Gaining Institutional Buy-in for Raiser's Edge NXT Implementation

Jennifer Precht
Jennifer Precht
Second Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

What arguments have you used to gain institutional buy-in/support for Raiser's Edge NXT implementation from those reluctant to adopt the new platform? Specifically, reluctance to provide constituent data.

Comments

  • Bobby Steurer
    Bobby Steurer
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 5 January 2026 Monthly Challenge Name Dropper

    @Jennifer Precht
    “Do it or I quit.” ?

  • Katherine Mannion
    Katherine Mannion
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    @Jennifer Precht can you provide some more context? Is your organization already using RE?

  • Jennifer Precht
    Jennifer Precht
    Second Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Katherine Mannion No. We have purchased Financial Edge NXT, Raiser's Edge NXT and the K-12 Education Management products in order to ensure better communication and flow of data. Currently our institutional data resides in many different systems/platforms that do not speak to one another. We have no pre-existing fundraising or alumni database from which to pull our data, so I am trying to gather the constituent data from the various staff members who are currently managing it.

  • Katherine Mannion
    Katherine Mannion
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 5 Name Dropper Participant

    @Jennifer Precht oh boy, sounds like you have your hands full!

    I'll plug a friend of mine. His name is Tim Locke and he has a program called The Human Stack that addresses your problem exactly. His program is really new and innovative, so he's all over LinkedIn promoting it, I'm sure you can find him there for a sneak peak. But also, he's really approachable. If you want an introduction let me know, I'd be happy to do that.

  • Karen Diener
    Karen Diener
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply Name Dropper

    @Jennifer Precht
    Change management is hard, and I am by no means an expert. But one thing we've seen is that new software is more quickly adopted when management is on board. If managers are willing to review reports that were compiled outside of the database, they are allowing staff to avoid the database. So that is one very big factor.

    Aside from that, getting all staff involved in implementation should help too. When people don't understand the benefit of the conversion or what will be expected of them, it is confusing and scary. Definitely involve them if their roles are impacted so that they can help make decisions and understand what about their job is going to change. Combining that with “and here is how it will make your job easier” is a huge win. But be open to hearing them and their concerns.

    Regular reporting to staff on updates and timeline will be important too. I had a conversation with another consultant once and we were using a house / moving analogy. Imagine if you were told you were moving, but no one said why you needed to move, where you were moving, what your new house looked like, when / what you needed to pack, what your room would look like, etc. It would be intimidating if you didn't know any of that. Apply those general concepts to an implementation and it can really be helpful.

    Hope those are useful thoughts for you. And if not, hopefully useful for someone else!

    Karen

  • Carrie Aranda
    Carrie Aranda
    Seventh Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant

    @Jennifer Precht I lived through this about 5 years ago when I first started. We had Raiser's Edge but no one would use it because it was too hard and much easier to just track it on a spreadsheet, notebook, Word document, etc. My biggest piece of advice is to prioritize users… find the ones who are frustrated with the current system and are most willing to move to Raiser's Edge NXT. Work with them to get them on board as they will become your champions for implementation. Plus if you make it “easy” for them (i.e. hand holding), they will sing your praises for being helpful. It takes a ton of time because it means working individually with people. But, it worked in our case… the last holdouts for using Raiser's Edge NXT were peer pressured into implementation. Since everyone else was using it, their tracking systems were lacking and no one would help them anymore. By then, most of the team was using the database and it allowed me to work one-on-one with our most resistant folks.

  • Jennifer Precht
    Jennifer Precht
    Second Anniversary Name Dropper Facilitator 1

    @Katherine Mannion Yes, please. I would appreciate an introduction. My email is: jprecht@giswashington.org. Thanks. Jennifer

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