Raiser's Edge

Flexibility to add attributes and expand tables to track what is most meaningful to our organization.

Industry standard so recruiting new people to the organization and getting them trained on the system is easier.

Queries and exports allowing you to drill down to the information you are looking for.

Event module seems to be a system/process hog and slows down our computers in the middle of gala season.

There is so much functionality/flexibility built in sometimes it is overwhelming to new users to find what they are looking for - so some easy shortcuts would be helpful.

There are problems with the Microsoft Office interface which tends to crash the software.

Recurring monthly payment processing and tracking.

Tracking of different gift type sources, payment type sources and different campaigns.

Great dashboard for reports and action reminders.

Ability to create your own crystal report as required with the information you need.

Need to understand Raiser's Edge and have training in order to be able to use it.

Have to really understand queries and get the query right or you get the wrong information.

Each module is separate and costs extra - events, tribute, etc.

Robust data capabilities to track donors and their gifts.

The dashboard feature allows our Director of Development and Grants Manager a quick at a glance look of their goals. These can also be printed out for Board of Director meetings, our CEO, etc.

Easy to use data entry.

When running queries and exporting, the data requires manual cleaning before it is usable. There are always duplicates. Part of the issue is from too many hands in the pot and mismanagement of the database, but the database itself produces part of the problems.

Raiser's Edge is really smart, you just have to know how to tell it to run what you want. It requires a lot of trial and error. The online database is helpful, but you have to sort through several how to sheets before you find one that is closest to what you are looking for.

On thing that is particularly frustrating is that when you want to streamline more of your processes, it usually requires another module or feature resulting in an additional expense.

Prospect tracking for Major Gift Officers

Gift and membership recording

Reporting on giving for all sub-departments in Advancement Services and Development.

The Prospect tab could use some updates and easier export abilities

I would love to see the ability to merge memberships

I would LOVE to see the "Editable" checkbox for addressees/salutations go away

Better reporting/exporting of split gifts would be huge

Raiser's Edge can do everything relating to donor records and is customizable to specific needs.

Raiser's Edge and the parent company Blackbaud offer many resources to connect with them and other users to solve problems. If you want RE to do something and don't know how, you can reach out to the community or support and get quick answers and new solution ideas.

Raiser's Edge has many other solution options for online giving that it can connect to, offering an integrated way to stay in touch with donors.

Data clean up can be very cumbersome and require outside help. It's a huge positive that RE can hold so much information, but at the same time it can be difficult to extract that information without a deep understanding of the system.

Training can be very expensive and I think that more classes (webinars) should be offered for free.

They are constantly calling with upsells, and we often have a different contact for every upsell. They email then keep calling until you respond. I wouldn't mind an email now and then with offerings, but I am busy and don't want to have to keep saying no all the time.

Customer support

Product development

Comprehensive product

Option module querying and exporting

Multiple ways to provide detailed accounts of donor's giving history and membership, as well as special attributes and interactions they have with the museum.

Robust events record keeping.

Powerful export results - input and output criteria are not limited by "foundational" categories (such as donor, donation, event) as in some less agile databases.

Clean exports - we get massive lists and reports that require substantial cleaning before the data is reliable. This is issue stems in part from previous mismanagement of The Raisers Edge, but the database itself doesn't have any straightforward solutions at this time.

Substantial data cleanup typically requires outside consultation for a constituency of our size (500,000+ records).

Stores Gift information

Stores, tracks and manages action steps

Runs reports to separate gifts by different strategies, and efforts.

The user-ability of the system, in terms of where you can log in, mobile ability, etc.

Easy to use.

When entering new constituent records it asks you to verify it isn't a duplicate record before saving. This is helpful with making sure you don't have duplicate records for constituents.

Easy to enter donations.

Online instructions on the easiest, best way to run queries, export data, import data.

Offer more Chicago Raiser's Edge training classes.

Either Include NCOA Address Verify plug in tool as a bundle package for new Raiser's Edge Customers or offer it to existing customers at a discounted rate.

So I am not the database manger but I believe that Raiser's Edge allows for an excellent query. I utilize the query function for simple queries and find it very useful and I have the database manger perform the more in-depth queries.

It also allows a user to put in very detailed information about each of the constituents and that allows all individuals in the development department to understand how we are interacting with our donors.

I am just beginning to use the Action function and I am finding it very useful to track actions with individuals.

I would like to be able to use Action Track and at this point I am waiting for someone to assist me in setting it up. It is not very user friendly but I think it could be very helpful in the long run.

One of the frustrating things about RE and Blackbaud in general and when you want to add some functionality it generally requires another module and that is an additional expense. That is incredibly frustrating for a nonprofit.

We have a Roots and Wings Society that consists of individuals that give $1,000 a year or more. I would love to have the system be able to add the cash gifts throughout the year in order to be able to track the Society better.

Duplicates in query are always a problem.

As a relational database, the Raiser's Edge is able to store a wealth of data, as well as linking the data when appropriate.

By providing centrally-located data storage for supporter information, the Raiser's Edge is essential in executing a successful fundraising program.

By utilizing queries and exports, and maintaining table consistency, it's possible to monitor the health of the database, and take necessary steps to maintain and strengthen the data integrity.

Customer Service is generally very knowledgeable and willing to work with you to find problem resolutions.

Importing data into the Raiser's Edge can be daunting. With experience, it does get easier, and I understand that Blackbaud's partner, Import-O-Matic, can be quite useful in overcoming some of the challenges with the import process.

While a great many of the field names and configuration can be customized by the end user, there is still work to be done to add or increase this functionality in other areas.

Some functionality in the Raiser's Edge has not kept up with the world at large. For example, the configuration of address/email/phone linking needs to be revisited and updated.

I believe that RE's queries are excellent. Your information if very to easy to access and recall. If the data exist in a field in RE then you are able to extract the data. Once you run query, you actually have the option to double click on a record from your results and drill down into the actually record!

RE has a tool that's called "Default Sets". This allows you to basically build templates for certain types of records. For example, if you have to input 20 fields to create a new constituent record and 10 of those fields are the same for everyone, you can create defaults to auto populate those fields.

RE's integration with NetCommunity really simplifies online donations. For instance, if you receive 100 donations through your website, rather than have to create 100 individual gift records, RE will enable you to the pull the 100 donations into a batch and process the gifts in minutes.

It would be nice to see RE put additional emphasis on Community Foundations. The software is written primary for an organization to manage and facilitate their direct contacts and gifts made to them, or said differently, a one-to-many relationship. We would like to see more options to facilitate a one-to-many-to-many relationships. For example, Community Foundation (one) supports numerous non-profit organizations (many) and the donors who contribute to those organizations (many), rather than the Community Foundation simply administering gifts made to itself.

We would like to see RE have the ability to "link" their Action Records (todo's) directly to Gifts or Funds rather than just constituents.

Fund Records are not as tightly linked to constituent records via queries as we would like to see them.

Flexibility in creating campaigns, funds, appeals and the ease of tracking progress. Canned reports are good, but very basic. For more detailed reports you can create one in Crystal Reports and include it in RE as a custom report that anyone can access.

Well designed and user friendly. It is scalable in design and customizable/versatile.

Security options that help to define groups and users with rights to view, add, edit and delete information.

Ability to query and export almost anything in the database.

Media tab - you can add information, but once the data is there you have limited ability on what and how it is exported.

Canned reports are very basic. You need to have Crystal Reports expertise to be able to do more extensive reporting.

Dashboards are nice, but you can only pull data for a year, a month, last month, etc. but not for specific dates.

Hold time for support can sometimes be long. Nevertheless, support is always available.

The answer to this question depends largely on what system(s) preceded Blackbaud in your organization. If you're coming from a home-grown spreadsheet or file-based database (MS Access, for example) system, then the features of RE (the volume of data available, the canned reports, and other basic features) will seem heaven-sent. But if you're a large organization, or one with an experienced staff, then the overall complexity and deficiencies of the Blackbaud suite quickly become apparent.

Something is better than nothing, so if your previous system was built by a staff member's brother-in-law who has since moved to Poughkeepsie, then RE is fantastic. As with all complex systems, a lot of the future success of the tool depends on implementation so the better the data going in, the better your use of the tool. Something is usually better than nothing and RE is something.

Blackbaud's Knowledgebase https://www.blackbaud.com/support/support.aspx has come a long way in the last few years. Their first level support is often lacking but second-level support is generally very good.

While it's a double-edged sword, RE is flexible... to a fault, but with power comes responsibly. If your organization has the discipline to use the tool consistently, it can be very powerful/

As Blackbaud (the organization, not the product) has grown, they've developed pockets in their corporate culture. Some pockets do quite well. Others, not so much. In particular, the design, development, and deployment of new features is often haphazard. For example, they announced what I felt was a major change in the implementation of the Forgotten Password feature. This announcement was buried in the middle of a PowerPoint presentation about the release. It was one bullet point but resulted in major rework of customer-facing documentation and communication on our part.

As the organization uses more of the Blackbaud suite of products, and as you use a greater percent of the feature set of any one product, more deficiencies become apparent. For example, the integration between Education Edge (EE) and Raiser's Edge (RE) is great and works. Except when it doesn't. And the research to discover that, for example, and address isn't the same in both systems, and the steps to correct, are cumbersome to say the least. Features that you would expect to be common to both applications (like the ability to paste a list of IDs in to a query window) are not the same in both applications (RE permits the paste, EE does not).

The major area for improvement, in the products and the organization, in my opinion is a need for a simpler, well-defined overall strategy. They've tried to be too many things to too many people and the result is an overall weaker product line. Several examples come to mind, including limited ability to select which fields are integrated between the two systems (it's "Addresses & Phone" period. All or none. But I have some phone fields that I need only in EE and not at all in RE, but there is no ability to select at this level of granularity). Another result of the complexity of the program is the "sometimes" responses we get from Support. I open a case describing a situation and the response is along the lines of "well, that happens sometimes." No further explanation, which leads me to believe that there is no real understanding.... they've gotten so complex they don't know what's going on. The most egregious result of this complexity is that data cannot be safely deleted from the database. In the BBNC product, for example, even if you follow all of the procedures to delete an email list you no longer need, sometimes it cannot be delete. What does the Knowledbase say? "In some cases, due to the reporting structure of Blackbaud NetCommunity, even after deleting associated messages a list can not be deleted. " Period. Paragraph. End of report. The most common response I get from Support, so common that it has become a running joke in my organization, amounts to "We understand what you're saying. You need to want something else."

The Raiser's Edge does a nice job of organizing a lot of information into a constituent's record in a way that is, for the most part, easy to find.

The Raiser's Edge does a great job of allowing you to store a lot of detailed information.

The Raiser's Edge does a nice job of creating dashboards and reports to allow you to look at information quickly and repeatedly.

Raiser's Edge could use improvement in organizing where particular information is stored. Often times it is difficult to pull a specific piece of data or information in a query or export because it is impossible to find which category or field the information is located.

Raiser's Edge could definitely use improvement in their reporting module. The reports are not easy to create or edit to your own specifications and make it difficult to use without taking a course on reporting.

Raiser's Edge does not have an enough options to edit the basic record to our organization's needs. Every organization is looking to store different information, and instead of working to customize our records, we have to find ways to store this information in a generic system meant for everyone. It is definitely not easy or intuitive and does not make it easy for new users to find information once joining our organization as this information is hidden in wherever place the last person in this position could find to store it.

Customized Reports

Donor History

Stewardship letters

Doesnt communicate with other systems

Limited amount of users at same time

System glitches

The integration with the financial software is my favorite aspect of Raiser's Edge. It makes reconciliation easy.

Raiser's Edge exports very easily and this helps transfer information and use it to multiple functions.

Queries are easy to create with Raiser's Edge and saves time since you do not have to get tech support every time you need to create a query.

I don't like uploading gifts in batches. I think this unnecessarily complicates things.

It is difficult to get help when you need it. I can't just find training modules.

Its not always easy to navigate to/find the maintenance areas you need. Such as defaults and appeals, etc.

RE is great for managing donor records.

There is a field for all types of information and helps provide a quick reference for giving histories for both organizations and individuals.

Gift detail is easily exported, and their canned reports are user friendly.

I've heard great reviews on their Crystal Reports, but I've always found them really difficult to work with. I think they're too technicality and not very user friendly.

Raiser's Edge is great for keeping a history of donor giving. IN the non-profit world, employee turnover is high so it is important that the history is there for generations to come.

Raiser's Edge is very helpful for donor contact information. Every time a donor sends a new address, phone number, email, we are able to update and track that so it is easy to get a hold of someone. This also goes along with their company titles and locations.

Raiser's Edge is very helpful to me with mailing lists for campaigns or events. It removes duplicates and cleans up salutaitons and addresses to make things easier on the employee.

When pulling a report it can sometimes be difficult to make sure all parenthesis and query fields are correct. One small mistake can screw up a whole mailing list and if you don't catch it, it can cause the loss of names or donors that you want to reach.

One problem my organization has is when one contact person is the contact for many events. They are added under relationship but we are only able to insert one form of contact.

Prospect Tracking

Events module

Corporate, Foundation, and Government funders information

Better search engine

Easier interface

Faster speed

I like how you can link constituents to organizations.

If you're adding similar constituents (i.e. council members, aldermen) with similar titles, the program continues to ask if you are asking a duplicate and does not learn or provide an option to ignore the box that pops up. This ends up taking a lot of time to go through and click every single possible duplicate.

RE was made for fundraising. This is the focus it has so it is set up to anticipate all of the various ways that fundraisers and administration will need to access and manipulate the data.

RE has created modules that allow the organization to pick and choose what elements it will require. The modules work well and are planned appropriately.

RE will hold all types of data and is easy to pull the data out.

Because it so popular, there are a number of products that work well with RE in terms of integration.

RE is complex so it is difficult to manage for a small shop.

RE will require a bit of training to bring users up to speed in fully using the management tools it provides.

Imports are very difficult to do. They almost require a dedicated RE manager to oversee.

RE is expensive. Small shops should not buy a Mercedes if they can do everything they need with a Prius.

Track donations on a year to date basis, but also tailor messaging and letter campaigns based on level of giving

Overall database management is excellent, a one-stop shop!

Integrating various users within our organizations on same platform

Online chat would be a great addition. Often, I needed a quick answer and ended up waiting quite awhile for response back

Mail merge was sometimes cumbersome and difficult to navigate...perhaps a better "Help" guide?

Keep track of personal information as a member database

Various sorting / search features

Ability to note different categories of memberships - from Highest to Lowest donors

A bit challenging to learn - not intuitive at first glance

Sometimes slow

Easy data entry.

Easy reporting.

Great contact management.

Beautify the interface.