Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT Reviews

Pros

One of the things I appreciate is how user friendly the platform feels, I can search by any data point and quickly find what I need. I also trust the payment gateways' security and I value how the system lets me control every part of our records from entering data and processing gifts to managing donor officers. It's handy that I can tag and maintain information across users to make sure coverage is complete and donor facing work stays prioritized. On top of that being able to spin up personal or departmental dashboard reports on the fly is excellent for accessing data when I'm out and about. I can build large, data-heavy reports for forecasting and to dig into each campaign's details. Having worked with several donor management platforms, I find this one both powerful and easy to use.

Cons

my main drawback is the price point, it feels a bit prohibitive for smaller organizations that would really benefit from all the features. In my experience those smaller agencies could put the tools to good use but the cost may be a real barrier to adoption.

Pros

All in all my time using Raiser's Edge NXT has been extremely positive. The system delivers a lot of power for donor management, reporting and planning strategic fundraising campaigns. It feels user-friendly, can be reached from anywhere and gives meaningful insights that inform our development strategy. Although pricing can be a hurdle at times but the suite of tools and the support that comes with it have genuinely uplifted the quality of our fundraising work. This is a full-featured platform that keeps us organized and helps nurture stronger donor relationships which ultimately advances our mission. What stands out most to me about Raiser's Edge NXT is how easy and efficient it is to work with donor records. Since it's cloud-based, accessing data whenever I need it is simple and the dashboards provide an up-to-the-minute view of how our fundraising is tracking. I particularly value how effortlessly it logs giving histories and donor interactions which enables our team to make smarter and more strategic choices. It really simplifies development tasks and lets our staff stay focused on mission-driven priorities. Generating reports is also extremely easy!

Cons

The main drawback I've noticed is its price. Even though it delivers strong features and solid capabilities it can require a sizable investment, particularly tough for small nonprofits that operate on tight budgets. Still the benefits in donor management and reporting are noteworthy but the cost may make it out of reach for certain organizations.

Pros

the system helps our registrar to keep the student database up to date. the yearly summer refresh feels smooth and rolling courses forward is simple to do. we transitioned from PowerSchool to Blackbaud as our student information system without much fuss that has been a huge relief. also, one noteworthy thing is Blackbaud's online training and courses were excellent and made getting everything configured a lot easier.

Cons

I find it's hard to manage several distinct schedules within the platform..for example separate ones for middle school and high school.

Pros

We achieved genuine success with this tool. In our line of work those intricate details simply shouldn't and can't live only in a single fundraiser's head..they need to be recorded, tracked and kept as a nuanced but adaptable history. Raiser's Edge NXT strikes that right balance between sensitivity and flexibility. I really value how it brings order to complicated data and helps me work through complex information. This software has been an important asset in the organizations I've been involved with. It allows me to capture both the big-picture items and the tiny meaningful notes and I can also rely on it for shaping specific campaign plans. in short this platform punches above its weight and has become a vital component of the contemporary fundraising operation I work in.

Cons

the system's complexity can make it intimidating to use without substantial training. the first-time user experience would likely feel much more satisfying if the vendor invested a bit more in simplifying the onboarding or offering clearer and more approachable guidance for beginners

Pros

it functions almost like a CRM letting me log every single interaction I have with donors. its integration with outlook makes things further simpler. For managing donations and donor communications it's really solid. It gives a clear view of the info I have and makes campaign planning smooth. The task manager is simple to use and ties into the main communication channels which helps keep follow-ups and outreach organized effectively.

Cons

During the migration I ran into issues where not all of our data transferred correctly and I had to fix many things manually. A lot of actions can only be done in the database view while others are limited to the web view which is frustrating and slows the whole process down.

Pros

I found the software pretty solid though I wish I'd been working somewhere different when I used it. At the location where I worked, it wasn't used in a way that made the most of its features. I would advise thinking carefully about exactly what your organization's needs are before committing to Raiser's Edge. The system does support very sophisticated reporting that gave me a fair amount of flexibility in choosing how to enter data into the platform.

Cons

its frustrating that RE wouldn't let me set up recurring lists that automatically refresh after being saved. Because it supports more advanced reporting, the interface can feel a bit harder to learn and get around. I also didn't find any built-in links to major email marketing tools like MailChimp or Constant Contact so integrating with those services wasn't available in my experience.

Pros

I've found Raiser's Edge does exactly what it promises, it provides a management platform that lets me build and, to some degree, tailor a comprehensive database of information. There is so much detail you can store that it opens up the ability to generate reports and analyze nearly anything you can think of. I also appreciate the web view for quick, on-the-fly access to data, while the full database view works well for team members who need to dive into the finer points and examine the records more thoroughly.

Cons

In my experience it is a capable database management system but it comes with a steep price tag and is likely more feature-heavy and intricate than many smaller organizations need. Because it is so complex, pulling together all the data you want can become confusing and time consuming. I've learned that creating and running queries and producing detailed reports really takes time, you pick it up gradually and only after a lot of practice. On top of that, the customer support has been disappointing. Our assigned Blackbaud customer success manager seems to rotate every six months or even sooner and there's about a fifty-fifty chance I'll reach someone who can actually help when I open a chat to resolve an issue.

Pros

Using it I've found it packs a wide range of features and capabilities if you take advantage of them all. That said it really depends on keeping your information fully updated for it to shine. Once I've got everything current and accurate it works really well.

Cons

I'd like the option to review the emails I've generated later on. Right now the only way to keep a record is to copy them manually which gets a bit annoying. Also the event management section feels somewhat clunky and confusing to navigate.

Pros

I've used it and it is a very powerful and sophisticated donor management program. It reached a point where it did more than I needed which made our processes feel over-complicated yet overall it wasn't a bad system.

Cons

It ended up being almost too feature-rich for what my organization actually needed and I found that many of the advanced tools were unnecessary for our day-to-day work.

Pros

From my perspective as they keep improving, accessing and manipulating data is going to become an excellent experience for users.

Cons

Right now I feel it's roughly sixty percent complete compared to the RE features.

Pros

I've found Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT to be a very comprehensive platform that provides an abundance of features tailored for charities and non-profits.

Cons

As someone fairly comfortable with technology I still found the backend of this software overwhelmingly complicated and hard to navigate. It didn't feel that the tool is smooth at all which is disappointing given that many modern tools are leveraging AI to simplify workflows. The system is so convoluted that you're sometimes required to pass exams before you can access certain training modules for different features which struck me as excessive. On top of the steep learning curve, the pricing is sky-high and that's particularly troubling because this product is marketed toward charities and non-profit organizations.

Pros

I find it useful for tracking donors for fundraising purposes and managing gifts. It can also integrate with our enrollment system to track alumni and parents of alumni.

Cons

It is clunky and not intuitive to use, with an outdated design.

Pros

It offers a lot of functionality for large nonprofits, but there is little to no customer support.

Cons

Their sales tactics are very aggressive, and their re-subscription process is very misleading. They tried to re-subscribe us at a very high price, quoting a timeline by which we had to decide not to re-subscribe. When we tried to unsubscribe, they claimed we were bound by a contract. Despite using RE for over a decade, they showed no consideration. They insisted we missed the unsubscribe timeline and demanded a very high fee for the next period. Eventually, we reported them to the Better Business Bureau, and they could not produce a signed contract from our agency or even a template. After a back-and-forth through the BBB, RE stopped contacting us, realizing they had no basis for their demands.

Pros

I find RE NXT to be a fast, web-based tool for quickly checking the essential details of a constituent.

Cons

Beyond making gift information quicker to retrieve I'd like to have greater control over customizing the display layouts in NXT. For example, what each person needs to see in search results or on the top display bar changes depending on their role and responsibilities so those views should be adaptable.

Pros

Access is so easy, it's very user-friendly and visually appealing so I find it easy to use.

Cons

I sometimes struggle to navigate certain reporting and query features because they can be confusing and hard to locate.

Pros

I use it easily on trips. The layout shows clear tiles I can scan. Dragging uploads is simple and lists easy to pull.

Cons

We can't build most custom lists ourselves. We would prefer lists organized by fund and I want donor contact details displayed on a single line including name, ID, phone, email and any exclusions. To pull that information today requires extremely complex queries against the database view which makes routine data extraction impractical for a typical office user. The software is really pricey and our team doesn't even fully understand how to use all its features. We need more personalized training and responsive support to learn the functionality we pay for but our database manager currently handles this and effectively acts as a gatekeeper.

Pros

I'm able to keep a record of donations throughout the year and then distribute the appropriate tax forms when year-end arrives.

Cons

the reporting tools were confusing and I struggled to understand how to generate and interpret the reports.

Pros

Although my job means I don't use NXT very often but I find it far easier to work with than the older Raiser's Edge platform. The whole interface looks more modern and the WYSIWYG editor is simple to use yet quite comprehensive. Even after stepping away from the site for a while I can jump back in and pick things up again without much trouble which I appreciate for occasional use.

Cons

From my perspective NXT doesn't include every feature that Raiser's Edge offers and that lack of certain functionalities can feel somewhat restrictive when I need to complete specific tasks.

Pros

What I like is that it presents a clear summary of all donations and makes the whole picture easy to understand. I find it really simple to navigate and pull up that information when I need it.

Cons

I often struggle to locate clients unless I type their name exactly as it's stored including specific formatting. Because of that I frequently spend far more time hunting for a client than seems necessary.

Pros

i have found it packed with tons of features and extra functionality.

Cons

dealing with Blackbaud's customer support has been an incredibly frustrating experience