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What's next with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT?
July 29, 2022

What's next with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT?

Tom A. Taylor, II | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • Prospect Insights
  • Luminate Online

Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT

Family & Children's Services has used Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT for the past five years, and we have six users in the system. The system is easy to use and holds our organization's 25,000 donor records and historical information well. My team has had challenges getting extra event or auction software to import into the NXT system. Still, we have recently found a great plug-in tool to accommodate that functionality. We are looking to add another module that would help streamline our use of the system and to cancel Luminate Online altogether as well as the training package. Contract negations have been painful, to say the least, and not customer-friendly at all. It is disappointing since we are in the business of stewards donors and those relationships, but our CRM tool doesn't do the same with us.
  • Easy to use and update
  • Easy to pull specific donor lists for targeted donor communications
  • Easy to schedule follow up and future tasks within the system
  • Contract negotiations
  • Contract renewals
  • Imports and exports for certain plug-in features that development staff use
  • Specific trainings - need to be offered in less than 3 hours and with a menu selection
  • Data input and historical information
  • Reports of donations, and trending year over year as well as different campaigns
  • Pulling certain donor information into appeal mailing lists
  • The ROI is good, but I attribute the increased total funds raised and increased total donors as a direct impact to the stewardship and asks of my team. NXT is the tool that stores the info for us to use to do that.
Again, I will describe how the analytics and data intelligence provided by Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT has impacted my team and my fundraising processes. I credit our donor knowledge in our region and our different messaging. The analytics helps us with certain ask amounts, but most of the information is sought by me and my team and input for future information.
  • Online Training
It is very comprehensive - almost too much. It would be better for learning and be more digestible if it wasn't in 3-hour segments. 1-hour sessions would be more helpful, and multiple offerings at different times/days to accommodate busy development teams' schedules. Going back and looking up certain items from training is easy and easy to find. It takes a good year in the development cycle for any new user to learn effectively the functionality and uses of the system. The trainers are helpful and responsive.
I have been in only two other non-profit organizations since my current place of employment. The first system we bought under my decision was Blackbaud eTapestry before it was part of Blackbaud. That purchase was made in 2007 and was still in use when I moved to a larger non-profit in 2011. Blackbaud eTapestry was picked because that organization didn't have a donor CRM before I got there, and it was done in excel. I moved to a larger organization, and it already had DonorPerfect. I was able to view and input, but I had on my team a donor database person. That system was easy to use, easy to pull reports from, and easy to update. Contract negotiations were easy to do or renew every 3 to 5 years as well! We selected Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXTT along with Luminate Online (LO) because of the functionalities promised by the sale team and upcoming features (5 years ago) of the system integrating better together and with one another. I am in contract renewals now, and we are cancelling LO and trying to negotiate the functionalities that we use, want and need with NXT.

Do you think Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT's feature set?

Yes

Did Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT live up to sales and marketing promises?

No

Did implementation of Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT again?

Yes

Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge NXT is a premium system for most uses in the donor world. Training could be more specific to be helpful, and imports and exports of certain data ports can be challenging. The day-to-day functionality is great, but what pains me and hence a rating of five is how they treat us as their customer during contract negotiations. It is as if they know their donor system is good, but at this point, I'd look around to find another CRM that is more customer-focused, and I'd switch.