--- title: "Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/the-raisers-edge-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Fundraising Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/online-fundraising-platforms-comparison/) / [Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/the-raisers-edge-profile/) / Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/the-raisers-edge-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/the-raisers-edge-profile/alternatives/) # Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.2/5 - Total reviews: 418 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 3.9/5 - Customer support: 4.1/5 - Value for money: 3.7/5 - Functionality: 4.1/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 190 reviews (45%) - 4 stars: 169 reviews (40%) - 3 stars: 44 reviews (11%) - 2 stars: 8 reviews (2%) - 1 star: 7 reviews (2%) ### Most mentioned pros - We also saw major operational improvements after moving to Blackbaud’s payment processor. Since gifts now appear in the system almost immediately, it has significantly simplified reconciliation and reporting compared to our previous setup with Classy/GoFundMe Pro. - It’s built to handle high-volume fundraising and complex donor relationships, which is where it really shines. While it has a steeper learning curve than some of the "newer" platforms, the depth of data you can track is hard to beat. - The user friendly and intuitive platform, searchable in any data point, Security of the payment processing gateways, the way you can manage all aspects fo your data, from data entry, gift processing, donor officers, and the ability to tag and maintian informations between users to ensure complete coverage and donor frontline importance. ### Most mentioned cons - The biggest limitation for our team is the event management functionality and integrations. - It isn’t intuitive for new staff, and you really need a dedicated "power user" to keep the data clean. - The details in our line of work simply cannot (and should not!) exist in a single fundraiser's brain--they ought to be documented, measured, and exist as a delicate yet dynamic record. ## Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 418 (page 1). ### A Powerful Fundraising CRM for Complex Nonprofit Operations - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Emily D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, my experience with Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT over the past four years has been very positive. It is a comprehensive and powerful CRM that supports sophisticated fundraising operations well, particularly for organizations with large donor databases and complex reporting needs. The platform has helped improve gift processing, donor management, reporting visibility, and fundraiser accountability. While there is room for improvement in event functionality and external integrations, the overall value and operational efficiency it provides have made it an important part of our fundraising infrastructure. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT has been a strong fit for our large, local nonprofit organization, which processes tens of thousands of gifts annually. One of the biggest advantages has been the visibility it gives our frontline fundraising team. The dashboard and portfolio management tools make it easy for staff to track donor activity, manage moves, and make meaningful progress in guiding donors through the cultivation journey. Having donor information, interactions, giving history, and reporting all in one place creates a much more streamlined workflow across teams. We also saw major operational improvements after moving to Blackbaud’s payment processor. Since gifts now appear in the system almost immediately, it has significantly simplified reconciliation and reporting compared to our previous setup with Classy/GoFundMe Pro. We’ve also been able to reduce donation transaction fees, which has added real value from a budget perspective. The reporting capabilities are another major strength. We have complex tracking and reporting needs, and Raiser's Edge NXT gives us the flexibility to segment, analyze, and report on donor and campaign activity in a meaningful way. #### Cons The biggest limitation for our team is the event management functionality and integrations. Blackbaud’s event products do not currently offer the level of flexibility or user experience we need for larger-scale events, so we rely on external platforms for registration and payments. While tools like Omatic help connect systems, more direct integrations with modern event platforms would make the experience much smoother. There can also be a learning curve because the platform is so robust, especially for users who are newer to fundraising CRMs or complex reporting environments. --- ### Great platform with robust and user friendly - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Theresa G. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: December 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered As a previous user of multiple Donor CRM's I find this newer version to be comprehensive and robust enough to manage large scale operations as well as smaller organizations. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros The user friendly and intuitive platform, searchable in any data point, Security of the payment processing gateways, the way you can manage all aspects fo your data, from data entry, gift processing, donor officers, and the ability to tag and maintian informations between users to ensure complete coverage and donor frontline importance. The ability to create personal and departmental dashboard reports on the fly is great for on-the-go data access, and to create large, data-intensive reports for forecasting and drilling down into each campaign. I have used quite a few different donor management platforms, this is a robust but user friendly software. #### Cons I think the cons would be the cost, it is a little cost prohibative for those smaller agencies, who could definitely use this product with all of it's tools. #### Reasons for switching to Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT robust platform versatility and user friendly access --- ### RENXT helps our office to be the best it can be. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Karen S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Philanthropy - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: Used unspecified for more than 2 years - Reviewed: December 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We receive immediate information that we can act on. Yes, you need to put the time in to learn how to use it. I think that what people need to understand is that the way they save data impacts their outcomes with the product. They need to work with it instead of expecting it tho exactly fit the needs of their organization. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I've been using Raiser's Edge for 15 years. My current office purchased the NXT web view in 2015. This product helps our office achieve our fundraising goals in many ways. I like that when we purchased the NXT web view we still kept the database view. Now we have the best of both worlds. Most of our office now works exclusively in the web view and with it, they can now get immediate information by themselves that assists them in their work. The new features of the web view have greatly enhanced how we do business. #### Cons I really like this product and I have a hard time coming up with anything negative to say about it. --- ### More than a CRM, a complete work for a non-profit. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Elias F. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It is a great system to manage not only donations but also communications with donors. A great way to view the information you have and make it easy to plan for campaigns. Also task management tool is easy to use and integrated with the main forms of communication. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It works almost as a CRM, and it is possible to register every interaction with the donors. Also, it integrates with Outlook what make things easy. #### Cons When you make the migration, not all the data is migrated correctly, and for a lot of things you need to be doing in the database view and others are only possible on the webview. #### Reasons for switching to Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT More communication features, better data management tools. Easy and cheaper payment methods. --- ### Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: April 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall my experience has been well and the system seems to be very user-friendly. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros What I like most about the software is the ease of use. #### Cons What I like least about the software is that it can be slow to update when I enter changes or gifts. #### Reasons for switching to Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT My organization wanted to have all departments using the same company for our database needs. --- ### Robust w/a learning curve - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Amy J. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2026 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Raiser’s Edge NXT is a heavy-duty tool that is excellent for managing complex donor relationships and high-volume fundraising. The "NXT" web interface is modern and makes day-to-day tasks like checking donor records or tracking gift officer progress much easier, especially on the go. However, the experience is hampered by the fact that the system isn't fully modernized. Having to switch back to the old "Database View" for advanced tasks feels disjointed and makes the learning curve much steeper for new team members. It is a reliable, secure "source of truth" for your data, but you have to be willing to put in the time to master its complexities. It’s a great fit for larger organizations with dedicated database staff, but might be overkill for smaller shops. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Raiser’s Edge NXT is a powerhouse for nonprofits that have outgrown simple spreadsheets or basic databases. It’s built to handle high-volume fundraising and complex donor relationships, which is where it really shines. While it has a steeper learning curve than some of the "newer" platforms, the depth of data you can track is hard to beat. #### Cons The "Hybrid" Setup: It’s frustrating that the system is split between the modern Web View and the old Database View. You frequently have to jump back and forth between two different interfaces to finish a single task. Complexity: The learning curve is steep. It isn’t intuitive for new staff, and you really need a dedicated "power user" to keep the data clean. Hidden Costs: It’s already expensive, but many essential features and integrations feel like "add-ons" that cost extra. Reporting: While the data is deep, pulling a simple, clean report for a board meeting is surprisingly difficult without exporting everything to Excel first. --- ### A Smart Investment for Growing Development Efforts - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Lidia C. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, my experience with Raiser’s Edge NXT has been very positive. The platform is incredibly powerful when it comes to donor management, reporting, and strategic fundraising. It’s user-friendly, accessible from anywhere, and offers valuable insights that help guide our development efforts. While the cost can be a challenge, the tools and support it provides have truly elevated our fundraising operations. It’s a comprehensive solution that helps us stay organized, build stronger relationships with donors, and ultimately further our mission. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros What I love most about Raiser’s Edge NXT is how intuitive and efficient it is for managing donor relationships. The cloud-based platform makes it easy to access data anytime, anywhere, and the dashboards give a clear, real-time snapshot of fundraising progress. I especially appreciate how seamlessly it tracks giving history and donor engagement, helping us make more informed, strategic decisions. It truly streamlines development work and keeps our team focused on mission-driven goals. Running reports is super easy, too! #### Cons The biggest downside of Raiser’s Edge NXT is the cost. While it offers powerful tools and robust functionality, it can be a significant investment—especially for smaller nonprofits with limited budgets. That said, the value it provides in donor management and reporting is substantial, but the price point may be a barrier for some organizations. --- ### Very Detailed, BUT Complex - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Jocelyn W. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Pretty solid, I wish that I was at a different company when using it. The location that I worked, based upon my observations did not use it in a manner that maximized all of its capabilities. I would recommend taking into consideration exactly what your organizations needs prior to signing up from Raiser's Edge. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Raiser's edge allowed for very complex reports which allowing user quite a bit of flexibility when deciding how to input information into the system. #### Cons To my knowledge RE did not allow a user to create reoccurring list automatically update once saved. Because it does allow more complex reports it is a bit more complex to use and navigate. There are no known integrations with large email mailing software such as MailChimp or constant contact. --- ### Great product but a bit expensive - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Chase T. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: March 2026 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. The overall experience was pretty good but the price point is what ultimately caused us to change companies. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros User friendly after I learned the system. It was fairly easy to navigate all the details of reach donor. #### Cons The customer service wasn't great and the company didn't work with me on the contract I inherited from the previous administration of our organization. The price for the product was very expensive so we had to switch companies as soon as our contract ended. --- ### Robust by flawed - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. While I think it is a good database management system, it's very expensive and probably overly detailed and complicated for many small organizations. In addition, the roll-out of NXT was sold to us in a way that we were getting an upgrade to use our current database in a new user-friendly web platform. That was partially true - NXT provides web-based access to a visually pleasing version of your current database. What they don't explain very well is that the web-based view of the database only allows for minimal functions that database users are used to, and that the old database-view would still be necessary to do important tasks, such as running detailed reports, use Online-Express, batch gift entry, etc. Only now, 5 years after we initially adopted NXT, are we starting to see those features added to the web-view. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Raiser's edge does what it advertises - it gives you a management platform that allows you to create and customize, to an extent, a database of information. So much detail can be captured that it really enables you to pull reports and analyze almost anything you can imagine. The web view is a nice touch for those that need to access data quickly, while the database view is nice for staff who need to dig deeper into the details and the data. #### Cons Raiser's Edge is complicated and it can be confusing and time consuming to try and pull all the data that you're looking for. Creating and using queries and detailed reports is something that you learn overtime and with lots of practice. Additionally, the support system is really lacking. Our assigned Blackbaud customer success manager seems to change every 6 months - sometimes more than that. It's really a 50/50 chance that you'll get a competent support agent when you chat to solve an issue. --- ### Blackbaud - easy and seamless implementation - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Lisa N. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered We have had a great transition from power school to blackbaud as a Student information system. The online courses offered by blackbaud are phenomenal for helping get everything set up #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It’s easy for our registrar to maintain the student database. The refresh each summer is a pretty intuitive process and course management is easy to roll over as well. #### Cons It is difficult to maintain multiple different schedules In The platform (ex: one for middle school and one for high school) --- ### I recommend Raisers edge as people management - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Stephanie B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall I have a good experience. It hasn’t been a large learning curve and I came in with zero experience. I was shown how to use it once and have pretty much been able to run from there. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros It has a lot of features and abilities if you use them all. But you have to definitely have complete information for it to be useful. Once you have your info up to date it is great. #### Cons I would like to be able to look back at my emails created. In Order to see them I have to copy them which is a little annoying. The event management part of it is a bit clunky and confusing as well. --- ### It's a good fund raising product but it needs improvement - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Iris T. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 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. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Visuals 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. #### Cons RE 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. --- ### Satisfied Raiser's Edge 7 user Ready to Make the Jump to RE NXT - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Stephanie C. - Industry: Religious Institutions - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: November 2016 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered 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.) #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Raiser'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. #### Cons My 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. --- ### Pricey add-ons make this a better product - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: sheila h. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. although it has improved things, our office has old practices that prohibit the use of NXT full potential. for the price, i think there should be regular one on one sessions and training, not just readings and webinars. blackbaud is always trying to sell things to make the use of their products more efficient but we already spend a lot of money #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros ease of use on the road. organized into easy to see tiles. ability to upload things by dragging. ability to get lists easily #### Cons inability to create most custom lists. would like lists to be provided by fund. would like all contact information to be able to be shown for donors in one line with name, ID, phone, email and exclusions. need to make very complex queries to accomplish and extract data from the database view. not user friendly for regular office employee. expensive program that our office does not even know how to fully use. would like more individualized training and support to learn all the aspects of what we pay for. however we have a database manager that does this but acts as a gatekeeper. --- ### A Game Changer for Prospect Managers - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Tracey S. - Industry: Primary/ Secondary Education - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2018 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered 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. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros What 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. #### Cons As 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. --- ### The only game in town . . . - Overall rating: 2.5/5 - Reviewer: April W. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Hospital & Health Care - Product usage: Used unspecified for more than 2 years - Reviewed: April 2015 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2.5/5 - Customer support: 1/5 - Functionality: 3.5/5 #### Pros I believe Raiser's Edge allows you to track a lot of informaiton in its constituent-relationship database and I like that it has products which it speaks to easily, i.e. a financial product (Financial Edge) and an Internet option (NetCommunity.) I enjoy having the subscription that we have which allows us access to unlimited online and phone questions/issues and also unlimited online training. Very pricey, but worth it, because of the complexity of the system. Blackbaud makes a habit of buying out a lot of their competitors which makes them "the only game in town" in some aspects, but also allows them to take the best of their competitors products and incorporate them into Raiser's Edge, etc. I am most excited about their new product launching July 1, 2015 called RE NXT. This is a cloud based application which will be a great asset to any non-profit focused on major and principal gifts. The only caveat at this point is that non-profit has to have its RE environment hosted by Blackbaud in order to purchase this product. #### Cons The customer service leaves a lot to be desired. They often do not get back to us when we have issues with RE; they seem to focus most of their customer service toward "hosted" clients (and we are not hosted at the present time); we still have cases open with them and unresolved since November 2014 (and this is now April 2015); they do not exude the "customer is always right" attitude and they are a very expensive product. Also be careful with their pricing, different customers pay different costs for the same service/products. There also seems to be a lot of hidden costs when purchasing new products or modules from Blackbaud for the RE so make sure that you delve into that with your customer representative if you are looking to purchase anything from them. --- ### The Raiser's Edge is an industry standard for a reason. It's robust but doesn't play well with non-Blackbaud software. - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Allison B. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 5001-10000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2018 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. If you're a small-to-medium shop looking to invest in a CRM, The Raiser's Edge will work well for you. If you need easy integration with other software solutions (email marketing, event marketing, etc.) you may want to look elsewhere, but if your main need is a robust CRM, then The Raiser's Edge a good way to go. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros The Raiser's Edge is consistent and reliable as a CRM. Because it is so widely used, there are tons of good resources online if you have any questions, and you are likely to be able to easily hire staff who have experience with it. You are able to set up your data structure with a good amount of customization. The the query tool is easy to use as long as you understand how you've set up your fields. You don't need to be able to code to administer the database, which I appreciated. Permissions are fairly straightforward. #### Cons As part of the Blackbaud suite of products, The Raiser's Edge is not easy to integrate with other products. If you need easy integration with other software solutions, you'll either have to buy other Blackbaud products, which are expensive and sometimes not the best in their class, or do a lot of data transfers between the systems. For example, when I was administering a Raiser's Edge database, I had to regularly export lists for use with Constant Contact, and import transactions for our online giving page, because we didn't use Blackbaud solutions for email marketing or online giving. It wasn't very difficult to do, but it did slow us down with tasks that should be automated. --- ### Outstanding fundraising tool - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Phyllis S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, Raiser's Edge is a helpful tool and provides the information which helps me do my job. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros The ease of use which makes training co-workers much quicker and more easily understandable. The various modules make database management more effective (specifically EVENTS). #### Cons My biggest complaint with Blackbaud is customer service. Prior to the new procedures, I was able to call and speak to a human being and explain my issue. Currently, I can only get a CSR via CHAT, and that is only if someone is available at that time. Even during times where someone is supposed to be available, I frequently receive a message to try again later. When I CAN get a chat session, I find the CSRs are not as knowledgeable as they should be. I also find the CSRs have a hard time comprehending exactly what I'm asking and usually give up and find another way to get the information. In addition, while the standard reports typically give me the information I need, there are some that are sorely lacking and we are presently not in a position to create new ones (time and resources limitations) so we will piece together numerous reports. --- ### Not my choice product - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Rhonda D. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Religious Institutions - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I found the use of this very basic. It does not do all that I would like it to do. First of all, we did not have a a way to link relationships. So, if there was an umbrella organization that donated, and other related groups under that umbrella, then those all had to be accessed separately. In all fairness though, I was only a user and did not have admin abilities, so this may be an option offered. What I do know it that when I started my own non profit, Blackbaud did not even make the "to be considered" list for my organization. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Functionality: 2/5 #### Pros I like how it displayed and gave a good overview of donations. Very easy to navigate and access that information. #### Cons Unless you enter a name specifically as it is entered, it is hard to find. In fact, often it took me much longer to find a client then it should have. --- ### A Joke - Overall rating: 1/5 - Reviewer: Aidan L. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Performing Arts - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 12 months - Reviewed: October 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered It's an entirely negative product and only useful if you still do things the 1980s way, manually and with lots of effort. Do not use if you want a smooth and functional CRM. The fact they charge money for this is disgusting. For every thing I can think to do to improve data operations for my team, RE tells me I can't do it, and nor can I do any of the workarounds I think of. It just hates you and it wants you to fail. DO NOT PAY FOR THIS. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 1/5 - Value for money: 1/5 - Customer support: 1/5 - Functionality: 1/5 #### Pros NXT was pretty? There's a 40 char min on this question but there's not that much good to say about it. #### Cons Everything. From data reporting, to querying, to integration with other software, to donation management. #### Reasons for choosing Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Our finance team used Financial edge and suggested this joke of a product because it supposedly would sync well with FE, which it does not by the way. --- ### It Keeps Getting Better - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Jennifer V. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros We are a higher ed institution and we have moved from Banner to Raiser's Edge to NXT. What we saw right away was that NXT is very intuitive and easy to use. Our frontline gift officers love that they can use it on their phones, computers, tablets, and laptops, and that it's just a website away. Pulling lists is a lot easier and more accessible than the database query and the built-in mapping feature is widely used. It is a very clean and easy interface, which has made it a clear winner with our frontline staff. #### Cons Some very basic components are missing, which can be very frustrating. For instance, you can view an list of your Opportunities (Proposals) and a list of your Portfolio assignments, but not a list of them together. You also can't filter lists by looking for missing values (e.g., Prospect Status is blank), which creates some headaches. You very much have to adapt your processes to the database, rather than adapting the database to your processes. That can create some serious headaches during conversion, but overall it will save time. --- ### Raiser's Edge Lifer Rant - Overall rating: 3.5/5 - Reviewer: Cheena D. - Industry: Fine Art - Product usage: Used unspecified for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2016 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 3.5/5 #### Pros My biggest likes for the Raiser's Edge are the various modules: Events, Membership and Online Express. I can organize the information and pull it back out in queries so easily. The canned reporting is not bad either. They pretty much have every kind of basic report you could need. You can pull some pretty decent reports that track actions, solicitors, giving and profiles. The key is making sure your data is clean and organized. Speaking of which, Raiser's Edge has done a great job of improving it's data clean up functions. They have improved duplicate removals. They have added e-mail and phone clean ups. And they are always on top of making sure their clients are heard (even if it takes them a little while to deliver). #### Cons The reports have aged out at this point in the desktop version (non-cloud). Development departments are looking for different ways to report their money and we are now depending on Crystal Reports to constantly fill that void. I wished the reports were more malleable and you could really build out the layouts to accommodate what staff wants to see. The biggest thing I hear in terms of complaints from my staff are the number of clicks to get a process done, whether entering an event on a record to recording a membership. Sure we can set up default settings for many of the procedures, but there is still that need sometimes to have to go through and enter manually. --- ### No Longer the Go To Software - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Glenda M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Horrible. I wouldn't reccomend this company to anyone. Save your money, do your research and go with another vendor. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Value for money: 1/5 - Customer support: 1/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I enjoyed the upgrades from the old school dinasaur program that was available until NXT. The features were comparable to other software on the market. #### Cons THE PRICE!! They were very proud of their product and ultimately did not try to keep our business. They offered their product to us for $30,000 a year for a database with less than 10,000 constituents. I believe they have since lowered their price, but their security breach has had a huge impact on many of our fellow nonprofits. Their customer service is some of the worst I have ever endured and you will have 5+ people contact about the same issue. You're lucky if you get a respose, so I mostly didn't even ask a question. --- ### NXT is easy to use for donor management - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Allison S. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: September 2022 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I really like the access that we get to donor and constituent profiles. We can easily see all of the history we have with an a donor at our organization. #### Cons I wish that there were smoother transfers of constituents between fundraisers. ## More reviews [Next reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/the-raisers-edge-profile/reviews/?page=2) --- Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice