Raiser's Edge NXT is our chosen solution for tracking donor activity and outreach.
December 24, 2022
Raiser's Edge NXT is our chosen solution for tracking donor activity and outreach.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
I use Raiser's Edge NXT to track donors, prospects, events, etc. It allows us to flag constituents for follow-up and accurately records their gift history, personal notes, addresses, tributes for memorial gifts, event participation, etc. We use this functionality to pull reports on appeal and fund performance, as well as query lists of constituents for donor mailings.
- Track gifts.
- Tribute gifts.
- Email generation.
- The donation form designer is too templated. Little room for creativity and tweaking for more unique needs.
- Creation of records with online gifts. Constituent and tribute gift records are automatically created for any deviation of an existing record, so duplicate records are likely as people may donate or give tribute gifts with a nickname, middle, initial, etc.
- The functionality of NXT webview vs. database view. You can't do everything in either view. For example, gifts can be entered in webview but have to be edited in the database view. Webview is convenient for viewing simple donor information, but more complex functions must be done in the database view. It's a lot of back and forth and is challenging for a new user to grasp.
- Generating acknowledgment letters is more complicated and requires more steps without the ability to use the Word Merge Wizard. We personalize acknowledgment letters by appeal, so it requires separate exports for each appeal type in the given timeframe and then completing the merge in Microsoft Word. Previous versions of Raiser's Edge (not NXT) were more integrated.
- Knowledgebase articles are not reliably helpful. There is a definite learning curve, and unless you choose to have a continuous support option (for additional cost), customer support is lacking post-integration.
- Tracking gift history.
- Pulling reports on appeal and fund performance.
- Pulling queries of constituents to generate mailing lists.
- Been using Raiser's Edge products for more than two decades so it's difficult to articulate the impact as a result of NXT.
- Ease of online gifts for donors.
- Integrated email marketing options for additional donor contacts that aren't always solicitations, i.e., monthly birthday emails.
We have utilized the Address Finder and found that to be very helpful in keeping our records up-to-date before we get to the point of sending a bulk mailing. As previously mentioned, we primarily solicit through specific appeals and events, so analytics and data intelligence is under-utilized in our organization.
- Online Training
We previously used a hosted version of Blackbaud Raiser's Edge. The cloud-based NXT program provides greater accessibility, which is a helpful feature. The marketing (email/social options) and online donation options are definitely a step up and help to move us forward in a way that integrates directly with our database rather than handling email marketing and online gift processing through different platforms (as previously done). I often utilize the database view because there is greater functionality, and it is more familiar to what we previously used.
Do you think Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT delivers good value for the price?
Yes
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?
Yes
Did implementation of Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT again?
Yes