Raiser's Edge NXT is cloud fundraising and constituent relationship management software from Blackbaud.
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Blackbaud Luminate Online
Score 5.7 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Luminate Online aims to help non-profits engage more effectively with supporters and raise more money by enabling integrated campaigns for digital, social and mobile channels. According to the vendor, Luminate Online helps non-profits: Better understand online supporters Make the right ask at the right time Launch creative fundraising campaigns Automated campaigns stimulate engagement and action through targeted welcome messages with personalized…
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Pricing
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Blackbaud Luminate Online
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Blackbaud Luminate Online
Free Trial
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
Required
Required
Additional Details
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Luminate Online is priced based on the number of email addresses on file, modules used and service plan. Our peer to peer offering, TeamRaiser, has a transactional, shared success pricing model.
We have recently evaluated Salesforce for Non-Profits. We have other departments that need to track vendors, actions, give access to consultants, run analysis, and possibly provide email marketing. At this time NXT does not provide all that Salesforce can. We understand that …
I recently started a new position that uses Raiser's Edge 7, as opposed to my previous position that had NXT. I miss a lot of the functionality of NXT, particularly the Analytics. Of the other Blackbaud products I've used (Luminate, NetCommunity), I think NXT is the most …
Verified User
Employee
Chose Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
My first choice would be Blackbaud RE7 over NXT. I believe firmly that the regular database is still much more capable in terms of data capturing and management. However, from a data visualization standpoint, NXT takes the win. I also believe that Luminate Online still holds a …
There just is no system as robust and capable as Raiser's Edge NXT. It's ability to track anything you'd like, give you space to create custom fields (attributes) and utilize fields in different ways than intended give it the extra advatage that we hadn't seen in other …
RE NXT is harder to use to than NeonOne - but NeonOne lacks a lot of functionality and is not appropriate for higher education or more sophisticated nonprofits. RE NXT is easier to use than Luminate. Its Marketing module is not nearly as sophisticated as Luminate but that's OK …
NXT is better than DonorPerfect, but it has also been about 15 years since I last used DonorPerfect so I don't know if it's a fair comparison. I had only limited use of NetCommunity, but I do remember they had a tab that did track the emails we sent to donors on each of their …
I joined the team in 2016 when we transfered to BB. NXT was not an option back than, and when we added it to our suite of BB products it made life a lot easier. I will say that people did say that BB is a lot better than Allegiance.
I have been a Raiser's Edge user since 2008 and a NXT user since Sept. 2020. NXT's added web view is great (though limited) for fundraisers. However my team (who processes all monetary donations and all donation-related financial reports & analytics), still primarily uses …
Raiser's Edge NXT is a much better product than the standard RE that we had in the past. The function of RE7 was very bulky, cumbersome to operate, didn't have an ease of use, and overall was something I didn't look forward to using. Raiser's Edge NXT looks better, works, …
It has been great to move to Raiser's Edge. I've worked with several systems over the years and Blackbaud's products have always turned out to be the best in the nonprofit world. Raiser's Edge was built for nonprofits -- not a business-based CRM shoe-horned for a nonprofit. …
Because I did not work at Catholic Social Services at the time Raiser's Edge was purchased, I was not involved in the evaluation process. My previous experience with membership/fundraising databases were with Membership Pro and BasicFunder. Raiser's Edge NXT is considerably …
eTapestry and Little Green Light are both very flexible and customizable, but neither is as robust as RE in terms of reporting, setting performance metrics, integrating with a Finance department, or creating a moves management system. CRM is quite extensive, good for the very …
Our organization does use Wealth Engine. I know that Blackbaud offers something similar that does Wealth Screening. In addition our organization uses a third party credit card and check processor for Sustaining and credit card gifts.
It is a great add on feature to Blackbauds Raiser's Edge NXT. Raiser's Edge NXT does have the capability to create donation pages however it does not have the capability to do receipting which is why I prefer Blackbaud Luminate Online capability for this.
Verified User
Contributor
Chose Blackbaud Luminate Online
We have used Artez/Frontstream for donation pages and peer to peer but it doesn't seem to offer the flexibility and donor experience as well as Luminate Online does. Emailing is limited and user experience for peer to peer is basic. Not as much support or interest in helping to …
We've just begun evaluating other programs to see if there is an equivalent to Luminate. We are particularly interested in email management and have looked at Constant Contact, MailChimp, and other similar services. While we like the data management options that these products …
I've looked at Give2Together and Salsa. The reality is that I have been using Luminate for over a decade and I really like the platform. I wouldn't consider using a different program.
Imodules is probably the other company I have used to do similar work, but because of the nature of the current institution I am in, it did not seem to be a good fit and Lumniate was.
Moved from Sphere to Luminate On-line at the recommendation of Blackbaud. Suggested as a better solution to the issue of duplicate records being created by the on-line giving process. We have found that Luminate Online comes with it's own set of problems around records with the …
When it comes to meeting all of the needs for a non-profit to effectively fundraise – email, web, merchant services, advocacy, eCommerce, CRM – the Blackbaud ecosystem is the only one that can do everything in one place, and do so reasonably well. A stronger solution may be to …
I think this product is well-suited for educational institutions, both at the private high school level and the higher education level. It covers a lot of ground in terms of recording information, and you have a lot of ability to tailor the software to your needs. I think there's some room for growth in terms of recording DEI information. Organizations who have very small staff may not want to consider this product because they might not have the time to take advantage of all the capabilities NXT has.
Blackbaud Luminate Online is an excellent solution for online giving, providing a wealth of tools for producing donation forms. It also is outstanding for peer-to-peer fundraising, such as event-based efforts like walks, cycling tours, and so forth. The Email module is outstanding if you need an internal solution for communicating with your donors and supporters. It provides a wealth of tools for crafting emails, and for reporting on the results.
Tracks history of gifts and makes it easy to see giving over time, also good at organizing and accessing complete constituent information around contact information, displaying gifts with date and designations, restrictions etc..
NXT provides easy access to analytics and reports to share for specific dates etc. to support decision making and planning
Display format and organization of analytical information is very intuitive and easy to navigate and helpful in developing reports for presentations.
Reporting needs some work, this is being worked on in their new BETA program.
The eCommerce module needs some work. It would be great to have more ability to customize parts of it without having to rewrite the code.
The Events module could use some improvements as well.
The Personal Fundraising module needs a lot of work. It really cannot work as needed right now. We started using TeamRaiser to handle this, but it could be great.
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.
We’ve decided to leave Luminate and are moving to a system that better caters to our and our users needs. Luminate has proven difficult to use and has limited abilities when it comes to data management, events, and peer-to-peer functionality. Reporting is also very complicated and requires a great deal of time to utilize properly.
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.
You have to be very tech savvy to use Luminate to its fullest potential. You can get buy with the training, but there is a steep learning curve and you almost need 6 months to 1 year of in-person training to really be able to anything substantial. The online training lessons are not going to cut it while learning this program.
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.
It's a very rare occurrence if the system isn't available when I want it. I can easily log in from home after hours if need be, and the security is enforced, but simple when you're legit! They are very good about sending email reminders and updates when system maintenance will be performed, and it's always during middle of the night hours when you likely wouldn't be using it anyways
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.
Pages load fast and 98% of the reports do run in a matter of secons/minutes. There is this one report I have that can take hours to run, but this is due to the amount of transactions being requested for one of our biggest online fundraising events (Transaction report)
The support hat Blackbaud can be iffy at times. When they are busy they must hire on a large temporary worker pool to help support and often times they are not capable of answering the right questions and delaying the process for your solution to be complete. When it is not the busy time, most things get answered in a normal rate.
Support staff are usually incredibly helpful and responsive. There are several ways to contact them (chat, logging a ticket, phone) which makes it easy to get help when you need it. Once in a while I get a support staff member who isn't quite as helpful, which is why I gave it a 9 instead of a 10, but that is rare and if I follow up with someone else, I get what I need.
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.
Initial training was great and the instructor was very patient and helpful during the set up process. Blackbaud has a variety on online self-paced classes that supplement the training you receive. The only downfall is after training is complete. I've found the support for Luminate to be a tad lackluster. We often encounter issues that aren't on Luminate's development road map and have had a series of cases be opened.
For the most part, the instructors who teach the online courses are very knowledgeable and personable. I will say that the instructor-led classes, which are the only actually helpful form of online training offered by Blackbaud, are likely prohibitively expensive for many, especially if you have multiple team members who need to be trained. One-off classes do not necessarily provide the best return on investment as you may not have selected the best class for the training that you're looking for, or you may sign up for a class that is taught by a poor instructor (which is rare) and you'll find yourself needing or wanting to take it again. The only other option is to sign a multi-year contract which is, again, expensive, and may be more than you need. There are definite gaps in some of the course offerings as Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is relatively new. Most of the classes also require a time commitment of one and a half to three hours, which could be more than your staff can spare.
When I used the training, I had actually been using Luminate Online but figured it might help me learn to use the tools more effectively. And it did. The sessions were helpful and even as a current user I felt like I learned how to use the tools more effectively.
Blackbaud was with us every step of the way during the migration of our data to the newer version of the software. They made it as easy as possible, and the huge task that it was was made much easier with their help.
Implementation of Luminate itself was rather smooth, but the process involved for TeamRaiser was very difficult. Even after implementation we relied on support to help with various aspects of TeamRaiser from page design to reporting and front end user issues. The support offered for issues with Luminate was very good, but again TeamRaiser support was lacking.
There just is no system as robust and capable as Raiser's Edge NXT. It's ability to track anything you'd like, give you space to create custom fields (attributes) and utilize fields in different ways than intended give it the extra advatage that we hadn't seen in other products. It's got a vast network of plug ins that help automation features as well.
The only other product I have used for this type of fundraising work is NetCommunity and it hasn't been as scalable or versatile. It doesn't really offer the peer to peer fundraising of Luminate or the constituent management, web page development and considered donation forms. NetCommunity didn't even come close which is why we replaced it with Luminate.
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.
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.
Luminate Online is a great scalable product as it provides various price points dependent on your quantity of email addresses. This allows both small and large organizations to utilize the product, which has strong email capabilities. It also means smaller organizations aren't forced to pay astronomical fees in order to have access to a quality product.
We've increased our online giving +200% although this is due in part to our focus on the channel and not entirely on the product.
We've been able to increase employee efficiency by selecting email lists per message within Luminate Online. With our prior solution we needed to request data be pulled from our database for event email.
We've really done a great job of growing our online tribute and memorial giving through the use of custom links and the pre-populated information has really helped with the back end processing.