Item: Raiser's Edge
Rating: 9
Author: Linda Behrman

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Raisers Edge is being used by the whole organization. Employees access the program to enter communications with donors and potential donors. All of the organization’s constituents data and donor history is stored in the program and accessed by employees at their remote locations. Having a centralized location for the data that our national and international staff can review has made communications much easier to track.

Pros and Cons

Storage of data for all constituents with access for remote employees.
Communications with constituents via letters, emails, etc.
Reporting on data in the database to provide necessary reports for administration.

Graphics (images) within online express emails
Character limits on gift attributes
Integration with gmail for emails sent to automatically appear as actions in Raisers Edge.

Return on Investment

Allowing employees around the world to access the program has really helped with constituent tracking.
Email communications with constituents allows our organization to stay in contact with those interested and to keep them informed of our project activities.
Online donation forms and integration with Raisers Edge has increased our online income substantially.

Alternatives Considered

Blackbaud NetCommunity, Blackbaud Online Express and Blackbaud Sphere (Discontinued)

We have used several of Blackbaud’s products and have found Raiser’s Edge NXT to ultimately be the best option for our organization. Upgrading to Blackbaud’s raisers Edge from our previous constituent management database was a huge improvement for our entire organization and offered much more advancement opportunities for our staff.

Key Insights

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

Did implementation of Raiser's Edge go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Raiser's Edge again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Blackbaud Online Express, Adobe Acrobat DC, Shared Contacts for Gmail

Likelihood to Recommend

Raisers Edge is outstanding for storing and reporting on constituent data and communications. There are many options for creating methods of tracking by different information included and also for creating personalized tracking methods.

Raisers Edge is not very well suited for an organization that also has a gift shop and visitors center. Allowing membership admission and item sales is not practical.

Raiser’s Edge increase productivity!

Overall Satisfaction with Raiser's Edge