Blackbaud Target Analytics vs. Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit (discontinued)

Target Analytics is great for organizations that are trying to "mine for gold." There are packages and products that can allow you to clean up your data, append the data, and then finally, score the data to create an increased potential for finding major donors and supportive constituents hiding in your database.

I have recommended Microsoft for Nonprofits to other Nonprofits that we work with. I have helped to implement it for a couple of them. I want to share the good things that Microsoft has to share for nonprofits like ours. I understand the struggles of paying for things and not having enough money at times to do everything I would love to be able to provide.

Incentivized

• Address Updates - starting at the basics, the Target Analytics products allow you create a firm foundation for the data in your system.
• Data Hygiene - taking it a step further is creating and updating data on an individualized basis - such as DeceasedRecord Finder, and Email Finder.
• Data Modeling - Once your data has been appended it can be modeled for increased donor interaction, stewardship, and solicitation.

• Providing a basic framework for nonprofit organizations who've been limping along or have capped out with their current platforms to consider switching to amplify and multiply their capabilities, reach, and impact
• Increasing the accessibility for both citizen developers and tech teams to extend a platform, so long as there are clear parameters (business use case) and thoughtful design and architecture planning
• Sharing some core infrastructure that accelerates the use of important tools to further the mission of nonprofit organizations

• Confirmed relationships needs to be a field that can be synced to The Raiser's Edge
• Philanthropic giving, when synced to the Prospect tab, needs to be able to be sorted by dollar value (like in Excel); this is a change that would need to happen in The Raiser's Edge
• With increasing competition from other wealth screening vendors, it would be useful if data sources were updated more frequently (i.e. real estate and giving).

Incentivized

• The system is ridiculously hard to implement, requiring too many tiers of Microsoft cloud services to be enabled.
• The technical aspects of the product are far too complex for anyone with standard cloud-based app training to implement.
• The non-profit "qualification" system is poorly designed.

Incentivized

It's been very helpful at a very discounted price, especially in data analysis and visualization with Power BI.

Incentivized

While there is always room for improvement, I have always had good luck with TA support. There are so many ways to get help! Sometimes I can answer my own question by just accessing the vast Knowledgebase directory. I have been able to get quick answers by initiating a live Chat without having to navigate the call center voice mail options, which can be a little overwhelming. Sometimes my question or problem is more involved and I'll submit a case online. Between email conversations or a phone call, the representatives I've worked with have always been super helpful, never condescending, and they often follow up days later to make sure everything is working well

Incentivized

No one product can give a complete picture of your prospect. We like to layer products to be sure we get second and sometimes third confirmations that we are looking at the right prospect and accurate assets for that prospect. All these vendors use similar data sources and algorithms, but the unique ways they each present the data along with each using a different data source update timetable really helps to put all the pieces of the puzzle that is our prospect together and ensures we are looking at the the most complete picture possible for our gift officers. ResearchPoint is a key component in this puzzle for us with the icing on the top being its seamless integration with The Raiser's Edge. Being able to qualify real estate, business info, philanthropic and political giving and then sync it to the Prospect tab with one click is a huge gift!

Incentivized

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit has a similar applicability for us to Microsoft SharePoint; however, Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit really fits the size of the organization, whereas Microsoft SharePoint seems to be often tuned for larger organizations than our own. Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit seems to be the right product and size.

Incentivized

• ResearchPoint gives us peace of mind that we have the right prospect thru their confidence level scores and just by having accurate information most of the time.
• ResearchPoint often shows us gifts to other orgs or real estate we did not find from other sources.
• I can't really come up with a negative impact on ROI!

Incentivized

• Attempting to deploy Microsoft Cloud for Non-profits had a negative impact on our donor relations staff, the technical team tasked to deploy it, and upper management who watched the deployment fail.
• Overall, this product is too dependent on too many Microsoft Cloud services to really deploy with any sort of clear expectation to management of what the "hidden" costs would be.

Incentivized