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5 Features in Raiser’s Edge NXT That Were Not in RE7

Rashida A. Brown

Senior Consultant

Rashida has worked exclusively with nonprofit organizations for over 20 years on improving the use of their technology, on projects including CRM implementation, business analysis, business process workflow development, and more.
May 31, 2022

As many organizations have transitioned from Blackbaud’s classic Raiser’s Edge 7 to Raiser’s Edge NXT (RENXT) cloud solution, they are discovering the benefits of a web interface. Accessible online from any internet browser, RENXT provides up-to-date features that allow for greater ease of use.

Yet we know from talking to our nonprofit clients, there are many organizations who have yet to make the switch to NXT. So for this month’s blog post, we put together the top five features in RENXT that were not in RE7.

Google-like Searching

Searching for constituents in RENXT operates similar to Google or other popular internet search engines. Criteria such as name, ID, address, phone, and email information, partial or whole, can be entered into one search box on screen. While RENXT does not support wildcard characters as RE7 did, entering name information will result in records returned that exactly match or are similar to the search criteria entered. A checkbox to Include Relationship Records becomes available on the Search Results screen and widens the search to look at non-constituent relationships such as spouses, employers, and primary contacts at organizations. Another great enhancement is the ability to narrow your search results further using the Find In This List feature that allows a user to further narrow the search results.

Hyperlinks within a Constituent Record

When navigating constituent records and viewing information on screen, RENXT has many hyperlinks that allow a user to perform various actions from within a record.

  • Clicking on a constituent address hyperlink, opens a browser window to view the address in Google maps.
  • Clicking on a constituent phone or email hyperlink, prompts the user to add an Action, send an email from Outlook, or even calls the constituent if an online VOIP system is installed on the computer.
  • Clicking on a related individual or organization hyperlink takes you directly to the record of the individual or organization.
  • Clicking on a hyperlinked gift amount, opens the gift record.

These hyperlinks allow for much easier navigation through a constituent’s record information than in RE7, where users had to navigate tabs and open and close windows within a constituent record.

Constituent Tags

RENXT has a built-in feature that tags constituent records based on pre-determined criteria. Tags can indicate when a constituent is a new donor, or has an upcoming birthday, to prompt a user to reach out to a constituent. There are tags that indicate when a constituent record has been recently updated with important information, such as a gift or wealth screening data. Tags can also indicate when a constituent has an overdue pledge or attended an event. These tags are pre-set and cannot be updated by RENXT users, but they are very useful in helping users prioritize interactions and identify donors to engage and how to engage them. There was no comparable functionality in RE7 to RENXT Tags and users had to generate reports and run queries to access this type of information.

Adding Actions to Calendar

RENXT, through integration with Microsoft Outlook 365 and Google calendar, allows users to add actions to an external calendar by clicking on a button within the action record. The option to download the appointment as an .ics file is also available for users to add to an Apple iCalendar or other calendar program. This feature allows a user to manage the appointment from their own calendar, and maintains a link within the calendar appointment for the user to add notes back to the action, once the action has been completed. This feature in RENXT offers functionality that was never available in RE7.

Interactive Dashboards

Interactive dashboards is one of the best features of RENXT. The Fundraising Reporting area of RENXT has many canned dashboards that are highly interactive, and custom dashboards become interactive when added to this Reporting area. Dashboards have drill-down features that allow users to drill into almost all data points within a graph or chart. A user can dive into the list of records that make up the number represented on the dashboard. Users then have the ability to create and save lists based on that specific data point. While dashboards in RE7 had some limited interactivity, with hyperlinks to take you directly to a record, they were in no way comparable to the interactivity of RENXT dashboards.

Making the Switch

Making the switch from RE7 to RENXT can be a difficult transition for longtime Raiser’s Edge users. Many users aren’t aware of the new features or find them intimidating to use. Let JCA help you get through the learning curve with targeted trainings for your users.

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