Raiser's Edge Lifer Rant

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.

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.)

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.

Powerful Database

My recommendation is to get formal training if you are going to use the database and give each new staff member the opportunity to be trained by a Raiser's Edge specialist. The database is absolutely worth the time and money if you also invest in your staff's knowledge of it. If two people are doing the same task in even a slightly different way, you can end up with holes in your data. However, if you do get good training, you'll find this database to be well worth it and will assist your fundraising strategies quite well.

Pros

The Raiser's Edge is a very powerful database that can provide great insight into your organization's fundraising. It has the capability to track and report on anything you would ever need to look at for fundraising. The template reports are customizable, which is very helpful. My favorite feature is the query and export combo - I can pull out any piece of information I need to analyze and Raiser's Edge does a good job of getting rid of duplicate information for me. The dashboard feature is also good - you can create multiple dashboards to compare fiscal years, appeals, funds, recent gifts list, summaries, etc. You can also share your dashboard with other users so that everyone can be looking at the same thing.

Cons

Building custom reports from scratch (not using a template) can be challenging to create through Crystal Reports. However, you can usually find a template that you can customize to create a similar report, if not the exact report you want to write.

Duplicate records can also be challenging in Raiser's Edge. When Constituents are uploaded to the database from a list or entered manually, Raiser's Edge will not identify duplicates if the name or address is not an exact match. This can be frustrating - for example, it won't recognize a duplicate address if the only difference is between "Street" and "St." in the database. Cleaning up the duplicates is even more challenging. I have needed to export lists of constituents, identify duplicates in Excel, and then go back into Raiser's Edge to merge and delete the duplicate constituent records.

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.

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.

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.

Pros

Queries 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

Cons

The 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.

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Valuable and versatile database

I'm speaking to RE7, i.e. the database view specifically, which many nonprofits use exclusively but those who purchase the NXT bundle also have access to the full database view as well. I've been using RE7 for 12 years and overall I love it, especially in combination with the NXT web view.

Pros

There is so much you can do with Raiser's Edge, it's a robust and powerful tool. It works "out of the box" without need for programming or customization per se (other than settings and configuration etc.) so you don't need to be a coder to set up and use. I particularly love queries to pull together lists of donors who meet certain criteria, which can then be used for mailing lists, reports, exports, etc. The acknowledgement letters are incredibly valuable, allowing variable data and personalized language, e.g. when a gift is designated to a particular program we pull in a paragraph about that program without our gift entry staff having to do any manual or extra work.

Cons

Can be a bit clunky, and not always intuitive (NXT web view is a huge improvement in those areas). The reports aren't pretty (again NXT is astronomically better there) and sometimes there isn't a report that will work for our needs so I have to set up with queries and exports. There is almost always a way to do what I need to do, but I sometimes have to go through some complicated digital acrobatics to get there.

Great Product, but Could be Overkill for Most Nonprofits

It's doubtful to me, especially after having worked with a few smaller nonprofits which have used Raisers Edge, that even the heaviest users in this arena are using even 50% of the product's out of the box functionality. So while I love the product, and especially love it because it integrates seamlessly with Financial Edge for the accounting reporting, smaller nonprofits are probably better served with something just as user-friendly but much cheaper for donations/events/membership management, like Avectra's Net Forum.

Pros

Blackbaud's Raisers Edge is great software for donations management, including special events and memberships. It's very easy to use, and very easy to get information from, whether through any of the many canned reports, or through queries and exports. Support is extra, but well worth the cost, at least in the initial years after set-up.

Cons

The cost - upwards for just the donations management - is considerable. And things like the Special Events module and Membership and Tributes and Memorials modules are not included in the base package. Like most other software, a lot of thought needs to happen when setting Raisers Edge up. But seriously for every con that I could list, the customer support that comes extra with the annual maintenance, if purchases, offsets the con with quick answers and fixes, so that even the most complicated thing in RE is easily addressed with a quick phone call to support.

The Raiser's Edge is an industry standard for a reason. It's robust but doesn't play well with non-Blackbaud software.

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.

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.

The best donor database

If you decide on Raiser's Edge, try to combine it with Financial Edge. Very similar software, integration, and user knowledge overlap. Just be prepared to pay.

Pros

Raiser's Edge is the best donor database I've seen. It has comprehensive fields and capability to track projects, funds, and appeals. When we used RE, we had about 250 different appeals categorized and about 50 different funds. When running reports or queries, you could slice and dice the data pretty much any way you wanted. Query functions were huge for me. You can dig down into anything you want - all donations by xyz appeal during 10-11 timeframe and paid by check at a certain event? That's an option, for example, with the click and choose query.
Huge added bonus if you use RE in conjunction with Financial Edge, Blackbaud's accounting system, as the two systems actually integrate (not export and import but a true integration).

Cons

The biggest obstacle we faced with RE was the pricing. Blackbaud prices you into tiers based on number of constituents, so if you keep old donor records "just in case", you end up accumulating all these records and data that you are paying for annually. If you can afford it, it's great. They are definitely shooting for the quality model not the low-cost model.

Great Product with Room for Improvement

Pros

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.

Cons

There 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.

Helpful fundraising software

Pros

The software allows you to keep more than just address and gift data for your constituents. You can customize parts of the software to meet your organization's specific needs. Additional modules can be added as your organization needs grow and budgets allow. Customer support is available through many channels and the company works to help users interact with each other, which can be very beneficial. They offer a variety of training options that are also beneficial and I would argue essential.

Cons

Their growth and expansion of products seems to be outpacing the ability in all areas to support it all. On a few occasions I have found promises made by sales staff to be unmet by the software...though it appears to be more of a lack of true understanding of my questions/needs on the part of specific people sales staff. When I ask support staff about it later, they are much clearer on what the software can & can't do.

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.

Pros

The 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.

Cons

NXT 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.

The Raiser's Edge NXT: Moving Fundraising Forward

Pros

I love that the fundraisers I work with are more comfortable with the NXT interface, yet I still have access to RE:7 to do the heavy-lifting. And I love that Blackbaud actively solicits feedback and input from customers/users to drive development of the product. This gives us the chance to get a product that is more tailored to what we need and want.

Cons

Much too early for anything to mention here. Because it's cloud-based, NXT can get upgrades and new features rolled out regularly, with no action needed on the user's part...I do wish there was an update product development map that showed what is coming when, even if the timing is constantly in-flux.

Overall very pleased

Pros

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.

Cons

BlackBaud 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.

A huge step forward from RE7

Pros

RENXT is a wonderful leap forward for those that are currently using RE7. First off, it is online, so you can login anywhere and on any device, which for me makes it far more useful to fundraisers. Ultimately, I am a big fan and I think it makes your fundraisers spend more time reaching out to key donors, rather than working on back end tracking and database work. Also, what I appreciate the most is that I do not have to hire people who have RE experience anymore, because it is so easy for them to immediately start working out of NXT. It opens up the candidate pool!

Cons

This is a general blackbaud critique, but their customer service is not always the best. They can be difficult to get in touch with and you sometimes have to wait for a while to get a question answered or problem fixed. I will say, we have not had any issues with NXT in particular, where we needed to call them though.

Donor data taken to the next level

Pros

Raiser's Edge is a powerhouse for the management of donor data. It is easy to track a donor's contributions and see their giving history at a glance. I especially like the ability to identify each donor with a constituent code, which makes it very convenient to pull reports on specific groups of people who donate (like volunteers, board members, or staff). With the ability to see giving trends in multiple ways, data analysis is much more comprehensive and quicker to review than with other similar software types I have used.

Cons

Certain custom reports or queries can be difficult to design for the desired output, requiring help from Customer Service. Unfortunately, the wait time to speak with a live customer service representative is always VERY long. The online chat option can work in some instances, but not always. It would be nice if there were more representatives available to help via phone. The product is also very expensive and there are additional costs to add new components, even modifications like changes to the online interface. Every new development for the product comes with a high price.

Raiser's Edge 7.94

Overall, Raiser's Edge is a great product with a lot of functionality. It can be pricey, but my research shows me that for many major fundraising organizations, they all use it. Raiser's Edge is the industry standard. If your organization uses it, I would not migrate away from it. If your organization is not using, it might be a worthwhile investment for the functionality it provides.

Pros

Relatively easy to use. Great functionality as a constituent database and donor giving software. Definitely top of the line.

Cons

Multiple modules needed for credit card processing, events, education/alumni. Each module is additional cost. Conversioncost could be high if converting away from Raiser's Edge due to its complexity compared to other providers. Customer support can take a long time to get through via phone. Sales really pushes to move you RE-NXT, which is cloud-based and costs several thousand more than server-based RE.

Easy to use product...even for non-technical people

I'd like to see search and list options included for Fund records, Events, and memberships. Adding this functionality would make it a more complete product for our development staff to use and be able to easily view information that is tracked in each of these key areas like lists of endowments, attendees of specific events, etc.

Pros

The data is in an easy to use format, especially for non-technical people. In addition, the list and analyze features provide an easy way to view specific information easily. Our staff really likes the ability to move tiles around, the mapping feature, and integration with outlook.

Cons

The integration with Outlook doesn't allow the ability to change a completed date and add the name of a solicitor when creating an action.
It does not allow searching or lists for fund, campaign, membership, or event records.

Great product for our fundraising team!

This is a great product for those who have teams where technology may not be a strong suit or entering into the full RE database is challenging. Our team is on the road often and they are able to quickly add contact reports and get simple constituent profiles on the go. As a database manager, NXT is not sophisticated enough for me to use solely, but I do utilize it occasionally so I am up to speed on the functionality.

Pros

Ease of use, integration with The Raiser's Edge database, easy to access via mobile devices, has a pleasant look and feel to the application. Overall, an excellent product!

Cons

Attachments do not integrate with RE when loaded through NXT, and there is no way to pull a report or query of attachments made in NXT. A little more integration development so the two systems can talk to one another is probably needed.