Going from E-Tapestry after 3 years to Raiser's Edge NXT......

Jennifer Castellazzi

Words of Wisdom..


Having some jitters about going to a bigger application/system. I am the one and only at my foundation when it comes to donations. Raiser's Edge has so many bells and whistles..I am self trained and self taught on E-Tapestry. Even worked on getting my certification... so I need my community and it's guidance on what to expect and what will make the transition easier... thanks in advance!

JoAnn Strommen

? I don't have experience with eTapestry but I think you'll be fine.


Yes, RE has a lot to offer but don't stress over ringing all the bells and blowing all the whistles. Start simple, analyze and change as needed when you know how your org will be using RE. If possible, do try to take the main training courses. Community is here to answer questions. Don't be afraid to post and ask.


Join us in the RE Community!

Crystal Bruce

Discussion moved to Raiser's Edge forums in hopes of finding more people who switched from eTap to RE. Thanks!

Judith Youngblood

Jennifer, what an exciting change you are about to make! Here are a few bits about RE that will make your eTap-weary brain very happy.

• Gift entry will be easier using Batch in RE. It's like gift defaults on steroids.
• You don't need a query to make a report. Reports in RE have built in filtering capability.
• You don't always need to worry about data output in a query. You can filter on and ultimately see the eTap equivalent of journal entries and biographical data all at once.
• With conditional mail merges, you have a faster and more accurate way of running all your donor acknowledgement letters.
• Gone are the multiple compound queries in order to get what you want - only to have it go to a report to get what you really want.
• Former addresses will a) actually be called Addresses, not Personas and b) live with the other addresses, not in Journal Notes.
• Gifts, contacts (aka Actions) and notes aren't all lumped together.
• Keeping detailed Event information will be unbelievably easier if you have the Event Module.
• Keeping track of proposals and grant applications will be unbelievably easier if you have the Prospect Module.

Now here are some caveats:

• If you use Family name format a lot or have what I call "double headers" (two name on one account), chances are great that those won't convert over well. You are going to have a bunch of clean-up either before or after implementation.
• If you have UDFs identifying what the constituent is to you, you have to decide well where that info lives - constituent code or attribute in RE.
• If you didn't fill in everything in eTap you will have crucial gaps in RE that will hinder you from using all the functions RE can do with ease. An example is leaving out Approach in a gift record.

I think you can probably tell I have a lot of experience in the eTap to RE translation. If you want to know more, please feel free to reach out to me personally. Good luck!


Judith Youngblood

WIST Data Solutions

judith@wistdata.com