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Raiser's Edge- The Best Out There, But Not Getting Better
Updated February 04, 2015

Raiser's Edge- The Best Out There, But Not Getting Better

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

7.92.5508.9

Modules Used

  • Prospect
  • Events
  • Relationships
  • Appeals
  • Attributes
  • Actions
  • Gifts
  • Bio1
  • Bio2

Overall Satisfaction with The Raiser's Edge

Our organization uses Raiser's Edge to track donor information and activity. This includes but is not limited to a donor's gifts or pledges, attendance at events, volunteer involvement, relationships, the appeals and communications they receive, and any special information that we should know (e.g. are they new parents this year, did they have a new sibling enter the school, etc.).
  • The Raiser's Edge does a nice job of organizing a lot of information into a constituent's record in a way that is, for the most part, easy to find.
  • The Raiser's Edge does a great job of allowing you to store a lot of detailed information.
  • The Raiser's Edge does a nice job of creating dashboards and reports to allow you to look at information quickly and repeatedly.
  • Raiser's Edge could use improvement in organizing where particular information is stored. Often times it is difficult to pull a specific piece of data or information in a query or export because it is impossible to find which category or field the information is located.
  • Raiser's Edge could definitely use improvement in their reporting module. The reports are not easy to create or edit to your own specifications and make it difficult to use without taking a course on reporting.
  • Raiser's Edge does not have an enough options to edit the basic record to our organization's needs. Every organization is looking to store different information, and instead of working to customize our records, we have to find ways to store this information in a generic system meant for everyone. It is definitely not easy or intuitive and does not make it easy for new users to find information once joining our organization as this information is hidden in wherever place the last person in this position could find to store it.
  • Raiser's Edge definitely has had a positive impact on our organization's ROI. It allows us to gather the best information on donor prospects and maximize our fundraising efforts.
  • However, because Raiser's Edge is not entirely user-friendly, it has also forced our organization to hire individuals specifically to manage and pull information from this software, which produces a negative cash flow.
  • Raiser's Edge also increases employee efficiency by allowing us to track actions of employees and see their individual ROI.
I have used Andar, Education Edge, Patron's Edge, and Team Approach. Compared to each of these software, Raiser's Edge does the best job of collecting and storing a variety of information for fundraising. It is also is the easiest to use (compared to Andar and Team Approach) in terms of pulling information for analysis.
It is obviously well suited for fundraising software. I haven't used all of the fundraising software in the world, but I would definitely say that Raiser's Edge is the best and has the most functionality as it is used the most frequently. However, it is sometimes frustrating as it feels as though because Blackbaud has a monopoly on the market, they are not as interested in making the product continue to work best for each individual consumer.

Using The Raiser's Edge

12 - Development, Alumni Relations, and Communications.
It is the best product available, so there is no doubt we will continue to use it. However, we have had some frustrations with the software and some glitches that were not fully explained to us so if something else were to come available that were better, I can see our organization considering making a change.

The Raiser's Edge Reliability