Raiser's Edge NXT is cloud fundraising and constituent relationship management software from Blackbaud.
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DonorPerfect
Score 7.6 out of 10
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DonorPerfect is a fundraising software solution, used by fundraisers to manage gifts, donor relationships, communications, receipting, and other initiatives from a single system. DonorPerfect supports monthly giving success. Dashboard analytics and reporting provide insight into what drives donations, and organizations can send personalized email communications through Constant Contact to donors and supporters. Integrated online forms automatically enter gift information into the…
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.
I love that I can integrate with Donor Search to learn about a person's past giving history to learn more about their interests. DonorPerfect also lets us upload a photo of our donors so we can easily identify them when they visit us or Attend a function. I wish the photo upload offered a larger image and multiple images, some donors send me pics of their visits and pets and it would be great to also store those right in their DP account.
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.
Reports are clean and fairly simple to pull, as long as you're trained in how to use the filters. Especially coming from experience using a database where we had to write codes to pull reports, Donor perfect's report system is incredibly simple.
DonorPerfect is SO user-friendly and simple to find the information you need. I believe anyone can easily learn how to use it.
It's so simple to customize your DonorPerfect system. Screen Designer is one of my favorite parts. I have no background in databases, but I can create fields, calculations, set alerts for our philanthropy officers when certain gifts come in, and customize how the screens look. You can make so many adjustments in your DonorPerfect system to meet the needs of your organization.
The staff listen to your needs! The community allows you to make a suggestion for how DonorPerfect can be improved. If your idea gets enough votes, they make it happen. The support team is also probably the best I've ever seen. Each person is so knowledgeable, personable, and helpful.
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.
DonorPerfect lacks good reporting functionality. Our staff often have to export data to CSV or use other reporting tools so we end up with a lot of data outside
DonorPerfect doesn't really do a good job of tracking the full donor relationship. It needs to have better CRM functionality. Our donor relations staff often resort to third party tools to track these things.
DonorPerfect has an API for integrations but it is very poorly implemented and slow.
We have a lot of security concerns about DonorPerfect. These stem from our experiences using their API and observing how it is implemented, but also through our conversations directly with the company. They refused to provide security compliance details during a routine vendor risk audit from a reputable security audit vendor that we engaged to evaluate all of our vendors.
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.
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.
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.
It's always up when we need it. There are some errors that happen and are not reproducible and cannot be resolved. But [they are] very few and none that cause disruption for the organization.
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.
DonorPerfect is as reliable as your internet connection. It is a cloud based application and therefore you cannot pinpoint where the bottleneck is should you have one. But for the most part the app runs quickly.
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.
Support is so easy. We use chat most often - as we can get someone quickly. The support folks know the product and get answers quickly. If they need to escalate an issue, they do so quickly. The training is great and easily accessible. You can take classes over and over until you completely understand concepts
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.
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.
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.
DonorPerfect provides an extremely easy to use importing tool and the support team was awesome. You don't have to do it in house; for a reasonable fee you can get it done by them.
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.
Although DonorSnap was less expensive, it did not provide the same ease of use. I purchased DonorSnap because of the price and very quickly realized I made a mistake. We used it less than 6 months before I converted to DonorPerfect. Not all donor management systems are the same... you get what you pay for!
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.
[There have been] only two outages since we have started using it and they were extremely information proactive. This should scale easily based on your internet connection.
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.
I can't imagine doing my job on a daily basis without DonorPerfect, so the ROI is tremendous for me and my organization. Not only does it store our records and data succinctly, it is a one-stop shop for staying organized and on-task with the personal Dashboard feature, recording data (no matter how obscure), and generating reports.
DonorPerfect is a huge time-saver for me, as it allows me to schedule tasks for myself and set specific reminders related to donors that populate on my daily Dashboard. I don't have to leave DonorPerfect, open up a calendar program, and duplicate my entry of data or tasks or reminders. I can do it all within each donor's record without leaving DonorPerfect or having to navigate elsewhere on my PC.
