Living on the edge of technical and non-technical
Updated February 14, 2017

Living on the edge of technical and non-technical

Erin K. Boudreaux | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Raiser's Edge NXT

In my organization, Raiser's Edge NXT is used by fundraising and executive staff to track, acknowledge and report on charitable giving.
  • Mailings: Raiser's Edge NXT is a great tool for acknowledging gifts, invoicing and creating campaign mailings.
  • Canned and custom reports: There are so many reporting options and built-in access to Crystal Reports. The vast array of canned reports mean very little custom work.
  • Making database processes approachable: RE's querying is idiot proof and accessible for users of all experience levels. Data entry is also intuitive and functional.
  • UI/UX: The UI could be less stale/dated. Many of the users I work with resist using RE because they expect it to be hard to use due to appearing dated/not engaging. Though Blackbaud provides extensive help documentation, it is not approachable and many less technical users immediately feel lost at sea trying to figure out functionality.
  • Stability/Compatibility: NXT's hosted environment has eliminated many of the errors I encountered in previous iterations, but there are still issues with compatibility, especially with Microsoft Word/SQL Server. In the hosted environment, documents launch in a hosted Word 2007 environment, which creates compatibility frustrations.
  • Batch entry: While the ease of batch entry adds speed to data entry, it is easy to overlook critical constituent information. The sidebar with constituent info is too concise. I found that I was still having to access individual records to check address/previous appeal info, so I stopped using batch entry for daily gift processing.
  • Operational Efficiency
  • Increased revenue from existing donors
  • Reduced IT expenditure due to cloud deployment
We have most definitely added efficiency departmentally. Raiser's Edge makes 48-hour turnaround on gifts absolutely obtainable. Reporting tools and built-in prospecting insights have increased our giving somewhat and I anticipate that to improve over time. The cost of moving to a hosted environment was steep, but it freed up server space that was sorely lacking in our org. Not having to depend on an already overextended IT department for maintenance has reduced cost and added a ton of efficiency.
Blackbaud's network of professionals and many opportunities to learn through webinars has helped me grow immensely. At an organizational level, my organization opts for lower cost private consulting/training for Blackbaud products, so the impact of the products and company have been less noticeable.
I have used CSI CRM and CLASS for Windows (ACTIVE Network). They certainly do not compare to Raiser's Edge in any way. I have also tested Daxko Operation and it is extremely well designed and easy-to-use for nonprofits, but Daxko does not provide the variety of functionality and options that Raiser's Edge does.
If an organization has the means to integrate Blackbaud software across departments, NXT is the absolute ideal. Unfortunately, many organizations (like mine) don't have the financial means and have to use Raiser's Edge as a standalone product that is not linked to accounting/organizational processes, which isn't so great.

Raiser's Edge NXT Support

Between thorough knowledgebase documentation and fast, friendly customer support through chat, email and phone, I want for nothing support wise.