Online express donation forms

Darlene Ellis

We recently moved to NXT and wondering what everyone uses for online donation forms? I'm familiar with the online express donation forms. Are there any downfalls with sticking to the OLX forms vs Donation form designer. Just wondering if anything has changed with OLX forms?

Miki Martin

@Darlene Ellis I moved from OLX to the NXT forms about a year ago to take advantage of the Complete Cover option, which has saved us over $1,500 in credit card fees. I have only had one person actually raise concern about the added pop-up requesting an additional amount to cover. One other person questioned something related to it but not the added fee itself.

One [big] drawback to the NXT forms is that RE automatically creates a duplicate record if it cannot match the donor's information to a current constituent. I have had several times where I have had to correct this, which can be frustrating. It is more frustrating, I think, with the event registration forms for guests of the original donor, as it just creates a new relationship record for all the guests instead of trying to match them to people already in your database. Fortunately for us, our school is not so big and busy that it significantly impacts my day to make these corrections (usually), but it is still frustrating. The same holds true with the tributes through the NXT forms. If the donor does not enter it just so, a new constituent record is created with a tribute on it that you then have to go and correct.

I did not dislike OLX forms. NXT forms seem a bit easier to set up and modify, although they are restricted on what they offer and look kind of basic to me. At least now you can include an image. And with NXT forms you have the option of allowing Blackbaud to cover the fees by utilizing Complete Cover. I know many are sticking with OLX, though, because you can review the constituent before actually running the batch to commit the gifts so you can see first if it needs to be a new record or not. Both accept PayPal/Venmo integration, although we do not utilize that option.

Evan Webb

@Darlene Ellis The only thing keeping us from switching to NXT donation forms are the lack of Gift Attributes on NXT forms, which are available on OLX. As soon as that feature is added, which I understand they are working on, we will make the switch.

Karen Diener

@Darlene Ellis just an FYI that SmartDONORCOVER can be added to OLX forms - for free - that also allows donors to cover their transaction fees.

Most of my clients are sticking with OLX. For a long time it was because webview forms did not accept Tribute gifts. That did change in the last year, but the other challenge for most is how donations from webview end up in RE and the potential for duplicates that others mentioned. OLX works well, and most of these organizations have enough other problems that making the switch is just not a priority.

Karen

Maureen Hurd

@Karen Diener

Do you know if SmartDONORCOVER allows the fees to be covered by BB like Complete Cover or does it just give the donors the option to pay the fees? Everything I am reading seems to say you have to move forms to NXT to get the Complete Cover option. True?

Austen Brown

@Maureen Hurd - SmartThing's add-on only gives donors the option to cover fees. You're correct, if you want to utilize Complete Cover you'll need to utilize NXT donation forms.

Rose Dixon

@Karen Diener Is it still true that you can do part of the tribute process through the NXT form, but you then have to complete certain aspects int he db view? That's what I last heard. I also did the NXT donation form class and we do a TON of batch processing (both checks and OLX) and the instructor said NXT is just not there in terms of that type of batch processing.

Karen Diener

@Rose Dixon:

@Karen Diener Is it still true that you can do part of the tribute process through the NXT form, but you then have to complete certain aspects int he db view? That's what I last heard. I also did the NXT donation form class and we do a TON of batch processing (both checks and OLX) and the instructor said NXT is just not there in terms of that type of batch processing.

That is my understanding. You cannot actually manage tribute information in webview yet, even though the donation forms allow you to accept tribute donations.