Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Erfahrungen

The Raiser's Edge database was very outdated however with the addition of NXT it's now very visually appealing and user-friendly.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.

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.

Blackbaud Fundraising includes Raiser's Edge, Luminate Online, crowdfunding features. The Fundraising tools integrate very well and it's user friendly and intuitive. We are able to create an attractive and easy to use donation form for our website. It allows you to easily track donor giving, pledges, create donation pledges and integrate with Raiser's Edge and other tools well. NXT is a new feature we purchased which is expensive however it's an attractive interface to view and track donor pledge level and upgrades.

Blackbaud products tend to be very pricey and offer a ton of features however you only use about half of them on regular basis. It could be quite a challenge to create crowdfunding pages., definitely multiple steps. Sometimes the dashboard giving and queries show different numbers so there's some inconsistency. Their NXT new tool is amazing however it's pricey. It's great for major giving officer.

Integration with onsite systems made it easy to use.

Hard to train other users on how to use with our systems.

NXT is easy to use for most people
Aesthetically pleasant
Works well to manage donors for the most part

NXT is easy for some people to use but it seems that it is easier for employees that are also familiar with the database view
Many features on the database view are not easy to use (or non-existent) in NXT
Functions are lacking when put against other products, such as, Salesforce for Nonprofits

This is definitely a nice product that does everything that it promises, and helps us keep track of all of our donors.

The price point is high for what you are getting, and customer support for this product is extremely poor at best.

The sales presentation was great and looked easy. I signed the contract, I spent hours trying to get it going and could not. I have had 3 web designers not be able to make it work. So I guess what I like most was the sales presentation.

Our organization found their software extremely difficult. Once in the contract they would not let us out of the contract. I would not recommend.

NXT is intuitive, accessible from anywhere on nearly any device. It allows users to take the database with them on the road.

Not all features in the classic Raiser's Edge are implemented in NXT yet. New features come on line often, though, so this shouldn't be a long-term issue.

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is an efficient and effective way to manage a donor database. It's user friendly for front line fundraisers, and the reports are helpful in retaining current donors and moving new donors through the moves management process.

While it is user friendly and has some really good aspects, there are still some restrictions on data viewing that could be improved. But Blackbaud is working on these to improve the overall experience.

I do feel that once you get comfortable with RE, it's pretty user friendly.

Sometimes there are limitations to what you can do (for example, creating your giving page), but even with those limitations, the end products looks pretty good.

I believe Raiser's Edge allows you to track a lot of informaiton in its constituent-relationship database and I like that it has products which it speaks to easily, i.e. a financial product (Financial Edge) and an Internet option (NetCommunity.) I enjoy having the subscription that we have which allows us access to unlimited online and phone questions/issues and also unlimited online training. Very pricey, but worth it, because of the complexity of the system. Blackbaud makes a habit of buying out a lot of their competitors which makes them "the only game in town" in some aspects, but also allows them to take the best of their competitors products and incorporate them into Raiser's Edge, etc. I am most excited about their new product launching July 1, 2015 called RE NXT. This is a cloud based application which will be a great asset to any non-profit focused on major and principal gifts. The only caveat at this point is that non-profit has to have its RE environment hosted by Blackbaud in order to purchase this product.

The customer service leaves a lot to be desired. They often do not get back to us when we have issues with RE; they seem to focus most of their customer service toward "hosted" clients (and we are not hosted at the present time); we still have cases open with them and unresolved since November 2014 (and this is now April 2015); they do not exude the "customer is always right" attitude and they are a very expensive product. Also be careful with their pricing, different customers pay different costs for the same service/products. There also seems to be a lot of hidden costs when purchasing new products or modules from Blackbaud for the RE so make sure that you delve into that with your customer representative if you are looking to purchase anything from them.

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).

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.

We are a higher ed institution and we have moved from Banner to Raiser's Edge to NXT. What we saw right away was that NXT is very intuitive and easy to use. Our frontline gift officers love that they can use it on their phones, computers, tablets, and laptops, and that it's just a website away. Pulling lists is a lot easier and more accessible than the database query and the built-in mapping feature is widely used. It is a very clean and easy interface, which has made it a clear winner with our frontline staff.

Some very basic components are missing, which can be very frustrating. For instance, you can view an list of your Opportunities (Proposals) and a list of your Portfolio assignments, but not a list of them together. You also can't filter lists by looking for missing values (e.g., Prospect Status is blank), which creates some headaches. You very much have to adapt your processes to the database, rather than adapting the database to your processes. That can create some serious headaches during conversion, but overall it will save time.

Logging in is simple - you can do it from a browser. With NXT, there are unlimited licenses so you can have virtually "unlimited" logins. The OLX emails are more reliable than the old NetCommunity. Has decent analytics and reporting (for donations only).

The NXT web view has a nice layout but is completely useless for membership. In order to do data entry, you still need to use database view. NXT is very expensive and not worth it just for a fancy view. There were lots of features that we had been promised and we were also told that things were being updated constantly and that we should see more functionality coming very quickly. This has not been the case. Training is expensive and knowledgebase articles can be outdated. Anyone seeking a membership management software or association management should research all options before moving to RE.

I really like the access that we get to donor and constituent profiles. We can easily see all of the history we have with an a donor at our organization.

I wish that there were smoother transfers of constituents between fundraisers.

Ease of use, layout, look...Blackbaud did a great job thinking of the front line fundraisers' busy schedule. It is great to use on the go or in the office.

Not all functionality in the database view hasn't been implemented yet it in the webview. For my position, the webview isn't quite ready. However, due to the limitations, pulling certain lists and other functionalities within actions - it can be hard to train users (you think the functionality is there, but it hasn't been implemented yet).

I can organize all actions and gifts while being able to pull information the way I need it presented.

I find queries can sometimes be challenging. I occasionally run one that just isn't working correctly and it can be frustrating.