don't need so many data points on someone. You are able to attach a lot of information to a record so if you don't need that info (simply need contact info for example) you might want a simpler system Incentivized
ResearchPoint is well suited for Prospect Research, especially if the user has Raiser's Edge as their main database given its integration capabilities with qualified data; however, it is not necessary. I used the Target Analytics product that came before ResearchPoint (The Researcher's Edge) as a stand-alone prospect research database for about a year. For small shops that do not have a prospect researcher or prospect research team, it could even be used by gift officers looking for new prospects or for wealth data on their known prospects. Once systems are in place, the content is fairly intuitive and easy to navigate. The product is really a one-stop-shop, find prospects, wealth screen them, verify the data (the product saves you time by verifying a lot for you already), sync your findings to The Raiser's Edge, and if you'd like, export or print a professional-looking profile to a .pdf for your president or gift officer.Incentivized
Accessing in-depth data for a single constituent is easily done and customizable by user working with "tiles" on the home screenGenerating lists of possible prospects with specific similarities can be done with a few clicks and then stored for more research laterwell designed relationship options allow for a a look at specific constituents and how they might relate to other constituents in the system leading to more effective prospectingScreens can be easily customized by user or user group eliminating irrelevant data and presenting only truly relevant informationIncentivized
Address Updates - starting at the basics, the Target Analytics products allow you create a firm foundation for the data in your system.Data Hygiene - taking it a step further is creating and updating data on an individualized basis - such as DeceasedRecord Finder, and Email Finder.Data Modeling - Once your data has been appended it can be modeled for increased donor interaction, stewardship, and solicitation.
Certain aspects of Blackbaud are oddly non-customizable.Blackbaud updates/support is slow and often ineffective - our organization switched to Microsoft 365, which is apparently incompatible with Blackbaud. Help/support recommended clunky workarounds that don't actually work, rather than proactively enhancing compatibilityThere should be a flag in constituent search to show which people in the results list are deceased.Query isn't very user friendly. It should be simple to locate the information that you want to pull, and add parameters to that information. Instead you have to write multiple queries to set parameters, then write a query that looks at those other queries. It's time-consuming and easy to make mistakes, and the knowledge/proficiency is difficult to explain or transfer to new staff.Blackbaud generally just feels like its technology is outdated. It wasn't built for the needs of a modern organization, and its developers have failed to make the necessary improvements over time to stay competitive.Incentivized
Confirmed relationships needs to be a field that can be synced to The Raiser's EdgePhilanthropic giving, when synced to the Prospect tab, needs to be able to be sorted by dollar value (like in Excel); this is a change that would need to happen in The Raiser's EdgeWith increasing competition from other wealth screening vendors, it would be useful if data sources were updated more frequently (i.e. real estate and giving).Incentivized
We've covered a lot, but mostly because we are happy with the system overall. There are a few kinks, and sometimes it takes a minute to figure out the right wording to pull a report or the best way to code a new category that we want to track. But Blackbaud is always there to help us, and once things are figured out - they are super simple to replicate. It wouldn't be worth it to switch to a new system and lose of all our information and time put in to mastering the system Incentivized
I have not personally had to reach out to Blackbaud CRM Support, because we have a central office that manages the Blackbaud CRM relationship. However, any time I've reached out to our support team, there is nothing they can't figure out by utilizing the support they receive from Blackbaud CRM. I've not had any issues that have gone unresolved, and they can always get things done in a timely fashion. Incentivized
While there is always room for improvement, I have always had good luck with TA support. There are so many ways to get help! Sometimes I can answer my own question by just accessing the vast Knowledgebase directory. I have been able to get quick answers by initiating a live Chat without having to navigate the call center voice mail options, which can be a little overwhelming. Sometimes my question or problem is more involved and I'll submit a case online. Between email conversations or a phone call, the representatives I've worked with have always been super helpful, never condescending, and they often follow up days later to make sure everything is working well Incentivized
Most of our issues were self-inflicted and related to BB's work. We did not "staff up" correctly, our data to be converted was not in great shape and we set some unreasonable goals. With BBs help we were able to clean our data and prep it for conversion and we adjusted the goals to be more achievable with the timeline we were given. We found the BB staff to be responsive and focused, especially when working on-site with us.Incentivized
Blackbaud CRM is more robust and has better functionality. It is necessary for a bigger fundraising shop. Blackbaud Raiser's Edge and NXT worked well in smaller organizations with fewer users and fewer donors/prospects. RE was more affordable than CRM was for the smaller organization.Incentivized
Currently there are several prospect research software companies on the market, such as WealthEngine. In my opinion, Target Analytics with the ability of integration between Raiser's Edge and ResearchPoint creates a greater value for an organization.
Change is always expensive and painful, but CRM is worth the time and effort. One immediate benefit is improved transparency internally, especially for internal accounting, controls, and compliance departments.Cloud hosting helps cut cost and demand on organization staff. Improves access and meets compliance on every level.Ability to make global changes to recording donor phone communication makes it a one-stop resource for a well-run development team.Incentivized
Address Appends - we are saving tons of money on returned mail, NCOA updates, and ensuring donors are receiving timely correspondence.Data Appends - ensured that we know who we have in our database and how we need to reach each household. Not only through updating records of deceased constituents but knowing the correct email addresses and phones to reach out and share our mission.Prospect Research - allows us to learn more about potential donors, existing donors, and how to create increased donor-centric interactions and solicitations.