Easy choice for a constituent database
November 14, 2017
Easy choice for a constituent database
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with The Raisers Edge
RE serves as the constituent database for my organization. It contains approximately 200k records. It is being used across the whole organization as the primary relationship and fundraising database. The departments that utilize the database the most are the major gifts and direct mail teams, with the support provided by prospect management and gift entry teams.
- Everything about a particular constituent is on the constituent record and easily edited directly from the record. The tab-based record structure is particularly nice, having dealt with form- and page-based databases.
- It is easy to track communication with a particular constituent. Actions are robust, and notes offer a variety of static options to record important information about a particular person/household/organization.
- Information is easy to export and analyze. Queries and exports are logic-based and can easily be learned even by new users. Custom reports are easy to build and there are enough options that it never feels like it's not possible to easily export any sort of information out of the database.
- Dashboards are customizable to different individuals and roles and very useful.
- Automation of reports would bring the database to a new level - the only way to get them now is manually.
- Managing proposals can be tricky, especially when it comes to linking multiple gifts to a single open proposal.
- Streamlining the interface to minimize the number of clicks that it takes, for instance, to enter an action - would bring greater efficiency.
- Positive: ability to track ROI on donors that attend events, to see if particular events are resulting in greater giving.
- Positive: ability to track ROI on volunteers, to determine if greater engagement results in greater giving.
- Negative: the ease of use of RE has resulted in more time that front-line fundraisers spend entering data into the database and pulling out information, rather than having somebody else enter that data/pull information.
I have used Banner, Colleague, and more DIY solutions like FileMakerPro and Excel as databases. While I did not personally selected RE as the database for my organization, compared to other database solutions that I have used it is exceptionally functional and user-friendly. The level of detail that RE is able to capture in an organized manner, the ability to easily create custom queries and exports, as well as new advances in integrated payments, mobile solution, and integration with other internal (NetCommunity) and external (Salesforce) software, make it stand out.