Transitioning from OnlineExpress Forms to NXT Forms
Hi all.
We've always used Online Express forms for donation forms on our website, but I recently learned we can use donation forms in NXT (I know, living under a rock). If we make the switch, is it as easy as creating a form and pasting the code on our website in place of the old forms? Would we no longer need to download transactions each day in OE? Would we still need to batch-commit the transactions in RE7?
Thanks.
Len
Comments
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@Len Gutman Len,
While there are some benefits from switching, I would recommend staying in OE. The NXT forms can have some issues and are not as great as they are made out to be. You will need to batch in NXT, which is not as smooth and more time consuming, not to mention the language/wording changes, than batching in database view. You cannot make changes across the board to the batch like database. If your constituents use the same email regularly, it can be beneficial as they are matched easily, but if not, can create multiple duplicates. NXT has started to flag these in the batch, though, which can help.
If you want to use Donor Cover, it will split each gift into at least two pieces, one for the donation and one for the fee, which might be an additional annoyance depending on how your accounting team reconciles those. It will not automatically add an Appeal, but you can set a Campaign and Fund default for a form.
Importantly, if you have recurring gifts, they will not use Credit Card Updater in NXT
For us, we decided against using it after about a year and transitioned to a third party. The only use we will have for it will be for Events, and that hasn't been confirmed yet as we haven't tested our current donation form's event capabilities.
Hope that helps!
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@Len Gutman - NXT Donation Forms are similar to OLX in that you can easily build them and embed it on your org's website. There are some three major differences in terms of gift processing for NXT vs OLX that you should be aware of:
- NXT has a feature called the Automatic Constituent Matching tool (learn more about this feature here). This will aid your org in locating a matching constituent record for each gift within the system. Be aware - it is conservative in its matches and has the potential to create duplicates. You will need to build in duplicate review into your batch review process, and stay on top of this area of the database.
- Gifts are automatically batched within Fundraising > Gift Management in web view. They are grouped together by date, the gift type/origin. There is a possibility depending on what you have running in web view (eg, Automatic Recurring Gifts) in addition to various NXT Event/Donation Forms you may have multiple batches created each day as transactions are received/processed. I recommend reviewing/approving batches daily for yesterday's gifts - this helps reduce the number of batches created.
- Donations received through NXT donation forms do not have the custom field/attribute that OLX adds to gift records. In order to locate gifts received through NXT forms I recommend leaving the auto-generated batch number as is, this will enable you to easily search for these gifts once they are committed to the database.
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@Len GutmanMy big gripe with RE NXT (and I am sure others will agree) is that it is an incomplete product with kinks still being worked out. Whenever you can use Database view or Online Express, use it. Just my experience. RE NXT good to look at for fundraisers, but functionality is questionable.
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What did you transition to for donation forms? I have been looking at FundraiseUp and Harness Giving. But frankly I think anything would be better than RE7/OE/Batch.
Len
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@Len Gutman See another post about a similar issue here.
We use Network For Good, becoming Bonterra, and their Fundraising Pages product. We are paying their old rates, so don't have to change that as long as we keep their service and it is cheaper than most competitors. That combined with Importacular has been functioning well for us. I've posted a pretty detailed review on there that explains a lot about it.
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We are contemplating moving over to an NXT giving form and considering donor cover vs complete cover vs nothing at all. Is anyone able to explain exactly what donor cover and complete cover look like for a gift on the back-end / in database view? What do the gift amounts look like if the donor opts for donor cover, what they look like if the donor opts for complete cover, does donor cover come over as a split gift, etc? Thanks for any thoughts on this!
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@Meredith Sheehan - Here is some information on Complete Cover vs Donor Cover within the knowledgebase for NXT Donation/Event Forms:
As for how this appears on the back-end…
- Complete Cover - the org is not made aware of the additional amount the donor contributes as apart of this process; the only information you'll receive is within the BBMS transaction search view there is a column that will let you know (Yes/No) if a donor chose to participate in tipping Blackbaud an additional percentage of their initial gift to your org.
- Donor Cover - as of right now, a gift where the donor has chosen to ‘cover fees’ through an additional donation, will come into the system as a split gift for the gross amount - the intended donation amount listed with one fund, and the additional donation to cover fees listed with a different fund.
2 - Complete Cover - the org is not made aware of the additional amount the donor contributes as apart of this process; the only information you'll receive is within the BBMS transaction search view there is a column that will let you know (Yes/No) if a donor chose to participate in tipping Blackbaud an additional percentage of their initial gift to your org.
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Hey @Austen Brown
I have a follow-up question about your response. Is there any harm in moving gifts to consolidate batches? For example, let's say we receive two gifts Friday night, one on Saturday, and two more on Sunday. Monday mornings, I will click the three dots next two the batch created for Friday and Saturday and move them to the Sunday batch. Then I delete the empty unapproved batches.
In your expert opinion, is this a flawed process to follow? If so, why, or is there a better way? If not, the better way is to do it by day, but not sure why that would matter.
Thank you
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@Whitney Shelton we do this regularly with the different payment methods and Installment batches. Only difference is if you need to keep separate days together or want to track when a deposit is made if you use BBMS and daily deposits.
Really up to organization policy in my opinion.
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@Meredith Sheehan Austen hit the nail on the head here. We opted for Donor Cover and have to remove the split gift for each gift that comes through. Why we are moving to a separate platform to avoid this issue and speed up batching.
No real change in database view, but I would make sure your finance team is aware of how it works before making any changes and they are comfortable with it. Can be a headache for all involved.
Also be aware of what Complete Cover looks like on the donor side as that can be a turn off for some people. Check the idea bank for more on this issue.
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@Whitney Shelton - I don't think it matters either way in the grand scheme of things, you should always do what is best for your org. I do recommend that you keep the auto-generated batch number as is, as this is the only way to group together online Web View gifts within a Query/List.
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@Austen Brown, @Meredith Sheehan
On the Complete Cover column in BBMS that designates Yes/No on Covered Fees. I wanted to clarify that “Yes” does not mean the donor covered the fees. If you have automated recurring gifts in NXT, those fees are not covered by Blackbaud and would be designated “No” while a one-time gift made with Donor Cover enabled would have a “Yes” Blackbaud covered the fees. We as an organization have no knowledge of who is or is not electing to pay the tip to Blackbaud.
We have been using Complete Cover since the EAP. It has worked great for our Organization and we are very satisfied with it. I know it isn't for everyone, but our overall experience has been positive.0 -
@Whitney Shelton, @Lee Grisham
We also consolidate NXT batches into 1 batch to coincide with the BBMS Disbursement. Although, because that takes a considerable amount of time, it is something I have been mulling over in the back of my mind as to whether or not there is any real value in doing so. But for now, consolidating is what we do!3 -
@Lee Grisham
We are not using Donor Cover, but I am curious, could you designate the split amount to go to the same fund as the gift? Would it still show as a split?0 -
@Keith Wilson - You are required to choose a different fund for the split with Donor Cover, the system will not allow you to choose the same fund that's associated with the form.
PS - Thanks for the info on the column in BBMS and clarifying its meaning.1 -
@Keith Wilson since you have to designate a fund for Donor Cover, it can be the same as the one on the Giving Form. Like @Austen Brown said, it cannot stay that way when batching as it applies the Appeal from the form to both splits. You'll still have to apply a Campaign.
Since “every gift is a split gift, just with one split,” you have to remove one of them before being able to save the gift in the batch or change the CFA on one. You cannot have two split gifts with the same CFA. ?♂️ Yes, this all made my head hurt to learn about.
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@Lee Grisham yep, that would be a pain! We'll stick with Complete Cover which I know you are also not a fan! LOL! @Austen Brown Thank you both for your response!
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@Keith Wilson
That is smart… I have never once thought to batch them by disbursement date. I still use the four-times-a-month distribution option. I tried daily disbursements once, which somehow made end-of-month reconciling much more difficult. Thank you for this idea.1 -
@Lee Grisham
The issue is that it looks like the blackbaud will decommission the RE database view soon. Not sure when but it says here that all the database will go to cloud form like RE NXT , FE NXT as total web solution. this is not good for us as I read the instruction on how to create the online form through RE NXT and it is a lot of steps and there is not many wiggle room on this.0 -
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Total Web Solution
As Raiser’s Edge NXT shifts to a total web solution, we’re moving features from database view to web view.
To reduce the risk of service interruptions, gather feedback, and scale as needed, we’re releasing some updates in waves instead of deploying everything at once.
To track details and timelines, bookmark this page. To review new features as they're made available in web view, review What's New.
Database view features now in web view
Under each feature area listed below, use release dates to understand when a feature area is fully migrated to database view.
What's not moving to web view
Some elements of these database view features are deferred and considered out-of-scope for the completion of total web solution.
Tip: To stay up-to-date on Raiser’s Edge NXT, we recommend monitoring other resources, including What's Recent, Product Update Briefing (PUBs), and Knowledgebase.
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@Mitchell We - Is there something in particular you're running into when trying to create a form or any areas that we can help you with?
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@Austen Brown - We are currently using the online express form for donation. but it looks like in the future we will probably need to use the new donation form through RE NXT so I am looking at the process from the beginning to end because I will be the one who will create the form and everything else.
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@Mitchell We - Makes sense. I recommend starting small - open Online Giving in NXT and try to re-create one of your forms. Some things will be the same, some different - but starting now rather than waiting will be beneficial in the long run.
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