Raiser's Edge NXT is cloud fundraising and constituent relationship management software from Blackbaud.
N/A
Oracle CRM On Demand
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
The basis of this offering is the Market2Lead product that Oracle acquired in 2010. It has now been fully integrated with Oracle's On Demand CRM product and is a full-featured marketing automation product with features from lead management and nurturing, to measuring marketing ROI.
N/A
Salesforce Starter
Score 9.0 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Salesforce Starter (formerly Salesforce Essentials) is a small business CRM that replaces the former SalesforceIQ product. It is priced at $35 per user, on a monthly basis, or at $25 per month for if billed annually ($300) and can be tried free for 14 days on a trial.
We did not seriously consider another donor database as we were entering a pilot program with other non profits led by a nonprofit using Blackbaud products. It was viewed as easier to all be on similar products as we built out the program. However, as more affiliates have …
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.
I think it is well suited for organizations which are large with a lot of users so as to be able to minimize the cost of operations. Also, the organization which interacts mostly with customers can use Oracle CRM on demand.
If you own a business that has complex selling processes or requires integrations with 3rd party tools/systems, you should look at Professional, Enterprise, or Unlimited editions. Salesforce operates very well across pretty much every industry, but not all sales, marketing, and operational processes are created equal. If your marketing process requires a long list of sendable contacts then I would recommend adding on Pardot or Hubspot. Always start small and scale up, to avoid boxing yourself in down the road.
Several of our members were not familiar with various IT functions within CRM prior to working with it and so they were able to develop a working knowledge of IT pretty quickly afterwards.
It has a familiar feel to it as it allows users to work the data into a spreadsheet type layout with pivot tables and graphs and so it is quick to adopt.
Customization is great with a working knowledge of HTML, which isn't too hard to learn. You can really adapt CRM to any needs stylistically or content wise.
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.
The ability to schedule and push out reports is missing from this system. If we want to mass deliver a report on a schedule, we must run it, export it and email it out to the group, or purchase a 3rd party system.
The ability to trigger workflow events on a schedule is missing this system. Currently, there has to be a trigger initiated by a user and we have situations where we'd like to be able to schedule a work flow routine to go out and check from specific situations and then trigger an action. We'd also like to be able to trigger workflow actions on one object based on something in another object and this capability is very limited.
Table views can be sorted by column. Filters can be applied, but only to one column. Multi-column filtering like Excel allows would be extremely useful and a big improvement.
The ability to quick copy data in a table view would also be helpful, like (ctrl ') in excel.
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.
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.
Compared to other competitors I find it very easy to use and learn .It has been helpful in our organisation and we have been able to manage our projects and operations well without interference.
The system is very user-friendly on a desktop but lacks mobile friendliness. The Customer relationship manager disappears after the deal is signed. We struggled to get the system in a usable format, which was not cost-effective. The CRM system on desktop was great but way more complicated than it should be.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
MS Dynamics was easy to integrate to MS Power BI. This BI and reporting aspect is a clear strong point for Microsoft. MS solutions seem easier to integrate and learn, but this depends on the IT landscape and the complexity of integrations in a respective company.
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.
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.
This software can display in real-time when an order is submitted, received, fulfilled, and shipped out. We are able to know within the week of what new orders came in and how effective we are being from targeting specific regions of the nation.
