3 Ways to Optimize Raiser’s Edge NXT
Rashida A. Brown
Senior Consultant
Many organizations have recently made the switch from Blackbaud’s classic Raiser’s Edge 7 to Raiser’s Edge NXT (RENXT) cloud solution. If you’re a system administrator at one of these organizations, you’re probably wondering how to optimize the use of the new RENXT Web View in order to make tasks easier and more efficient. In this blog, we share with you a few key features that we have used to help our clients get the most out of RENXT.
1. Use lists to simplify fundraising tasks.
Similar to queries, lists offer a way for users to group selected records together and easily accomplish tasks from one screen. The filtering options in lists make it easy for users at all levels to search for and access the data they need without the extensive training typically required to use queries. More advanced users can make lists more powerful by using them in combination with static queries to fine-tune their selections.
Some examples of lists users can build are constituents, actions, opportunities, and gifts. Do you need to make touch-point calls to your prospects? Create a static query of your prospects and pair with a constituent list to easily accomplish this task. You’ll have access to their contact information and the ability to create actions all from one screen. Perhaps you need to make thank you calls to donors who have given over a certain amount this week. Create a gift list filtered on a specified gift amount within a given timeframe. Again, you can quickly and easily access the donor’s contact information from one screen.
2. Use Workflow Designer to automate everyday activities.
The Workflow Designer allows users to set up a series of steps with associated actions that can be assigned to specified fundraisers. Depending on the setup of the workflow, a user can choose to automatically add an action when a predecessor action is complete or specific amount of time has passed. For example, an organization may find it useful to automate the prospect qualification process. Your prospect researcher can set up a workflow based on a list of unqualified prospects and add actions for the following steps:
- Run wealth ratings
- Complete initial research
- Assign to MGO
- Create a profile report
3. Use Analysis to make sense of your organization’s data.
Reporting in The Raiser’s Edge 7 can be tricky for the regular end user, fundraisers, and senior executives to navigate. Users have to navigate queries, exports, and canned reports—that are not always intuitive—to get meaningful data to make good fundraising decisions. Users must build complex reports in RE7 using Crystal Reports, which can be clunky and difficult, even for the experienced report writer.
RENXT streamlines the reporting process by offering dashboards that provide insight into every aspect of your organization’s fundraising efforts. The RENXT dashboards are flexible and dynamic. The end user has options for choosing what data is included in the dashboard, as well as the ability to drill down into any reported value to see the donor records that are represented. Users can review dashboards, drill into specific data points, and generate lists all in just a few clicks.
A good example is the Top Campaigns Report. This report tracks campaign revenue against the campaign goal amount on a bar graph. Clicking on any revenue bar on the graph report for a specific campaign will produce a drill down listing of all gifts given to that campaign. Additional drill down reports become available by clicking on additional data points in the gift listing. These include Fundraiser goals, Top Donors, Gifts by Constituent Code, Top Funds, and others.
A friendly reminder about data.
Optimizing of RENXT is only possible if you have reliable data. Remember that the data you get out of your system is only as good as the data you put into it. Structured and clean prospect, donor, campaign, fund, and appeal data yields great fundraising reports, and results.
If you’re interested in finding out how JCA can help maximize your use of RENXT by doing an analysis of your data, contact us to learn more.