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Raiser's Edge is a must for nonprofits
February 19, 2016

Raiser's Edge is a must for nonprofits

Angela Stumpo, MPA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with The Raisers Edge

The Raiser's Edge is used by our development department to track all donor information and activity. Everything that touches a donor goes through Raiser's Edge - from events, mailings, gift processing, action recording, and everything in between. Raiser's Edge is the hub of our department and I feel one of the best tools out there for nonprofits.
  • Raiser's Edge can do everything relating to donor records and is customizable to specific needs.
  • Raiser's Edge and the parent company Blackbaud offer many resources to connect with them and other users to solve problems. If you want RE to do something and don't know how, you can reach out to the community or support and get quick answers and new solution ideas.
  • Raiser's Edge has many other solution options for online giving that it can connect to, offering an integrated way to stay in touch with donors.
  • Data clean up can be very cumbersome and require outside help. It's a huge positive that RE can hold so much information, but at the same time it can be difficult to extract that information without a deep understanding of the system.
  • Training can be very expensive and I think that more classes (webinars) should be offered for free.
  • They are constantly calling with upsells, and we often have a different contact for every upsell. They email then keep calling until you respond. I wouldn't mind an email now and then with offerings, but I am busy and don't want to have to keep saying no all the time.
  • RE has a positive impact each day when we can extract data to review reports on performance, whether it's for a campaign, appeal, certain donor, etc.
  • RE helps us track donor actions, allowing for reminders of when donors need contact again and providing smooth transitions during staff turnover.
I have not used any other database software in my daily work. However, in speaking with other nonprofit professionals, the consensus is that RE is the best there is.
I think it is well suited for every nonprofit with enough budget, enough staff and the right training in place. You really have to do the up front training or hire someone well-versed in RE before implementing it as a new system in an organization. It can also be quite expensive for small nonprofits, but I do feel it can do more than other nonprofit database software.