Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT vs. Causeview

I can quickly look at the pertinent information within a constituent's record by arranging the tiles and having them either expanded or collapsed as needed. I am often able to look into a donor's particular gifts and see the details I need, but sometimes the information isn't complete (method of remittance, etc.), which could be in how we use it more than the Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT setup itself.

Incentivized

Causeview is a bloated, outdated, and expensive tool that is not well suited for any scenario. Salesforce.com offers many better nonprofit and donor management applications at a better price. Causeview's data model is rigid and does not match Salesforce's standard data model, which makes it difficult to add other apps and integrations to Salesforce. Causeview's donate pages are bland and not very customizable. Also, Causeview's servers are not reliable and will go down unexpectedly, which also causes donate pages to go down. Last year, this happened on Giving Tuesday, a very important day for nonprofit fundraising.

Incentivized

• Tracks history of gifts and makes it easy to see giving over time, also good at organizing and accessing complete constituent information around contact information, displaying gifts with date and designations, restrictions etc..
• NXT provides easy access to analytics and reports to share for specific dates etc. to support decision making and planning
• Display format and organization of analytical information is very intuitive and easy to navigate and helpful in developing reports for presentations.

Incentivized

• Causeview's support team is mostly helpful and quick to respond.
• Causeview integrates event registrations within Salesforce.

Incentivized

• API coverage is limited - certain data is inaccessible for arduous to query (ex: rather that pulling all name format records, must query name format data one constituent/API call at a time.
• Native reporting (ie, not using API calls) is limited.
• Bulk data maintenance (imports, updates, etc) limited without use of API calls.

Incentivized

• Event registration and donation pages could be better designed - not up to par with sites such as Eventbrite
• I would like to have the option for people to register with more than one e-mail address instead of creating a duplicate record each time someone uses a different e-mail.
• Some of my coworkers find Causeview confusing to use or difficult to find information.

Incentivized

I don't know for sure what we'll do, and I wouldn't publicly share that anyways. Speaking only for myself, I wouldn't jump for joy if I was given the task of transferring CRM providers when this org has a Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT database that's 28 years old, but being aware of what's on the market is always responsible. With the planned functionality updates to Web View over 2025-2026, the phasing out of features in database view, and the changes to contract structure laid out in investor updates, there's a lot of factors that could change in the next few years. And Blackbaud has not made it clear how much work the transfer to Web View only will be for us over the next couple years: It means updating all of our policies and procedures and all of our documentation and retraining all of our employees at minimum, and that's assuming that all existing fields and features remain accessible without modification.

Incentivized

NXT seems easy to learn on a relatively deep level. There are glitches, like with everything, but it is usually easy to see where they are, most of time. I like that Development staff can choose what they want to see and where they want to see it, and it doesn’t affect my screen.

Incentivized

The only reason I cannot give a 10 is because like all web based products, internet connection is required and that is not something that can be counted on 100% of the time. When the internet connection is stable, I have had little to no issues using Raiser's Edge.

Incentivized

NXT itself is a pretty simple interface, and is great for front-line fundraisers to be able to look up info and run some simple "reports"/analysis. It's very quick and intuitive, but the back-end attached to it (RE 7.96) may have connectivity issues from time to time. NXT itself, though, is simple enough that issues are rare.

Incentivized

Overall I feel like I receive sufficient assistance when reaching out to Blackbaud's Support area. When my questions cannot be answered completely during an online chat I appreciate the ability to easily access the ongoing notes so everything is together. It can be frustrating at times, though, as emailing back and forth seems to make solutions take longer.

Incentivized

Causeview's support is a lone bright spot. They are often quick to respond. They are generally helpful, although brief in their answers and explanations. I would appreciate more detailed answers to technical problems, but I do appreciate their support's problem solving ability

Incentivized

When you get a good, knowledgeable person for in-person training, you can't beat it! Hands on, real time, questions answered on the spot. And they want to make sure you get what you needed before leaving. To also have dedicated time without other distractions is very important to the learning process in my opinion.

Incentivized

I gave a rating of 8 because Blackbaud gives very good general training, but it is not specific to your organization, so it can only go so far. I've seen that every organization uses Raiser's Edge differently so what works for one organization doesn't always work for another. I would highly recommend taking as much of the training as possible because it is informative and gives you a great base knowledge of the system.

Incentivized

Training is key. Blackbaud offered the training package prior to implementation and it helped us understand how to build it so that the future use would be appropriate to the operation of the organization. Data conversion stage was also very important. A lot of work must be done before making the final decisions about the data conversion - what data to convert and what to leave out, where certain information was supposed to be placed within RE.

Incentivized

I have not used other products like this before. I have used and created some SQL databases and ERPs, but have not used fundraising-specific software such as Raiser's Edge. Based on what I know from other products vaguely similar to this - databases and ERPs - this is very user friendly and easy to pick up for anyone, especially with their NXT webview offering.

Incentivized

I did not personally select Causeview for my organization, but I have found it easy to use in comparison with other similar systems. The fact that Causeview can be added to Salesforce, and hop on our existing database, is very important to us and is one of the main reasons we continue to use the service.

Incentivized

New features are constantly being added to Raiser's Edge NXT that expand its capabilities. Features such as constituent mapping and easily accessible actions allow for more in-depth analysis of existing constituents. The future ability to manipulate soft-credits and customize reporting dashboards will make NXT even more attractive to our fundraisers and executives. It's great to see that the software is evolving.

Incentivized

• Having everything in one system means that information is much more likely to be up to date. We hardly get any returned mail from the post office when we pull lists.
• Our gift officers can easily pull up donor information on their phones while out on a visit, giving them the edge they need to close a gift.
• Information tiles on a person's record that are easy to reorganize and collapse per the needs of each user makes finding pertinent information quick.

Incentivized

• Able to track donor behavior and relationships with different corporations
• Helped us to track our corporate fundraising strategy -- which companies are we cultivating, which have we had success with, etc.
• Overall Causeview is an effective way for us to keep track of all of our donor information.

Incentivized