Ask an All-Star: Austen Brown Answers Your Questions about Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®
Published
Blackbaud Community All-Star Austen Brown answered your questions in the community about Raiser’s Edge NXT. We’ve compiled those questions and answers for you in this blog!
All-Star Austen Brown has been working in Raiser's Edge NXT for 12 years and Microsoft Power Automate for more than three years. Austen works for Prenger Solutions Group as a Database Consultant and Automation Engineer. In her free time, she can be found in her study reading a book or solving a complex sudoku puzzle or two.
Recently, Austen held an Ask an All-Star session in the Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT community where she answered questions.
Below is a recap of the questions and Austen's answers:
Q: What are some queries or systems that have helped you the most with data health?
A: As long as you are using the database, there will always be data that needs to be cleaned—it's definitely an ongoing process. I recommend setting a specific time to take a look at your long-term projects as well as the new data that's come in this week. For me, this is a perfect task for Friday afternoons.
Q: What are your best recommendations for database clean-up? I'm seeing a lot of issues like fundraisers not marking actions complete, the same phone number listed twice on the same record, and other inconsistencies.
A: Great question! Clean-up is one of those areas that you need to tackle daily or weekly, so set aside time. I recommend paying attention to the "high traffic areas" (constituent contact info, biographic info, addressee/salutations) and any areas that are crucial to your reporting. From there, pay attention to error patterns: If you see the same error multiple times, chances are that it's repeated elsewhere in the system. Start by creating a couple maintenance queries—I like to set these up so the results are errors that need to be fixed, meaning as you progress through your work the list gets shorter and shorter. If you're interested in automation, most of these can be created within a Power Automate flow that either resolves the issue for you or sends a notification as the issue arises—plus some other really cool things.
Q: I've recently started playing with Power Automate, and have a daily gift notification flow that keeps failing at the “list gifts” step, stating that "the SKY API service is not available in this Blackbaud Environment;" however I have checked and I have the NXT Gifts connector set up. Any idea what this could be?
A: Have you connected Microsoft Power Platform within the Blackbaud Marketplace? If not, use the short stack on the left corner of Web View and choose Marketplace, then search for Power Platform. Click into the card and choose “Connect.” I'm also thinking the connection may be the issue. With your flow in Edit mode, click on the ellipsis on the right corner of the action and down at the bottom choose “Add new connection” > utilize your org's database credentials to login. Save the flow and try running it again.
Q: My team is looking for ways to automate our acknowledgment process and considering adopting an app from the marketplace to help with bulk processing of letters. We're curious if you have any recommendations for how to include information that isn't typically included in the gift record. Specifically, how can we include the high, low, and calculated average values of stock shares or DAF and IRA information in acknowledgment letters to the donor? Thanks!
A: I recommend you check out Microsoft Power Automate. It has the unique ability to create an automation that is fully customized to your org's process. It can connect directly with your Raiser's Edge NXT database through the API and can utilize dynamic data directly within the workflow. All of the instances you've mentioned are possible. For instance, by including conditional logic, you can direct the workflow to dynamically include or exclude tax language on a letter based on a constituent/gift tag (e.g., DAF).
Here's more info on Power Automate: It is a low-code/no-code solution. I am not a programmer and learned how to utilize this tool: https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/13/8292. Alternatively, if you want to leverage automation without learning to build it yourself, Blackbaud Partners like AutomateGenius can help.
Q: I'm trying to clean up Tables - Industries. When I View Uses, I get some Constituent IDs, but I also get “Blank ID.” How do I find that ID/constituent or how to clean that up?
A: This will likely involve some creative querying. I recommend creating a query that looks for the field on constituent and organizational relationship records. Alternatively, if you are looking to combine table entries, you can utilize the “Clean up” tool to accomplish the replacement of these table entries with another option.
Q: When looking at a constituent record, is there a way to “freeze” the constituent information across the top of the screen in Raiser's Edge NXT so that, as you scroll down to see information about the constituent, that section across the top stays visible?
A: Unfortunately, that's not currently possible, it's a great idea though. You should check out the Raiser's Edge NXT Idea Bank, here in the community. For anyone interested in voting, here's a direct link to the idea.
Q: Does anyone append the alumni/student year to the parent? Example Mary Cummings P'18,20. If so, any tips on how to configure the name field to auto grab that information.
A: The consensus is that there are a few ways to manage this process within Raiser's Edge NXT, typically involving a mix of attributes, relationships, and addressee/salutation fields. Every method is tedious and labor-intensive, often requiring frequent data exports, manipulation in Excel, and re-importing data. Some store the entire parent addressee with student/alumni years in an additional addressee field, while others store just the year in an attribute, which can later be concatenated for specific mailings or honor rolls post-export in Excel. I recommend you use a method where it is easy to extract the data you need and best supports your organization.
A key takeaway from my discussions was the importance of maintaining this process regularly, either daily, weekly, or at least semi-annually, usually after graduations. If you don’t already have a standard data entry document, I highly recommend creating one. This will help you document your current process and requirements, promoting data accuracy and consistency, while ensuring you have everything you need for whatever list you're pulling. The good news is that this process can be automated with Power Automate!
Q: I have changed some field names in Raiser's Edge NXT database view. I did this because we weren't using the field and it was easier than trying to find it in the attributes tab. However, the new field names did not transfer to web view. Is there a way to change system fields names in web view?
A: Unfortunately, this is not currently possible. I recommend you check out the Raiser's Edge NXT Idea Bank and vote for the ideas related to this topic. I've included a couple below:
Q: I am trying to move my office over to using Insights and Dashboards, but they are reluctant. We are in the middle of a campaign with many financial nuances, and I can get the total received and committed dollars from my Insight in Raiser's Edge NXT to match running a Gift Detail and Summary Report (GDSR) from Raiser's Edge. But the # of donors is off. I have tried a bunch of different setting on my Raiser's Edge “Recognitions” setting. And the instructions on my GDSR and the query included in my GDSR are to include credit to the soft cred recipients and the matching gifts to the donor. Can you provide me with a better understanding on the difference/definition between Donor on the botttom of the GDSR versus that of Donor on an insight or any ideas on how I can make these two match?
A: The general consensus is that this likely has to do with soft credits not playing nice with Insight Designer/web view dashboards. I recommend you create a list from the Insight and compare that to a generated query from the GDSR report. Unfortunately, this is an area of web view that has a couple of holes that are difficult to work around where soft credits are concerned. If you haven't already, I recommend checking out the Raiser's Edge NXT Idea Bank. Here are a few ideas concerning this topic.
Recently, Austen held an Ask an All-Star session in the Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT community where she answered questions.
Below is a recap of the questions and Austen's answers:
Q: What are some queries or systems that have helped you the most with data health?
A: As long as you are using the database, there will always be data that needs to be cleaned—it's definitely an ongoing process. I recommend setting a specific time to take a look at your long-term projects as well as the new data that's come in this week. For me, this is a perfect task for Friday afternoons.
Here are 20 queries I look at every week. If you have Power Automate, most of these can be automated to either completely resolve the issue or send you a notification when an issue occurs.
Constituent Query
- Any additions made to records by users
- New constituents added by Raiser's Edge NXT
- Blank address with No Valid Address unchecked
- Country is blank on Addresses
- Address not validated, missing County
- Primary Addressee/Salutation are blank
- Constituents missing informal Addressee/Salutation
- Recently deceased constituents
- Review tribute record descriptions
- Constituent code is blank
- Preferred Name field is blank
- Email address with common typos
- Hard Bounced emails still active
- Required attributes missing on record
- Opportunities without a linked gift
Gift Query
- Gifts without tracking attributes
- Unacknowledged gifts/honor-memorial tributes
- Credited solicitor/s on recent gifts
Participant Query
- Event Registrations missing a linked gift
Action Query
- Actions in the database are not assigned to a fundraiser
Q: What are your best recommendations for database clean-up? I'm seeing a lot of issues like fundraisers not marking actions complete, the same phone number listed twice on the same record, and other inconsistencies.
A: Great question! Clean-up is one of those areas that you need to tackle daily or weekly, so set aside time. I recommend paying attention to the "high traffic areas" (constituent contact info, biographic info, addressee/salutations) and any areas that are crucial to your reporting. From there, pay attention to error patterns: If you see the same error multiple times, chances are that it's repeated elsewhere in the system. Start by creating a couple maintenance queries—I like to set these up so the results are errors that need to be fixed, meaning as you progress through your work the list gets shorter and shorter. If you're interested in automation, most of these can be created within a Power Automate flow that either resolves the issue for you or sends a notification as the issue arises—plus some other really cool things.
Q: I've recently started playing with Power Automate, and have a daily gift notification flow that keeps failing at the “list gifts” step, stating that "the SKY API service is not available in this Blackbaud Environment;" however I have checked and I have the NXT Gifts connector set up. Any idea what this could be?
A: Have you connected Microsoft Power Platform within the Blackbaud Marketplace? If not, use the short stack on the left corner of Web View and choose Marketplace, then search for Power Platform. Click into the card and choose “Connect.” I'm also thinking the connection may be the issue. With your flow in Edit mode, click on the ellipsis on the right corner of the action and down at the bottom choose “Add new connection” > utilize your org's database credentials to login. Save the flow and try running it again.
Q: My team is looking for ways to automate our acknowledgment process and considering adopting an app from the marketplace to help with bulk processing of letters. We're curious if you have any recommendations for how to include information that isn't typically included in the gift record. Specifically, how can we include the high, low, and calculated average values of stock shares or DAF and IRA information in acknowledgment letters to the donor? Thanks!
A: I recommend you check out Microsoft Power Automate. It has the unique ability to create an automation that is fully customized to your org's process. It can connect directly with your Raiser's Edge NXT database through the API and can utilize dynamic data directly within the workflow. All of the instances you've mentioned are possible. For instance, by including conditional logic, you can direct the workflow to dynamically include or exclude tax language on a letter based on a constituent/gift tag (e.g., DAF).
Here's more info on Power Automate: It is a low-code/no-code solution. I am not a programmer and learned how to utilize this tool: https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/13/8292. Alternatively, if you want to leverage automation without learning to build it yourself, Blackbaud Partners like AutomateGenius can help.
Q: I'm trying to clean up Tables - Industries. When I View Uses, I get some Constituent IDs, but I also get “Blank ID.” How do I find that ID/constituent or how to clean that up?
A: This will likely involve some creative querying. I recommend creating a query that looks for the field on constituent and organizational relationship records. Alternatively, if you are looking to combine table entries, you can utilize the “Clean up” tool to accomplish the replacement of these table entries with another option.
Q: When looking at a constituent record, is there a way to “freeze” the constituent information across the top of the screen in Raiser's Edge NXT so that, as you scroll down to see information about the constituent, that section across the top stays visible?
A: Unfortunately, that's not currently possible, it's a great idea though. You should check out the Raiser's Edge NXT Idea Bank, here in the community. For anyone interested in voting, here's a direct link to the idea.
Q: Does anyone append the alumni/student year to the parent? Example Mary Cummings P'18,20. If so, any tips on how to configure the name field to auto grab that information.
A: The consensus is that there are a few ways to manage this process within Raiser's Edge NXT, typically involving a mix of attributes, relationships, and addressee/salutation fields. Every method is tedious and labor-intensive, often requiring frequent data exports, manipulation in Excel, and re-importing data. Some store the entire parent addressee with student/alumni years in an additional addressee field, while others store just the year in an attribute, which can later be concatenated for specific mailings or honor rolls post-export in Excel. I recommend you use a method where it is easy to extract the data you need and best supports your organization.
A key takeaway from my discussions was the importance of maintaining this process regularly, either daily, weekly, or at least semi-annually, usually after graduations. If you don’t already have a standard data entry document, I highly recommend creating one. This will help you document your current process and requirements, promoting data accuracy and consistency, while ensuring you have everything you need for whatever list you're pulling. The good news is that this process can be automated with Power Automate!
Q: I have changed some field names in Raiser's Edge NXT database view. I did this because we weren't using the field and it was easier than trying to find it in the attributes tab. However, the new field names did not transfer to web view. Is there a way to change system fields names in web view?
A: Unfortunately, this is not currently possible. I recommend you check out the Raiser's Edge NXT Idea Bank and vote for the ideas related to this topic. I've included a couple below:
- Ability to change field names (Display As)
- Add the ability to change the name of a field to reflect the terminology already used internally
Q: I am trying to move my office over to using Insights and Dashboards, but they are reluctant. We are in the middle of a campaign with many financial nuances, and I can get the total received and committed dollars from my Insight in Raiser's Edge NXT to match running a Gift Detail and Summary Report (GDSR) from Raiser's Edge. But the # of donors is off. I have tried a bunch of different setting on my Raiser's Edge “Recognitions” setting. And the instructions on my GDSR and the query included in my GDSR are to include credit to the soft cred recipients and the matching gifts to the donor. Can you provide me with a better understanding on the difference/definition between Donor on the botttom of the GDSR versus that of Donor on an insight or any ideas on how I can make these two match?
A: The general consensus is that this likely has to do with soft credits not playing nice with Insight Designer/web view dashboards. I recommend you create a list from the Insight and compare that to a generated query from the GDSR report. Unfortunately, this is an area of web view that has a couple of holes that are difficult to work around where soft credits are concerned. If you haven't already, I recommend checking out the Raiser's Edge NXT Idea Bank. Here are a few ideas concerning this topic.
- Provide option to include or exclude soft credits in donor retention dashboard
- Option to include Soft Credits in any Reporting area
- NXT Insights - to be able to look at gifts by Constituency Code from Constituent including Soft Credit.
- Soft Credits-Tributes-Anonymous Donors
If you have moment, please vote for these! Product developers look to the Idea Bank for inspiration on areas of the product to improve. The more votes an idea has the higher likelihood it will be adapted in the future.
News Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT® Blog
10/18/2024 11:00am EDT
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