Overall Satisfaction with Raiser's Edge NXT
We are a small department in a much larger organization (direct support organization for state college, a/k/a "Foundation"). Only the staff in the Foundation uses Raiser's Edge NXT. It is the best tool we have to maintain good communication among ourselves. All we have to do is fill in the fields, make notes, and attach media to know what the status with the donor is. NXT came with built-in modules that we did not have, such as events. Being able to access our data base without having to be in the office is the biggest plus with RE NXT.
- RE NXT came with additional modules that we did not have before; namely, the events module.
- The analyze dashboard (under fundraising) shows some interesting graphs that you don't need to do anything to generate.
- It is easy to go right to a constituent from the dashboard.
- Automatic log-off occurs way too soon and does not provide enough time to idle before you are kicked out of the program. I spend a lot of my time just logging on.
- Operational Efficiency
- Reduced IT expenditure due to cloud deployment
NXT does not limit us to only a handful of users at one time. We can all log on at the same time and not worry about being shut out. The development director can use it on the road instead of calling in to the office and hoping someone will answer the phone. I have not had a chance to set up the iphone app, so I hope to hear from someone else on that. Our IT department is thrilled to not have to do backups, installations, patches, and whatever else they do.
We are one big happy Blackbaud family! We use Financial Edge and are in the process of setting up NetCommunity Spark. It seems that NetCommunity and Online Express are redundant, but with these products, we don't have to depend on our webmaster to stop and take care of our little department. We can do most of it ourselves.
QuickBooks is not a CRM, but as an accounting system, it helped us track donors and vendors alike. However, it is not dedicated for relationship management with donors. They did have a non-profit version, but it was only slightly different from the regular version. It mostly had the pertinent language in the field names.