Need help with basic Raiser's Edge NXT functions - no dev operations staff due to turnover

Chris Toft

Hi folks, due to the lovely combination of turnover and a hiring freeze (something many of us in academia are experiencing, I believe), I now have no development operations staff who know the specifics of maintaining the database, let alone entering gifts and running reports. I have the working knowledge of a longtime user, but I've always been donor-facing and have enjoyed the benefit of experienced, talented technical staff who could run the back end. I have a Project Manager who, like me, is very willing, but he's far less experienced. I myself need to focus on driving revenue for the end of our fiscal year, but I also need to be able to enter gifts and update our new CFO and the Finance team on overall status.

Are there resources available through Blackbaud that can help me and/or a basic primer that could assist in prioritizing items by their time needed and technical requirements? Amongst the things I know we need to do are the following:

• Gift Processing
• Gift deposit forms to Finance
• Process payroll deduction gifts
• Outstanding pledge reminders
• Gift acknowledgements
• Monthly import of new graduates via Omatic
• Monthly forecast and reconciliation

Obviously, there's much more that ideally could and should be done, but this seems to be the bare minimum required to maintain functionality.

Thank you in advance for any guidance and/or direction to existing resources that you can provide.

- Chris Toft, Adler University

JoAnn Strommen

@Chris Toft Welcome to the BB Community.

Wow, BB University offers a number of trainings on gifts. Do you have a subscription for BBU? There are elearning and instructor let trainings. On your list, there are some topics that IMO are organization specific (forms to finance, how you process payroll). Gift processing - are you doing thru database? Or webview? Batches?

The Blackbaud knowledgebase can even help with some how to's for generating pledge reminders https://kb.blackbaud.com

There are some videos you can find by googling that might be helpful.

Importing of grads via Omatic will depend on if you have the profiles already created in Omatic. If so, you won't have to start at ground zero. I would go to their website and sign up for a training. Not offered real often but helpful. They have a Q&A/knowledgebase as well. You'll want to be sure to test with a couple of records first to ensure all data comes in correctly.

You can also search the forums for discussions about how people do it or help they have offered to others.

So many things, I'm wondering if you want to consider hiring some of this out to get you through. It's a lot to learn.

Dariel Dixon

This is a tough position to be in @Chris Toft. The honest answer is that you're not going to be able to get many of these things done until you find and understand what's going on. As JoAnn mentioned, Blackbaud University is a great resource to understand concepts and simple things, but things like importing need a strong understanding of file structure and that will take time and practice. You will probably fail before you succeed, but it's going to be a lot of trial and error.

I don't know where you're located but I would see if there is a user group in the area. You may want to see if there are other users in your locale that may be able to explain these things to you. Almost all of the things you're looking to do are things that are different to each organization. Campaign, appeal, fund, and package structure may vary wildly, and you'll need to have good grasp of how your database is setup to get the most of any trainings.

Ideally, you would be able to find someone with some experience to do some of this work on a temporary basis, but I doubt that is an option. I wish you the best of luck. This forum is a good resource, and use it as much as possible.

Alex Wong

@Chris Toft
since you said you “have enjoyed the benefit of experienced, talented technical staff", that must mean your org has such a position previously. Not sure what happened, but what you really need is a replacement (temporarily or permenently). You are donor facing as you said, you are not going to be able to learn and do all that you listed. There is a job board on community that you can check out to find those that already have this skillset

Miki Martin

@Chris Toft I completely second recommendations already here from @JoAnn Strommen and @Dariel Dixon. I wore out sessions in BBU when I first started in NXT in 2020. To get you through the end of the fiscal year, I am thinking you need to find someone with that experience. There may even be some postings on the job board here in Community of people looking for work. I'm sure many of the tools needed (acknowledgement letters, reports for Finance) are already there, it just sounds like the processes may not have been documented. You can also review constituents' records to see how gifts were processed to get a better understanding of what goes where, especially if you know Dr. Smith gives to Fund A every year or Ms. Jones uses a DAF for her end-of-year gift.

Christopher Horn

@Chris Toft
That's a difficult situation to be in. My boss was in the same kind of boat of having to do all the database maintenance for a good while between when the last person left and when I was hired, and while it's nice to walk into a job knowing my position is appreciated on day one, it was clearly a lot on his plate. And I'm assuming that hiring part time or consultant staff isn't an option if there's a hiring freeze, and that Blackbaud University courses might not be either for the indefinite future? For however much strength it lends to hope, it took me about 6 months to a year to get from complete novice to high level user using the tools below. BBU was helpful, but the free resources are good too.

If someone at Adler has already created policies and procedures or how to guides for critical functions, that would be the most helpful resource. It's part of my job description to keep documentation for how my org does things and to provide database training to staff as needed. The guides from my predecessor in this position were the best tool for learning how and why my org does things and when. I wouldn't want to have to reverse engineer our systems for gift entry and reporting: reverse engineering the few things that slipped through the cracks in documentation like end of year audit reports already was enough work my first year.

If you already have a Blackbaud University account at your org, use it. The guided classes are incredibly helpful for learning the full functionality of both views. If I was advising your org, I would suggest to them that unless they have an extensive policies and procedures guide already set up, that they either get a BBU membership or hire a consultant for training in RE, both of which will (probably?) be cheaper than a part time employee, and there's not insignificant odds of the expense protecting them from more expensive mistakes. However, I have enough contacts and sources within academia to know not to count on that.

Blackbaud Knowledgebase is going to be your best option I'm aware of for free official guides and documentation. The RENXT Help Center has links to a number of good resources. In particular, the on demand video library is likely to be a help. If Adler staff have university library access/ILL access, or if you can get a copy elsewhere (ISBN: 978-0-470-56056-3), Fundraising with the Raiser's Edge by Bill Connors only covers Database View/RE7, but it helps explain the usage of and strategy behind database view to front facing employees, and has a couple good chapters on the DBA role and schedules/strategies for upkeep.

Use these forums, and join The Raiser's Edge Users Group Support Forum on Facebook if you haven't already. Use the search tool in both the forums and the FB group judiciously. And people in both communities are generous with their time and experience. Search both groups for info about Chicago RE user groups (or maybe other areas close enough to drive to or from, since all roads lead to Chicago if you can stomach the traffic). Between those options, you're likely to find people willing to chat or walk you through stuff, share resources, etc.

-Chris Horn, Database Admin, Lutheran Heritage Foundation

Rachel Kauer

@Chris Toft

Hi Chris, I'm sorry to hear about your situation. I am an experienced gift processor who was new to Raiser's Edge and BB in November. I had some great Blackboard University and Blackboard Guides which got me up to speed within my first month. Our database admin and gift processor were also lost due to turnover, so we had to start over. I will link the resources I used below.

The guides are the best place to start for “How do I….?” questions. These manuals are also great for training future new staff when your budget and situation allow them, so I would highly recommend printing them out to keep data entry clean and consistent to cut down on future data problems that plague a database when it goes through staffing transitions or crisis.

For technical, step-by-step on how to enter gifts, how to enter different kinds, link them to tributes, pledges, matching gifts, soft credits you name it, and the best practices to do so I would start with The Blackbaud Gift Records Guide, and Black Baud Best Practices Guide on Gifts.

RE Gift Records BP.pdf

RE Batch Guide BP.pdf

best_practice_pp_guide_gifts.docx

For technical, step-by-step on how to enter constituent records and the best practices to do it I would start with:

RE Constituent Records BP.pdf

best_practice_pp_guide_constituents.docx

For technical, step-by-step on how to Database Administration, Security, Reporting, and Fund/Campaign/Appeal structure and the best practices to do it I would start with:

best_practice_pp_guide_db_admin.docx

RE Campaign, funds, and appeal data entry guide BP.pdf

RE Sample Reports Guide.pdf

University Classes are an invaluable resource, they will also answer how do I questions with a visual learning component, but are time-consuming and scheduled. In your situation, I know you probably need answers and how to quickly, so like I said start with the guides, but when you have time, look into the following Blackbaud University Classes/learning Paths:

Fundamentals Learning Path (Good for Data Entry & Reporting)

https://learn.blackbaud.com/learn/lp/347/raisers-edge-fundamentals-certification

Includes:

Fundamentals: Constituent Records: In this course, learn how to build relationships with your supporters, using Raiser’s Edge NXT database view. Utilize different types of constituent records to store biographical, contact, fundraising, and other important data. Explore system navigation. Discuss data-entry best practices.

Fundamentals: Gift Records: In this course, learn where gifts fall in the fundraising process and how to enter them in Raiser’s Edge NXT database view. Discuss best practices for gift entry. Explore different types of gift records, as well as the information tracked for each type. Objectives Identify the purpose of campaigns, funds, and appeals Describe the gift types Create gift records.

Fundamentals: Reporting and Extraction: In this course, learn to track past performance with reporting and extraction tools in Raiser’s Edge. Set up reports and exports to see progress at a glance. Access and modify each tool to fit your needs.

Database Administrator / Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT (Good for learning Security, Administration, and more complex functions of the Database)

https://learn.blackbaud.com/learn/learning_plan/view/326/database-administrator-blackbaud-raisers-edge-nxt

There are over 51 courses in this second learning path. Which is intense, but you can certainly explore topics as you need to know more about them.

Additional Resources:

Aside from these resources, you are in the right place! Anytime you run into a situation where a guide doesn't quite cover it, asking the BB Community is a great way to find answers and solutions.

Additionally, there is the BB knowledgebase: https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase. My only word of warning with the knowledgebase is individual articles don't always paint a full picture of the thing you may be looking into. I usually consult a guide, check the knowledgebase and then ask the community here.

There is also an RE User Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/REUserGroup/

Suggestions to keep operations running through the staffing crisis:

Unfortunately, I have gone through two operational staffing crises at two different orgs and have learned a few lessons in hindsight and, as such, would recommend the following: since you are going through a staffing crisis in which I assume both of you have very limited time resources, focus first on the three things below so your operations aren't interrupted.

• Make a schedule for gift entry and acknowledgment, without knowing your volume, you need to keep turning around gifts and acknowledgments so it doesn't hurt your donor retention. RE Mail Guide BP.pdf
  • One of you needs to learn Gift Entry, don't let gift entry get more than a week behind.
  • One of you needs to keep acknowledgments flowing. Make sure at least a letter is going out to your donors within 7-10 days maximum of their gift getting entered. Use a mail merge with an RE export. Don't try to do this manually.
  • I would suggest getting all gifts in from Sat-Thursday by Friday. Then doing a mail pull on Mondays for that time period.
• One of you needs to learn how to enter constituents. Depending on your org, you may need to do it at gift entry if most of your gifts are from new donors.
• Reporting - you hopefully have reports saved in our database that your staff was previously using. Set a schedule for only the reports you need to have done weekly or monthly for making internal decisions. If you don't need absolutely those numbers, don't worry about them until you have the staff to produce them. Cut down on any reporting that you don't need to create direct mail, etc., or give at a board meeting for example.

Not having an admin will be less of an issue if data entry is clean and consistent. If you follow the guides for data entry, you can wait on database maintenance and cleanup until you have the staff for it and there will be less data they will need to cleanup.

Regarding your specific concerns:

• Gift Processing (See Gift Gift Record Guide)
• Gift deposit forms to Finance (no advice, we are integrated with FE so we don't do this)
• Process payroll deduction gifts (Create a recurring Batch, see Batch Guide)
• Outstanding pledge reminders (Mail function in RE > Reminders, see Mail Guide)
• Gift acknowledgments (Mail function in RE > Donor Acknowledgement Letters, then do a mail merge with the export, see Mail Guide)
• Monthly import of new graduates via Omatic (no advice, we don't do this)
• Monthly forecast and reconciliation (Reports>Demographic and Statistical or maybe Pledges & Recurring Gifts? and Reports>Financial>Gift Detail and Summary Report, filter by fund, etc as needed, See Sample Reports Guide)

For more Blackbaud user guides:

https://www.blackbaud.com/training-support/support/howto/blackbaud-raisers-edge

Teri Fields

@Chris Toft Regarding the top three bullet points, I would try to figure out how the previous staff was accomplishing. For instance, when you look at specific gifts, do they have a batch number? If so, then they were entering as a batch (if in RE7). There may be some batch templates saved for you to use. On your payroll, it may be set up as a recurring gift batch, again, poke around in Batch to see if you can find something. As far as Finance integrations, my process is to enter gifts in Batch, Commit the Batch, then run the GL Pre-Posting report under the Admin menu. This will print the associated GL numbers your Finance area will want to see. I agree with previous comments that you are going to want to do whatever it takes to get a super-user in there, in order to keep RE running smoothly while you handle the other matters.