Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT vs. DonorPerfect

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is a great fundraising tool. It is visually pleasing and straightforward for the most part. Being able to open different aspects of the database in different tabs and have reports and exports running in the background is a great time-saver. Having information tiles that you can move and reorganize used on the user means that I don't have to scroll to the bottom of a record to find out a person's giving history. If I'm working on a specific data project involving actions, I can move that tile to the top and it will stay there for just me while I'm working. It doesn't affect any of my other users' settings. Being able to send out links to gift lists to members of my fundraising team is excellent. Clicking the link brings them to the batch info and they can zero in on their prospects in the database directly from those lists. Blackbaud's Email marketing is my least favorite part because there's missing functionality I wish it had, like exporting email statistics and viewing them in general. I understand that other partners which can integrate would take care of this, but still.

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I love that I can integrate with Donor Search to learn about a person's past giving history to learn more about their interests. DonorPerfect also lets us upload a photo of our donors so we can easily identify them when they visit us or Attend a function. I wish the photo upload offered a larger image and multiple images, some donors send me pics of their visits and pets and it would be great to also store those right in their DP account.

• Blackbaud RE NXT is extremely well organized and easy to use. The simple layout and straightforward functions make interacting with the product pleasant and easy.
• Blackbaud RE NXT's dashboards are amazing. They make reporting so easy because the dashboards convey all necessary information in an easy-to-read, unique format (depending on how you want it displayed). It is relatively easy to create a dashboard, and the options for customizing it are great.
• Blackbaud RE NXT is great for receiving and processing donations. From the simple donation forms to the automatic batch creation, using RE NXT makes processing donations much more efficient.

• DonorPerfect is extremely customizable in every possible way. I love that you can customize what you see when you view a donor's record and how you see it. Fields can be active or hidden, and arranged in any way you choose. In addition, you can create custom fields and parameters, which can be used to enter text freely, as a drop-down box, or as selections with check boxes. The other awesome thing about the options for customization is that you can add, remove, or change fields at ANY time. My organization has used DonorPerfect for over 10 years, but just a few days ago, I added a field to the main screen in our donor records that is now relevant and helpful to my colleague and me as we work together. I feel like the possibilities are limitless in making it DonorPerfect your specific needs.
• DonorPerfect reports are extremely versatile, and can literally be created to produce any data set imaginable. You can create, name, rename, save, and delete any reports in your profile. You can run very broad, lengthy reports, (which generate surprisingly quickly!), or very specific, detailed reports. You can create and save filters for quick use, or start from scratch each time you run a report.

• Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is constantly updating and making major changes, so you never fully understand the system
• The way some things are labeled in the system doesn't make logical sense. You almost have to learn a whole new language to get the most out of the features.
• There's no way to re-generate a copy of a receipt, which is wildly inconvenient.
• A lot of features are very limited based on your subscription. They give you a wide range of features but almost none of them work to their full potential. Even if you're paying a lot of money for the system, you will still likely feel like you're doing a free trial.

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• It could provide some of the standard reports fundraisers need as canned reports
• It could provide optional salutations so you could mail to only one person - not both
• It could enable us to set up monthly giving categories without using their donation program

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I don't know for sure what we'll do, and I wouldn't publicly share that anyways. Speaking only for myself, I wouldn't jump for joy if I was given the task of transferring CRM providers when this org has a Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT database that's 28 years old, but being aware of what's on the market is always responsible. With the planned functionality updates to Web View over 2025-2026, the phasing out of features in database view, and the changes to contract structure laid out in investor updates, there's a lot of factors that could change in the next few years. And Blackbaud has not made it clear how much work the transfer to Web View only will be for us over the next couple years: It means updating all of our policies and procedures and all of our documentation and retraining all of our employees at minimum, and that's assuming that all existing fields and features remain accessible without modification.

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It is by far the most cost-effective

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Learning the overall useability of Blackbaud Raiser's Edge is a fairly steep learning curve, however, the support team that Blackbaud Raiser's Edge employs are top notch, helpful and very knowledgeable. Blackbaud Raiser's Edge also maintains an extensive library of articles that are very helpful, as well a useful tutorials, including step-by-step articles as well as instructional videos. With these tools at your disposal you will be competent in no time

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Poor cash batch interface. Almost half of our receipts are generated by cash and this interface does not support our needs very well.

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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.

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It's always up when we need it. There are some errors that happen and are not reproducible and cannot be resolved. But [they are] very few and none that cause disruption for the organization.

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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.

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DonorPerfect is as reliable as your internet connection. It is a cloud based application and therefore you cannot pinpoint where the bottleneck is should you have one. But for the most part the app runs quickly.

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You are better off using the user community or Facebook group to get answers than the support provided by Blackbaud. Oftentimes, support reps are not even aware that new features are being rolled out, nor do they have fundraising experience so you end up explaining more to the rep about what you are trying to accomplish and why than getting to the issue.

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Support is so easy. We use chat most often - as we can get someone quickly. The support folks know the product and get answers quickly. If they need to escalate an issue, they do so quickly. The training is great and easily accessible. You can take classes over and over until you completely understand concepts

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.

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I was able to utilize the support team to train me in areas where I could not figure out how to use the application.

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The content is solid, but for those who benefit from in-person interactions, it can be a bit challenging. While the online format is great for flexibility and accessibility, there’s something about face-to-face training that makes it easier to absorb and ask questions in real-time. Overall, though, it’s a solid resource for self-paced learning.

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It was decent.

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I can't recall many specifics, mostly due to my own limited use of the entire NXT range of functions. One thing that I dislike is that when previous "Contact Reports" (Talisma term) were imported the dates were all converted to show as the date that they were imported into NXT, rather than the original dates they were entered into the old CRM. During the implementation, similarly, a few batches of Actions were re-dated to show the date of the batch transfer or update (not from the old system, I believe).

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DonorPerfect provides an extremely easy to use importing tool and the support team was awesome. You don't have to do it in house; for a reasonable fee you can get it done by them.

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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.

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I have only ever used DonorPerfect, but I have looked into two or three other options over time. I apologize that I cannot recall all their names at this time. What I found was that even though they typically brought more to the table at that time, the cost jump was huge and I couldn't justify the ROI to myself. But DonorPerfect has continued to add to what they offer and I was glad I never changed platforms.

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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.

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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.

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[There have been] only two outages since we have started using it and they were extremely information proactive. This should scale easily based on your internet connection.

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• 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.

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• Positive - using a standard Donor management system across a wide geographic area has reduced our infrastructure costs and training requirements
• Negative - We are not realizing the full potential of our donors because we are missing opportunities for engagement, and missing connections and opportunities because DonorPerfect's limitations.
• Negative - Limited/poorly implemented API has significantly increased our development costs as we struggle to implement DonorPerfect data with other internal systems.

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