(Blackbaud partner) Cause and Solution, Inc. has been a huge asset to our non-profit. We began our relationship with them when we needed assistance with our migration to Blackbaud Hosting and Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT. Once we were live, they helped us build online donation forms and e-communication lists using Blackbaud Online Express, as well as build Work Center portfolios and moves management process for fundraisers.
The integration between VolunteerHub and Blackbaud Altru has saved our organization hundreds of hours per year. The marriage between the two platforms eliminates hours upon hours of data entry that was required prior to investing in software.
For Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens, the integration of Blackbaud Altru and VolunteerHub— a Blackbaud ISV partner—helps the organization bridge the gap between members, donors, and volunteers, eliminate manual data entry, and provides an extra layer that can be used to build relationships. It also helps the nonprofit’s staff analyze data, understand the motivation of individual supporters, and leverage information to create more strategic cross-promotion campaigns.
Our word for 2020 was integrate, and our new word for 2021 is streamline. Through integrating our services with Blackbaud, we can focus on streamlining processes, communication, and other aspects of our operations.
The amount of tickets that Longue Vue House and Gardens sold online jumped from zero to 61% with Blackbaud Altru, and booking reservations, which previously took 2-3 days’ worth of a staff member’s time a week, now takes 2-3 hours.
I can do so much more for my patrons and members because of (Blackbaud) Altru. We save so much time that we can compete with larger staff organizations and give the same type of customer service as the big museums. I constantly think to myself, ‘How did we possibly manage things without Altru?’ We should have partnered with Blackbaud sooner!
(COVID-19) In addition to virtually connecting parishioners to their faith communities by streaming Mass online, the Diocese of Allentown made it a goal to connect donors to their parish’s offertory through Blackbaud Merchant Services. Within thefirst week of going live with the diocesan online giving portal, the universalsite received over 600 gifts. In less than a month, the site received over 900transactions for over $175,000 in offertory gifts. There’s no way we could have done this without a team—at the diocesan, parish, and Blackbaud levels.
You have to look for a partner that can help you solve problems and help with those hard questions and new challenges. That's definitely a strength that Blackbaud brings to the table.
Overall, the Blackbaud tools made it possible for us to feature our mission and showcase our great priests and parish communities. Because the tech part was taken care of, we could focus on the joyful parts of parish life, and we were able to help keep people connected even in the middle of the pandemic.
Blackbaud’s education management solutions allowed us to streamline our admissions processes and deliver a better overall experience. To complete the application process used to take upwards of a month. Now, it can be completed within a week if need be.
Students have more ownership and autonomy over their degree completion. The conversations we have with them are more intentional and efficient as a result.
With the support of Blackbaud and a strategy built on storytelling, UNCF was prepared to meet the moment of 2020. As COVID-19 heightened challenges faced by African American and other minority students and the social justice movement took hold on a national scale, UNCF saw GivingTuesday online fundraising totals jump up by an astounding 300% and end-of-year giving increase 86%.
Over the years, our relationship with Blackbaud has evolved, matured, and is producing great fruit.
The first time Brother’s Brother used Blackbaud Luminate Online during GivingTuesday—the annual day of giving after Thanksgiving—fundraising for that day increased more than 700%, from $6,000 to $50,000. Those donations synced with the nonprofit’s Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT database, providing a 360-degree view of donors to help inform future stewardship strategy. Blackbaud Digital Marketing Services consultants delivered the campaign strategy, email design, donation form optimization, and more to help make it happen.—
Each Blackbaud professional we have worked with has provided amazing support, easy solutions, and clear communications in order for us to meet our goals. Contacting Blackbaud customer support has also proven to be a very useful tool that has allowed us to quickly address questions or concerns that have arisen. Having the resources that Blackbaud provides through the online Knowledgebase and Blackbaud University allows us to keep up to date on the most efficient ways to manage our database.
Wonderful product! Good for data people, AMAZING for fundraisers!
What do you like best about the product?
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is an efficient and aesthetically pleasing product. Since it is web-based, it is easy to access from anywhere, including mobile devices, which is a huge advantage for traveling staff members like fundraisers. Creating lists, emails, etc., is a breeze in RE NXT, which allows for more flexibility from data administrators since fundraisers can sometimes answer their questions with those tools. Our organization did get some of the add-on features (additional cost), such as Insights Designer for increased reporting capabilities. However, the basic reporting functions are still incredibly detailed and helpful for presenting data to non-numbers people. Overall, it's a great product, and we've been delighted with its performance within our organization.
What do you dislike about the product?
Since Raiser's Edge NXT is still relatively new and constantly receiving updates, there are some functions that we primarily still perform in Database view because the web view doesn't offer all the necessary features yet. These tasks include gifts processing, advanced queries, managing campaigns, funds, and appeals and more. Gifts processing is available in RE NXT, but it is limited to only certain gift types and some of the fields we use are not available in RE NXT gift batches yet so we choose to use database view. While there are features we still strongly believe need to be added soon, we will admit that Blackbaud and the RE NXT ideas bank and community are very responsive and listen to the needs of their users to determine when to deploy updates based on the number of users requesting them.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
RE NXT has increased our fundraiser performance immensely. The system we used previously was very cumbersome for fundraisers and not travel-friendly at all. Our organization's fundraisers love being able to pull up constituent records with ease, enter actions (contact reports), opportunities (proposals), and more, all from their mobile devices. In addition, as the database administrator, RE NXT has made it very easy to share and present data to the entire division for increased transparency and real-time performance metrics.
Blackbaud University and the Financial Edge certification process were a dream when I needed to replace two staff accountants. I’ve hardly had to be involved in their systems training because they are taking live instructor-led courses, doing online courses, etc. … They have only been on my team for a month, and by training through Blackbaud University, they are already processing payables, invoicing receivables, attaching source documentation, etc.
University of Georgia’s Office of Development added a simple invoice/contribution card mailing in December as a result of insights received through donorCentrics and saw a 138% increase in fall fundraising dollars the first year and a similar increase the second year.
With the ability to streamline processes, take out manual repetitive tasks and create transparency, you create value for your team members and the organization and that enables us to serve Sarasota Memorial Health Care System and ultimately our community at a higher level.
My experience of using the certified connector betweenBlackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT and Microsoft Power Platformhas been great. The connector lets you work directly on the business problem you’re trying to solve, rather than trying to understand how the APIs you’re using work, greatly reducing the amount of time taken to create a solution.
(COVID-19)The certified connector between Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and Microsoft Power Platform™ helped University of Kent fundraisers stay on top of developments as they worked from home during COVID-19. The ease provided with the connector helped make sure that donors are thanked quickly, and lets the fundraisers easily mark the gifts as acknowledged, saidJames Hudson, the university’s Operations Manager for Engagement. It has also allowed us to provide information to colleagues in other departments without having to give them access to Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT—for example providing information on large gifts to our Finance Department.
The Sharp HealthCare Foundation implemented Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT in December 2019, with the upgrade from Raiser's Edge equipping its fundraising team with cloud-based access and a modern interface. With improved access to reports and donor information both at home and in the field, frontline fundraisers closed 59 percent of all solicitations in 2020. Migrating onto a cloud-native platform, the foundation also avoided 400 potentially lost work hours as employees transitioned to work-from-home in the first months of the pandemic. The foundation’s investments in training and upfront process and data standardization accelerated its time to value, streamlined workflows, improved productivity, and enhanced donor visibility.
In the past, Manatee County Human Services had to hire a consultant to help answer constant calls related to the grant application for children's programs. Our application is so much easier to use now. Very few times do applicants come to us and say, ‘I don’t understand what you want us to do,’ said Human Services Manager Susan Ford.
I would recommend Blackbaud Grantmaking™ for other government organizations, yes, definitely.
With more efficient, collaborative tools for grant reporting, Manatee County Human Services saves countless hours on office tasks. In turn, contract managers can visit grant recipient programs in person every 2 months vs. 1-2 times a year.