Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT vs. Convio Luminate (discontinued) vs. Virtuous CRM

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is great for a small organization that just needs to track their giving. It will house data and give you some output that can help inform strategy. However, if you really want the system to work for you, you desperately need someone who is tech savvy, detail oriented, and strategy minded. Almost nothing is set up for you at the beginning. You will need to build a lot of the reports, dashboards, and queries yourself. If you've used the system for a while, anything you build will eventually fail because of how often Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT changes things in the system. This system is great for organizations that are small and simple.

Incentivized

It does great with donor cultivation processes and the workflow feature is top-notch for automating processes. Where it does a less than stellar job is getting it to work more specifically for your organization. Often times building that kind of special feature costs a significant time and money investment and it is something that is hard to transfer when it's time to move to a new database.

Incentivized

I think it's great for organizations that simply need to manage their donor base in a user-friendly way. If you treat all of your donors the same and do not do much segmented communication, Virtuous is great for you! if you do need segmentation, they need to improve their email marketing software. Also, if you plan to use other tools, they really lack any kind of integration, which is not ideal.

Incentivized

• Inter-departmental communication
• Recordkeeping
• Data Analysis
• Fundraiser portfolios
• Customizable fields and tables
• User-friendly UI - requires minimal coding
• CRM database
• Gift batch entry tools are efficient
• Query allows for highly customizable reporting and tracking
• Canned reports with good customizability
• Flexible and customizable exporting tools
• Low Code
• Compatibility with FENXT
• Map tools in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Web View Lists allow for easy regional searches
• Several powerful tools for changing large numbers of records at once (Global add, global change, and import)
• Mailing list generation
• Duplicate management and data cleaning tools

Incentivized

• Luminate takes some of the legwork out of setting up NSPS for nonprofit use of salesforce.

Incentivized

• User-friendly CRM.
• Knowledgable support staff.
• Allows for email marketing on a mass level.

Incentivized

• There is so much missing functionality in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT (webview) compared to database view - whilst they repeatedly tell us to switch to webview we simply can't due to crucial functionality that is missing.
• In our experience, there are a lot of false promises made, particularly when renewing contracts etc, about what functionality is coming soon to webview - particularly regarding the optional modules such as Volunteering.
• An increased focus from Blackbaud and all their marketing about pushing third party vendors for certain activities (email marketing being a big one!) all of which come at an additional cost. Although these integrate into Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT, I would prefer Blackbaud to focus on making its own functionality up to standard rather than integrating costly 3rd party platforms.
• In my experience, Support for the platform has got worse over the years - I have been waiting over six months to resolve a technical issue which is hampering our use of the functionality.
• Inability to create letters within the system (which used to be a feature in RE7 database view) is a huge issue for our supporter base who still appreciate paper-based acknowledgement letters.

• Big Investment
• It's a sales program with a donation management overlay so it has some troubles around reporting.

Incentivized

• Does not currently have action based/click based email marketing automation capabilities.
• Lacks integration with any other tools we/our nonprofits are using.
• Expensive, even just for the support they charge hourly.

Incentivized

We have a lot invested in NXT and it suits our needs perfectly. There would be no reason for us to consider a needless conversion to a new solution. I do not believe there is any other product on the market that would be worth considering.

Incentivized

NXT seems easy to learn on a relatively deep level. There are glitches, like with everything, but it is usually easy to see where they are, most of time. I like that Development staff can choose what they want to see and where they want to see it, and it doesn’t affect my screen.

Incentivized

The only reason I cannot give a 10 is because like all web based products, internet connection is required and that is not something that can be counted on 100% of the time. When the internet connection is stable, I have had little to no issues using Raiser's Edge.

Incentivized

NXT itself is a pretty simple interface, and is great for front-line fundraisers to be able to look up info and run some simple "reports"/analysis. It's very quick and intuitive, but the back-end attached to it (RE 7.96) may have connectivity issues from time to time. NXT itself, though, is simple enough that issues are rare.

Incentivized

Overall I feel like I receive sufficient assistance when reaching out to Blackbaud's Support area. When my questions cannot be answered completely during an online chat I appreciate the ability to easily access the ongoing notes so everything is together. It can be frustrating at times, though, as emailing back and forth seems to make solutions take longer.

Incentivized

Support for the product is horrible; often support will have you bouncing between Blackbaud support and Salesforce support and it's very rare either are able to find simple solutions. Most of the time the solutions almost always cost money and hiring consultants which, for a smaller organization, means not being able to achieve proper solutions.

Incentivized

When you get a good, knowledgeable person for in-person training, you can't beat it! Hands on, real time, questions answered on the spot. And they want to make sure you get what you needed before leaving. To also have dedicated time without other distractions is very important to the learning process in my opinion.

Incentivized

The instructors were knowledgeable and provided the insight needed for both new users and more seasoned veterans to grow in their knowledge of the product and the features that Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT provides. The learning curve for this product is steep and training is essential. The training available definitely provides the necessary tools to build a foundation upon as well as further ones knowledge of the product.

Incentivized

Training is key. Blackbaud offered the training package prior to implementation and it helped us understand how to build it so that the future use would be appropriate to the operation of the organization. Data conversion stage was also very important. A lot of work must be done before making the final decisions about the data conversion - what data to convert and what to leave out, where certain information was supposed to be placed within RE.

Incentivized

I have not used other products like this before. I have used and created some SQL databases and ERPs, but have not used fundraising-specific software such as Raiser's Edge. Based on what I know from other products vaguely similar to this - databases and ERPs - this is very user friendly and easy to pick up for anyone, especially with their NXT webview offering.

Incentivized

Of the databases I have used, Luminate CRM is my least favorite. However, it is powerful and large enough to function adequately for a large nonprofit; I couldn't say the same for some of Blackbaud's smaller products. We definitely need the full Luminate Suite (Luminate Online, Team Raiser, etc.,) to make it work, though - and we're constantly disappointed by the clumsiness of the way all the pieces interact.

Incentivized

I think the way to look at a CRM is really based on what provides the easiest user experience for you and your team. These days, they all do basically the same thing. Nothing about Virtuous stands out as significantly unique compared to the others. So if you like it, use it... but the others are just as good and actually have better integrations and more capabilities.

Incentivized

Pricing really seems to be all over the place, and everything else you need is an extra add-on cost. The biggest issue is training. Options are limited unless you subscribe and pay for it across your contract.

Incentivized

New features are constantly being added to Raiser's Edge NXT that expand its capabilities. Features such as constituent mapping and easily accessible actions allow for more in-depth analysis of existing constituents. The future ability to manipulate soft-credits and customize reporting dashboards will make NXT even more attractive to our fundraisers and executives. It's great to see that the software is evolving.

Incentivized

• Having everything in one system means that information is much more likely to be up to date. We hardly get any returned mail from the post office when we pull lists.
• Our gift officers can easily pull up donor information on their phones while out on a visit, giving them the edge they need to close a gift.
• Information tiles on a person's record that are easy to reorganize and collapse per the needs of each user makes finding pertinent information quick.

Incentivized

• Uncertain; we have not collected data on this. Our Luminate package is quite expensive, though.

Incentivized

• Better donor management.
• Better predictive analytics on donors and giving numbers.
• Increases were seen in overall revenue since joining with Virtuous.

Incentivized