Raiser's Edge: The Cadillac of Donor Software
July 09, 2014
Raiser's Edge: The Cadillac of Donor Software
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
7
Modules Used
- Event Module
- Planned Giving Module
- Importomatic
Overall Satisfaction with The Raiser's Edge
Raiser's Edge was the constituent and grants management tool. It was used to track all donors, prospects, many employees and any grant relationship. The philanthropy department used this product to keep track of what was soliciting each prospect, and the status of grant proposals. It was used to generate reports for senior management, internal reporting controls, and to also track performance measures. It helps the organization to address the problem of keeping track of prospects, and donors and their giving history. It also helped us move donors from one giving category to another one.
- The reporting in Raiser's Edge is fantastic. There are many "canned" reports which are what most organizations will need, for example weekly giving reports, annual giving reports, solicitor comparison reports etc. It also allows for highly customized reports and for you to save reports that you need to rerun with different dates.
- Ease of use. Raiser's Edge, with minimal training is very easy to use. I found it, as did other employees, to be very intuitive. Yes, there are ways it can get complicated but the overall ease of use is universal.
- The user support of raiser's edge is excellent. I haven't been put on hold for longer than a few minutes. They also have excellent chat support which is great if you just have a quick question or need a password reset. Never had such great customer support.
- Learning how to properly use the reports, exports and queries can be difficult. If you don't go through a formal training, it can be next to impossible to just "catch on". It can be difficult to decide which to use and when.
- If Raiser's Edge integrated with more credit card processors, that would make work and gift processing much more efficient. many organizations cannot change their credit card processor just because raiser's edge only integrates with a select few.
- I felt pressured from Raiser's Edge to buy more add-ons, to sign up for additional resources, and pressured to buy their wealth screener. I did not appreciate the tough sell on these, and them pushing my organization to buy these items. We were already spending plenty of money on the product upgrade.
- It was easier to track who is doing what, who is talking to what donor and what grants have been submitted
- It helped us further manage the grant processed
- Raiser's Edge resulted in higher fundraising results
- Raiser's Edge allowed us to move donors from one level to another
- Donor Perfect
Raiser's Edge was a big step up from Donor Perfect. It was more intuitive and had much better reporting options. The upgrade was necessary when I got hired, as I came from a background that used Raiser's Edge, and loved it. I find it more efficient for a large organization, and has more capabilities especially in importing, add-ons, event management and tracking solicitor status.