All Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Reviews
1-25 of 418 Reviews
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Josh
Non-Profit Organization Management, 2 - 10 employees
Used less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
Reviewed May 2021
Designed for Large Nonprofits
Anonymous
11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2020
High end product, poor customer service
Great product, but the lack of customer service for the price point leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
PROSThis is definitely a nice product that does everything that it promises, and helps us keep track of all of our donors.
CONSThe price point is high for what you are getting, and customer support for this product is extremely poor at best.
Tracey
Primary/Secondary Education, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2018
A Game Changer for Prospect Managers
I think the RE NXT interface is incredibly intuitive. It helps new team members get on the ground faster with learning how to search records and find the information that they need. That said, a strong background in the database view is helpful to any member of your team, whether they are on the road or not. I would strongly suggest having teams trained formally on both systems.
PROSWhat I love about RE NXT is that it helps to visualize graphs, such as donor patterns and key financial data, automatically. You no longer have to have endless queries and exports and dashboards to access the data you want the most. This helps facilitate staff meeting discussions, and also keeps all team members informed on the fly. Secondly, the prospect profiles for managers. Gone are the days of exporting travel profiles in plain text. Now a PM can login from the road to see all the details they need in a useful manner -- and what's even better? They can change how the data is displayed so that it is personalized to them. It is clean, well constructed, and yet also flexible enough to be able to dig deeper with a couple of clicks. And if they need to find a new person to visit in their area, the map tools are perfect. Highly recommended for offices with lots of traveling teammates.
CONSAs with both versions of RE, you only get out what you put into it. You need to make sure you have the right policies and procedures in place, for example, to make sure that certain fields in actions are required. You'll also need to work with your team to make sure they understand the updated language from the database view to the NXT view. For example, proposals and opportunities are the same thing. This is a bit of a challenge in offices where the NXT vs. database team may not interact that much and will be speaking slightly different languages about this software. It is not a deal-breaker, just a trainable moment.
Tamera
Civic & Social Organization, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
1
FUNCTIONALITY
1
Reviewed March 2018
Raisers Edge is Dysfunctional
Either have SalesForce build software for you - disadvantage being that no one will be on exactly the same software so if you need changes or upgrades, you will need to pay for the programming. Advantage is that you have control over the product, and most of the expense is up front. Or go with Donor Perfect, which is truly relational, far less expensive, highly configurable, and has the best mobile ap around. And I am NOT paid by DP to say that, nor did I ever work for Blackbaud or RE.
PROSBatch entry. That's it. If ALL you do are massive fundraisers where you bring in a thousand donations of 10 bucks apiece in one day, then RE has the batch entry system for you.
CONSBlackbaud's contracts all have clauses that prevent users from making derogatory statements or posting negative reviews. The contract allows them to lock you out, kick you off, charge for the remainder of the contract, blah blah blah. And they enforce it. Ask yourself why a decent software would need something like that? This is NOT a relational database, and if you understand anything about software file structure, then that explains why RE is so flawed: If someone hits all of those categories, they will appear three times. Ask for their phone or email and they are now listed six times. Process to get rid of dupe listings of the same name loses all of the field access with the exception of addresses - because it's not relational that's the only way they can do it. Raisers Edge NXT has been designed to hide the 'background' so you have less access to work-arounds, but in order to do that they have had to 'assume' what fields are really important to us to be able to export from a specific query. RE is designed to archive a ton of information, it is simply not designed to use it or get it out. Support is dismal, and most support staff have never been users; not customizable; clunky, slow; embedded Word is out-of-date and difficult to update; proprietary e-mail communication tool extremely limited; nothing is intuitive; research analytics and events modules are extremely weak. A waste of money.
Michelle
Verified reviewer
11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed December 2017
Raiser's Edge NXT is a big improvement!
Raiser's Edge NXT has notified us when prospect donor pledges are ending and recommendations for cultivation which has increased our major giving donors.
PROSThe Raiser's Edge database was very outdated however with the addition of NXT it's now very visually appealing and user-friendly. They took the old database look and revamped it to include charts, recommendations for donor cultivation and alerts daily referencing which donors to reach out to. It's very mobile friendly and great for major giving officers so they could make notes and assign tasks to their team while on the road. You could easily look up donor records and it's all accessible from Blackbaud.com so you don't need to download an app. It's good to have when on meetings and if you have to be an exhibitor for your Foundation and quickly look up donor records.
CONSNXT shows consecutive donor years at the top of each profile however the years are not always accurate with the years in Raiser's database. Sometimes the years are way off. Also, they should make it easier to view outstanding pledges in NXT. NXT is a bit pricey however worth the cost and your return on investment is improved as it notifies you when you have major giving prospects to reach out to.
Anonymous
51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2020
Good and robust software!
Very good.
PROSIntegration with onsite systems made it easy to use.
CONSHard to train other users on how to use with our systems.
Reason for choosing Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Ease of use.
Reasons for switching to Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Cost.
Anonymous
11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2019
Expensive but worth it for any CRM needs
We use Blackbaud Fundraising on a day to day basis to track donor records, giving, pledges, create crowdfunding pages and online donation templates.
PROSBlackbaud Fundraising includes Raiser's Edge, Luminate Online, crowdfunding features. The Fundraising tools integrate very well and it's user friendly and intuitive. We are able to create an attractive and easy to use donation form for our website. It allows you to easily track donor giving, pledges, create donation pledges and integrate with Raiser's Edge and other tools well. NXT is a new feature we purchased which is expensive however it's an attractive interface to view and track donor pledge level and upgrades.
CONSBlackbaud products tend to be very pricey and offer a ton of features however you only use about half of them on regular basis. It could be quite a challenge to create crowdfunding pages., definitely multiple steps. Sometimes the dashboard giving and queries show different numbers so there's some inconsistency. Their NXT new tool is amazing however it's pricey. It's great for major giving officer.
Amanda
Verified reviewer
Fund-Raising, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2022
Robust product that's still a work in progress
Raiser's Edge NXT has so much potential and is a worthwhile product as long as you have a team that's comfortable using both web and database view. As a non-profit CRM, it's still hard to beat - especially for organizations with a large donor base and fundraising capacity.
PROSI love the user interface and the ability to "drag and drop" objects within constituent records to customize how I want to see information. The dashboard design is lovely and, after a bit of a learning curve, can be used to display some really helpful information for fundraisers.
CONSThis is not yet a completed product and shouldn't be used without the RE 7 database view. RE NXT has all the basic functionality needed for fundraisers to use exclusively, but not database admin staff. A lot of gift processing functionality, and even reporting fields, have not been moved over from RE 7. For any detailed reporting using OR or NOT, custom attributes, or gift amounts requires one to go back into database view to use queries/exports/canned reports.
Anonymous
201-500 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
2
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed December 2019
A powerful tool for a small nonprofit
If your users are not already experts at working with Blackbaud, then you should absolutely take advantage of the offered learning opportunities and user support. We leaned on them heavily our first year. Our small not-for-profit organization grew membership by more than 50% the first year we used Blackbaud to keep our fundraising and membership efforts organized.
PROSWe imported a rather large constituent database, and the software made it possible for us to categorize, sort, and target our communications efforts much more precisely than we were previously capable. The customer service and user training we received was beyond expectations.
CONSIt is not user-friendly. While the tools at your disposal are copious, new users will be at a complete loss. We transferred over from another system and we still required a lot of training.
Reasons for switching to Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Partly for price, but mostly for specific functionality.
Layne
Higher Education, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2023
Wonderful CRM option
Ease of access is great, very user friendly and visually appealing/easy to use
CONSSome reporting and query functions are difficult to navigate
Anonymous
201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2018
We do all our Donation processing with Raiser's Edge. All data entry, constituent 'touches' & repor
Database for all donations - information is kept reliable, complete (can be used to store a lot of data/facts) and accessible for reports
PROSData entry is easy and reports are dependable. Versatility in the type of information that can be stored in each constituent record.
CONSthe software programmers I know say the set up is very 'old school.' I use batches a lot in RE - and the setting up of each is not as intuitive as some software programs out there.
Stephanie
Religious Institutions, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2016
Satisfied Raiser's Edge 7 user Ready to Make the Jump to RE NXT
I previously worked with many other database interface software in the for-profit world, where I worked for the first 15+ years of my career. So when I started using Raiser's Edge, it came relatively easily to me as it reminded me of other previously used interfaces. We have a large database of over 350K donors, and Raiser's Edge has no problem handling our volume. The Raiser's Edge 7 is now showing some age in how it's structured and functions, but mostly in look and feel. We have been using Raiser's Edge with our database on premise. With the seismic shift into cloud computing, we are planning to move to a Blackbaud hosted environment, which will, in and of itself, bring us closer to feeling like it's not the 90's anymore. But the good news is that Blackbaud knows that the look and feel, usability, functionality and ability to play well with others need to catch up with the rest of technology, and so they introduced Raiser's Edge NXT a couple of years ago. RE NXT looks modern and fills many checkboxes of what fundraisers need to do their jobs in today's environment. (See Pros to find out more of what I like about RE NXT.)
PROSRaiser's Edge 7 gives you the tools (and/or gives you optional add-on tools) to manage your donor relationships and data in just about any way you can think of. It's a great all-purpose fundraising tool for non-profit organizations. Raiser's Edge NXT (RE NXT) is the next generation, and we are most likely moving to that within the next year. The awesome things about RE NXT are 1. User access to your donor data from anywhere on any device, 2. Unintimidating ease of use for non-techie and techie alike, 3. Open API which means lots of more fantastic compatible tools are being built by Blackbaud partners, 4. Unlimited users - which means now our Board members and many other stakeholders will be able to login and get their reports on the dashboard instead of waiting for emailed or, even worse, hard-copy reports to be run and delivered to them by our staff.
CONSMy experience with the Customer Support has been less than stellar. Sometimes it seems like the Customer Support's go-to answer is, "No" or "No, you can't do that." Unless the answer is, "Well, if you buy this other tool we have, then you can do that." But since we have no plans to move off of Blackbaud products, thank heavens they have an amazing Blackbaud Community network where you can ask any question and get tons of advice from folks just like you working in this software daily. Blackbaud Community is now the first place I go when I need support. Many times the question I have has already been asked and answered in the past, and so just searching through the discussions will get me my answer or point me in the right direction, instead of wasting time trying to re-invent the wheel. My fairly high rating in this review on Customer Support is mostly because of Blackbaud Community and our fairly newly assigned account manager.
Michelle
Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed January 2017
Raiser's Finally Got an Update
I use Raiser's Edge as our donor database and the data entry, reporting features are really updated. However, when they came out with NXT, it was a game changer. NXT is amazing! It has a very attractive interface and super user friendly. As soon as you search for a record, consecutive years and all information on the donor is clear to see and it lets you know which donors you should be reaching out to. You could assign donors to others to initiate contact. You could easily access information on your mobile device. It takes the Raiser's Edge data entry interface and completely gives it a makeover. You are easily able to review giving history and all donor information on one page and very clearly. The only thing I don't like about NXT is that the consecutive years aren't always the same as in the donor records in the database version.
PROSI use Raiser's Edge as our donor database and the data entry, reporting features are really updated. However, when they came out with NXT, it was a game changer. NXT is amazing! It has a very attractive interface and super user friendly. As soon as you search for a record, consecutive years and all information on the donor is clear to see and it lets you know which donors you should be reaching out to. You could assign donors to others to initiate contact. You could easily access information on your mobile device. It takes the Raiser's Edge data entry interface and completely gives it a makeover. You are easily able to review giving history and all donor information on one page and very clearly.
CONSThe only thing I don't like about NXT is that the consecutive years aren't always the same as in the donor records in the database version.
Lindsay
Hospital & Health Care, 201-500 employees
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed November 2016
Raisers Edge - IF you are good to it, it will give you GOLD
Raiser's Edge is great for development departments of medium to large nonprofits, schools, etc, especially those with sophisticated fundraising programs. It may not be the best fit for small nonprofits with limited resources in the budget. The Raiser's Edge is an excellent software for cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship and allows for easy tracking of each constituent's relationship with your organization. Raisers Edge is being used by the development department to track donations and our constituents relationship to us as an organization. Our database is not large but the relationships are long and often complicated. A database like this allows us to see the constituent and all of the interactions we have had with them over the years. The Raisers Edge in combination with some of the add on's like online express have been helpful for seamless tracking of newsletter readership and conversions from our website and online publications.
PROSQueries are what we use to create lists of constituents with particular behaviors or similarities that we can use for creating mailings, invitations or actions. An amazing tool with endless possibilities. Raisers Edge is a beast of a program. It can do just about anything you could want for a donor database and Blackbaud offers several supplemental solutions that seamlessly integrate. Donor stewardship, from first contact, to donation, to acknowledgement letter, is a process that is handled particularly well with Raisers Edge
CONSThe program is quite complicated and if data is not entered correctly than the program just won't work well. "bad in, bad out'. But that is not unique to this program. That some of the features that I like to use like global changes for adding appeals is pretty buried and the way of finding it convoluted. Attributes could be more flexible: like I would prefer to have all events under one table (which it can do now) but then there is no step further where I can then say whether they RSVP and then also whether they attended and their name for easy export for nametags.
Kayla
Hospital & Health Care
Used more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed April 2015
Great Product with Room for Improvement
This is such a great tool to keep track of your constituents. Everything is organized, making it easy to find the information you need with little hassle. It was also relatively to learn how to use it. I had never heard of Raiser's Edge before beginning an internship during college, and without any experience outside of that using it, I was able to find a job where I spend all day using Raiser's Edge. Not being particularly computer-savy, it's almost unbelieveable to me how comfortable I feel using this product.
CONSThere always seems to be little kinks and bugs that make little to no sense, and many times even those at Blackbaud don't seem to know why. For example, I work a lot with tributes. Recently I discovered that when you are entering a gift and you have a tribute open, if you go into one of the tribute acknowledgee's records and then back out, RE will check off all of the acknowledgees to acknowledge even if you previously did not have them all checked off. My manager asked why this was happening and how we can fix it, and the short-term suggestion we got was to exit out of the acknowledgee record instead of saving and closing. Frankly, that's a horrible suggestion. Obviously there are going to be times when we need to save and close. I understand you may not have an immediate answer, but I'd rather you not be able to give me a suggestion than to give me a bad one. In short, I think there are many kinks to be worked out and customer service can be improved.
Roberta
Higher Education, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2022
Easier than database view but not as functional
When comparing RE NXT to other products I have used it is about the same in functionality. Prompts are usually pretty intuitive. It is not very customizable. Going back and forth between NXT and the database is time consuming. Kind of like using two products to accomplish one task.
PROSThe RE NXT product is easier to use than the database view. You can customize work tiles to easily access your work. Creating List is easier to do than queries. Just starting to create workflows. It looks like it has real potential to prompt actions.
CONSNot all aspects are available in RE NXT. I still need to go to the database view to enter information. Customer service is extremely difficult to get in a timely manner. Chat agents can be abrasive at times. Would help if instructions contained some troubleshooting. Difficult to get real time examples outside of classes, which are not always scheduled when you need them.
Iris
Higher Education, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
2
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2021
It's a good fund raising product but it needs improvement
RE NXT meet the basic needs for fundraisers and administrators. But any complex queries, reports, import, integration with other system requires lots of 3rd parties tools to achieve.
PROSVisuals is based on permission and search button on the top of the browser is useful. Tiles are collapsible and dashboard is easy to view. Comparing to the database view, opening a new browser tab is useful when doing some comparisons between screens. Data Health (Deceased/Email/Duplicate Finder) is a great feature in web view. We use it all the time. The availability of ResearchPoint on dashboard is great feature for prospect management team.
CONSRE NXT is a web view that is not as fully integrated as the database view. List, import and reporting are not adequate as the database view. Although SKI API is available, not all of the data point in database is available.
Jaimie
Higher Education, 51-200 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed October 2019
Very user friendly
Having NXT is invaluable to having donor information at our fingertips, and for having an efficient process for recording contact and actions with donors for historical purposes.
PROSI work a lot on the database side of Raiser's Edge, but NXT is super user friendly for those on your team that need information at their finger tips but aren't "database administrators".
CONSThere are a few functionalities that cannot be done in NXT and must be done in the database, and a few that do not report clearly (i.e. soft credits).
Reasons for switching to Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Needed a more donor-centric program.
Karen
Higher Education
Used more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
2
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2016
User for over 20 years
The software is great for constituent management and tracking donors and gifts for non profits.
CONSThe vendor fees are extremely high. Once you commit to their software, they have you. It is near impossible to leave. They used to have great customer support. Their staff was always knowledgeable and willing to go the extra mile to help you with their product. Now you never hear from your account executive unless you contact them and then they pass you off to one of their assistants. Their assistants push you into buying products you do not need and then when you do purchase a product from them and sign the agreement to purchase, you cannot get answers. We purchased an add on module, we contacted them and we were passed to the assistant to our account executive. The assistant got the paperwork signed and it has been over a month and the add on product has still not been activated in our database. I have emailed and called the account executive assistant because we cannot talk to the account executive, i have talked to customer support and have been passed around. This is not the first time I have had this SAME experience from the new Blackbaud. New leadership appears to be clueless to the horrible experiences from their staff.
Connie
Higher Education
Used more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2016
Overall very pleased
The data is well organized, easy to pull, and easy to export. Although this is the only major database software I have used personally, I have heard multiple comments from others that Raiser's Edge is so much easier and more efficient than other software types on the market. Our organization has been using Raiser's Edge for over 15 years, and we are well pleased with its capabilities and performance. This software manages everything fundraising related - donor profiles, biological data, giving history, mailing histories, event attendance and seating, EFT and automated credit card transactions, memberships, to-do tasks, alumni information, online giving forms and email blasts (with the optional Online Express module), etc. BlackBaud has an easy-to-access support system if you need help, as well as training, blogs, free webinars and videos so that beginners can easily learn the system.
CONSBlackBaud is a little over-priced on some of its data cleansing services, like EmailFinder and Deceased People Finder. We often get the same service for much cheaper through our mailing house vendors.
Maureen
Primary/Secondary Education, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2022
Blackbaud
NXT is used daily and it is functional but not always precisely what is needed. It has evolved over the years and it seems to be heading in a better direction.
PROSOur the years we have used Raiser's Edge it has continued to grow and evolve with broader and impactful criteria that aid in fundraising. NXT is user- friendly much more so than the original Raiser's Edge.
CONSIt would be helpful if there were video tutorials. The knowledgebase is not user-friendly. It is unable to assist in finding quick and clear answers in creating a list specific to our constituency. Again, available video tutorials would be a great addition to the product.
Mike
Religious Institutions, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
1
VALUE FOR MONEY
1
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
1
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed September 2022
Looking for a replacement for Raiser's Edge
Functionality, donor records were robust able to enter split gifts.
CONSCost, user interface, difficult to use, customer support
Stephen
Religious Institutions, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed December 2020
Great product if you
Ease of integration for the front line fundraisers
CONSIt is not yet as flexible as the Database View (RE7)
Cindy
Civic & Social Organization, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
3
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2017
perspective on Raisers Edge
I would not recommend it for small organizations.
PROSRaiser's Edge has wonderful reporting capabilities. It definitely personifies garbage in, garbage out though, so you want to be sure to set things up the correct way right from the beginning. Also if you want to be able to quantify your data you have to put in fields that you can do so - not something like notes.
CONSIt is not the easiest to learn and I don't feel like we ever used the full capability of the software. I wish there were more opportunities for general training's using it and learning how other companies are utilizing it.
Kendall
Civic & Social Organization, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed May 2017
Easy to use for everyone
RE NXT is very easy to navigate and colleagues who have little or no experience with the database view are able to find the information they need without a hassle. I like that NXT offers suggestions and specially prepared reports that provide useful information for reigniting lapsed donors and gauging capacity for future asks. I also love the visual analytics offered, as they help to segment and illustrate the entire scope of our constituent base rather than just looking at spreadsheets.
CONSThere are some limitations as to how much information can be added to lists in NXT, making it easier to generate more complex lists in the database view. I also think it would be beneficial to offer a complete guide of all of the training and webinars available as a benefit of NXT, as our team has not taken advantage of many useful resources because we have not been aware of them.