Item: Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Rating: 5
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use NXT as our CRM and marketing platform. We use the database for a wide array of things including: creating mailing lists, managing user contact information, prospect research, fiscal reporting, communications emails, and gift tracking. Personally, I touch on most of these myself since I am the data manager for the platform. Users come to me when something isn't working or they don't know how to do something.

Pros and Cons

They continue to improve the platform
Customer support is responsive
Online processing is a fairly smooth process

Reporting tools are not flexible enough to cover our needs
The import/update tools do not cover all data points (e.g. fund relationships)
If there isn't a way to do something in RE, you're forced to come up with your own solution - support does not help in this regard

Most Important Features

Gift tracking and processing
Constituent profiles/data tracking
Mailing platform

Return on Investment

This have saved us an unquantifiable amount of time (sorry, we haven't tracked how RE has impacted us in a quantifiable way)
RE has not impacted our donor count or total funds raised

Data Intelligence

I do not personally use the prospect and wealth research tools but our Advancement Strategy Director does and finds them to be more complete and accurate than our old ones. We currently use Research Point and Blackbaud wealth ratings to research constituent wealth. RE has made it viable for us to update these figures annually.

Training Types Used

Online Training

Online Training

They cover the basics very well but anything niche or custom to us needed to be figured out on our own. For example, some reports are just impossible to do with Raiser's Edge so I had to create them outside of RE using Microsoft Access or Power BI. At first it was a headache but once I learned how the data is stored, I was able to do these on my own outside of RE.

Alternatives Considered

Jenzabar Internet Campus Solution (JICS) and discontinued

We switched from Jenzabar which was a huge pain point for us. Our IT department had to write our reports but they did not have the capacity to manage everything by themselves. Jenzabar was able to store our data but retrieving it was a huge challenge even for someone with a tech background.

Key Insights

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?

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

Yes

Would you buy Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Access, Raiser's Edge

Likelihood to Recommend

It really depends on what the colleague is trying to do. While RE does not 100% cover what we need to do, it really does cover the basics. I would also not recommend this to a small business or non-profit as the contracts offered seem to be very expensive. RE greatly helps us with the stewardship of our constituents.

Great CRM but not 100% there yet

Overall Satisfaction with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT