I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly our donors began to make PayPal transactions. Since we started offering this payment method, 23% of our online gifts have come through PayPal. Donors new to our organization seem especially responsive to the option to give securely through PayPal. It’s very heartwarming to see that this is an option that our donors are looking for, and that we can give them.
When Queen’s University Belfast migrated to Blackbaud RENXT and the Microsoft Azure Cloud as planned with Blackbaud and Insight Enterprises, everyone knew exactly where they should be and what they should be doing, said Jonathan Doonan, development services manager for the university. This was a huge migration, and it wasn’t to be taken lightly. With this amount of data, you can never predict how long it will take. But because we were so prepared and had liaised so closely with Blackbaud, going live was a great success. Everything went so smoothly, and it was all due to the careful planning and the team at Blackbaud who had been through this many times before with other similar organisations.
Running queries and reports is far superior to what we were ever able to do in our old database.
As a result of their migration to Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT and integration with Blackbaud partner Omatic, a tool that allows the user to schedule bulk data uploads from third-party platforms, Demelza Hospice can now import data in one step, compared to three or four steps with their old database.
We’ve been able to mail thousands of people to say thank you that we could never do before. We now have a model that is future proof.
Wales Air Ambulance set up a virtual event in 2020 called Walk Wales, in which people could choose a set distance that would replicate a specific trek across Wales, and raised nearly £50,000. We launched a campaign on JustGiving, which integrated with both Strava and Raiser’s Edge NXT, and it was incredible to do all reporting from one place rather than across different platforms, said Mark Stevens, head of fundraising.
I don’t think anybody would ever say that (the transition to new software) is ever easy. But I will say that the process and training that Blackbaud had laid out for us was very good, very thorough.
What do you like best about the product?
The best part of enrollment management is the integration with Blackbaud Tuition Management/SmartTuition. When a parent completes an enrollment contract the payment automatically goes into SmartTuition.
What do you dislike about the product?
Each contract type can only have one tuition amount per grade level. In our preschool, we have about 12 different tuition amounts. We have to have a lot of contract types.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Easy for parents to inquiry to admission and we capture their contact information. Easy for parents to apply. Easy to add financial aid to contracts. Easy for parents to complete contracts and have their payment setup in SmartTuition.
With their ability to work faster and deliver more detailed reports with Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, Community Health Center of Lubbock has seen their grant funding increase by roughly 25%.
Without having a dashboard, it might have taken 10 or 15 minutes to pull something and manipulate it, versus a couple of minutes to hit a button and drill down with the dashboard. If you add that up over a period of time, you’re definitely manpower saving.
What do you like best about the product?
RENXT's tagging feature and search features allow me to quickly identify portfolio prospects and non-portfolio prospects who need attention. The interface is visually pleasing and the drag-and-drop layout sections provide a great way to allow me to best manage my own experience. Filing contact reports is a breeze and can be done in a way that best matches with my organization's best practices, and the interface with the legacy RE 7 system gives me even more power to customize lists and reports.
What do you dislike about the product?
The weakest part of this system is the email marketing client. Blackbaud's other email clients are more powerful and more flexible, and I wish they'd ported over some more of that capacity into the NXT email marketing system.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Portfolio management is the hardest part of my day. "Who do I call? What do I need to do with them? Who's about to be lost if I don't take action?" NXT gives me easy, digestible, sortable, and filterable portfolio management tools that make working with my prospects a breeze.
Impact for the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk after implementing targeted mailings with Blackbaud TargetAnalytics®: • Printing & mailing costs: down 50% Response rate: up 23% • Number of donations: up 3x • Average donation: up 50%
At a critical moment, Charleston Animal Society raised just shy of $400,000 through a virtual version of its chili cook-off powered by JustGiving from Blackbaud peer-to-peer fundraising. The JustGiving website gave us so much flexibility to do what we needed to do to save these animals, said Charleston Animal Society CEO Joe Elmore.
Around 90% of our donors have been personally influenced by the sisters, and Blackbaud Target Analytics helps us fill in that last 10% that is so critical to make sure our sisters are now cared for in their retirement.
Trying to manage tuition had been a nightmare for us because we were using a couple of products that weren’t integrated. The shift to Blackbaud solutions for enrollment and tuition management and our new use of contracts made a huge difference for the admissions and financial offices and has allowed us to better manage and track tuition dollars.
The gamification approach provided by Charity Dynamic’s avatar tools in sync with Blackbaud solutions was clearly a game-changer for Canadian Cancer Society's CIBC Run for the Cure: • 36% of Run participants created and customized their own Boundless Motion avatar. • With the avatar option available, the fundraiser activation rate—reflecting those participants who engaged in peer-to-peer fundraising in addition to registering for the run or walk—was up 38% from the year before. • Participants who created a custom avatar raised 4.5 times more than those who didn’t, and those who created a custom avatar AND used the mobile app raised 5.8 times more than those who did neither. • Active fundraisers who also created an avatar raised an additional $404 on average. • Active fundraisers who created an avatar AND used the app raised an additional $523 on average. • The overall average raised per fundraiser grew by 22%.
Blackbaud TeamRaiser and Blackbaud Luminate Online provide a great canvas to paint on, said Sue Dalos, director of digital strategy and customer success for Charity Dynamics, a Blackbaud partner that has created Boundless Motion avatar tools used by Blackbaud customers.
We have really leveraged Blackbaud’s tools and platform and enhanced them in ways that have helped us be successful in what is a very challenging market.
I think the donor portal is a really great way for donors to see the impact they’re making.
Ann Schubert, operations coordinator for Austin Community College Foundation, credited Blackbaud’s responsive customer support team for helping staff adapt to new processes and tools and said the transition to Blackbaud Award Management and Blackbaud Stewardship Management has been well worth it. She anticipates most donors will embrace the online setup, and after the first year, she had only heard favorable reactions as donors and the scholarship recipients they support are more connected than ever before.
What do you like best about the product?
The simplicity of the system to use and train others and the powerful query/export functionality. It has allowed us to stream line our processed and make sure we are capturing relevant information consistently.
What do you dislike about the product?
At the moment, the main issue I have is that not all functionality from the database view is available in RE NXT
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Donor stewardship and pledge tracking have been the biggest changes for us moving to RE NXT
Touched personally by the Huntsville Hospital Foundation’s work, a local family set up a memorial page in honour of Janet Gambrell, who passed away in her home supported by family and Huntsville Hospital’s palliative team. Through their JustGiving campaign, the Gambrell family raised in excess of $22,000 to purchase a portable ultrasound machine to help support the hospital’s palliative patients—this was the only piece of equipment that had been missing in Janet’s care. Purchasing the portable ultrasound machine for the hospital was the Gambrell family’s way of celebrating Janet’s life and honouring her wish to give back to the community she loved. Another local supporter and hospital volunteer raised more than $13,000 to purchase food and comfort items for frontline hospital staff, including a UV sterilizer for personal items to help keep them safe while on shift. *NOTE: Photos specific to these 2 examples are included in the story and available for use in other assets.
It’s taking what used to only live with the division’s reporting team and providing everyone with that same access. It’s really infusing the idea of analytics and the idea of being purposeful in our activity across the division.
With information gained largely through Blackbaud Fundraiser Performance Management, the University of Delaware’s Division of Development and Alumni Relations created a set of eight new segments that tie prospects with the greatest wealth, opportunity, and inclination to donate with key university priorities. That would have been impossible without the scoring that we get from Fundraiser Performance Management and the way it allows us to look at that information, said Kate Long, associate vice president and chief of staff for the division.
Members of the University of Delaware’s Division of Development and Alumni Relations meet regularly with a dedicated strategic consultant for Blackbaud Fundraiser Performance Management who makes the data even more meaningful. Their Blackbaud consultant even helped plan a day-long learning event that the team called Blackbaud-palooza. What I really enjoy and appreciate about our Blackbaud consultant is that she’s up for anything, and she appreciates the uniqueness of the University of Delaware, said Kate Long, associate vice president and chief of staff for the Division of Development and Alumni Relations.