Great option for Advancement Department of private high school!
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
Working in Advancement, I utilize The Raiser's Edge multiple times a day. We are an all-girls private high school so we need to accurately track not only current students and parents but also our alumnae and other donors. The Raiser's Edge allows us to do this easily. We have started tracking events and now have the tribute module, allowing us to more easily capture the honorariums and memorials we receive in our alums' names. Building our donor forms in Online Express gives us the flexibility to capture information while still accepting online donations. The reporting features in NXT are great snapshots for those that need to see quick numbers for various funds, campaigns, or even events. Our Finance people have view access to see these numbers since our systems do not communicate currently. Being able to break down giving by class year is a great bonus, too, for competitions between classes! Having all of these people in one database gives us the ability to handle all the mailings needed for the school.
Pros
- Security is great because the DBA is able to really specify what can be viewed by different people and to do so in different ways. There are so many options to refine options for different work types.
- While reports in database view are more extensive, the options are still vast in NXT. You can break down the same data in different ways on the same report with different insights and then have a drill-down ability right there rather than running a different report.
- Having the ability to send emails directly from NXT is great because the database automatically records each receipt for the constituents. Each email sent shows click rate, what addresses bounced, and other helpful information.
Cons
- The database view is still much more versatile with information tracked in areas outside standard constituent information (contact and biographical). Gifts that are pledges/payments or tributes must be entered in database view because there are no options in NXT as of yet.
- Querying can be easier in the database view depending on your needs. Lists are really helpful and plenty of options exist for filters but sometimes they're just very limited for what you need.
- You cannot add new campaigns, funds, and appeals with their necessary information from NXT. That must be accessed through database view.
Most Important Features
- The add-on for alumni is invaluable to our department.
- Tracking all aspects of events is very useful for our Advancement department.
- Gift tracking is the most utilized aspect of NXT, both for individual gifts and the reporting of them.
Return on Investment
- Having the ability to break down giving in different ways (giving levels, groups of people) allows us to target our annual fund.
- After cleaning data, I have been able to dramatically decrease the amount of time needed to collect a mailing list for our periodical magazine.
- Our department is more productive now with the decrease in the number of spreadsheets needed to track information since data is centralized.
Other Software Used
Blackbaud Online Express, Blackbaud Target Analytics
