RE NXT: Moves Management That'll Move You
August 23, 2016
RE NXT: Moves Management That'll Move You
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Raiser's Edge NXT
We use Raiser's Edge (RE) NXT to manage our donors and prospects. Every potential donor is entered in the database. We use the integrated analytics tools to complete missing information and run wealth ratings, which are then used to identify major gift prospects. RE's "Action" allows us to map out and schedule cultivation plans for every constituent, assign a staff member to be in charge of the action, and remain on schedule and organized. It really improves our moves management processes. Like many CRMs, with RE, you get what you put in, but one major weakness is that there is little automation. Everything has to be manually scheduled (no triggers for workflows), but in terms of a fundraising CRM, it definitely serves its purpose. Unlike others on the market, RE was designed with fundraising in mind. The record types are fundraising-centric, and the reporting covers a fundraiser's needs. We use many tools in our organization; RE is used exclusively by our Development Department for fundraising, prospect management, and grants management.
- Designed for fundraisers, with record types that really work for that purpose.
- Advanced fundraising analytics tools to improve major gift portfolios.
- A robust query function that is flexible, allowing you to really see the connections in record types.
- No automated workflows or triggers. Ex. when lifetime giving exceeds X, change category to Y.
- Not very customizable. Custom fields are restricted to "attributes" which do live front and center on records and can be missed by users.
- Not very intuitive. There's a high learning curve for new users. Solid and explicit process documents and workflows are a must for any organization using RE.
- Operational Efficiency
- Increased revenue from new donors
- Increased revenue from existing donors
We have seen greater results in increasing revenue from existing donors. We have not had as much luck with new donors, although this is in part to slow acquisition processes. Our operations continue to improve as we learn to use the tools provided by RE NXT. The biggest hindrance to our fully utilizing RE NXT is that their new dashboards is that it does not track pledges. We do all of our departmental reporting through pledges. Until pledges is added to the webview dashboards, the graphs/charts are unusable for us.
We use RE NXT and its integrated online engagement tool Online Express. The integration has saved us immense time in importing/exporting and pushing/pulling data between platforms. This system appears to be constantly evolving and each update provides a greater range of tools. Additionally, my team attends many of Blackbaud's RE NXT webinars and reads their whitepages to hear from other users the best strategy for leveraging NXT's tools.
We have considered other CRMs, particularly Salesforce. We currently use Salesforce in other departments, and I have used several of its nonprofit apps. Salesforce's advantages include automated workflows, custom fields, and autoresponders (emails). Its disadvantages for us is that even with the fundraising apps, we would have to do a great deal of customization to get the system to the level where we can slice and dice gifts (through the use of Funds, Campaigns, and Appeals) like we can with RE. Additionally, Salesforce does not have a comparable query tool, which we rely on heavily when building reports and exports.