Do your gift officers travel to China?

Elizabeth Johnson
Elizabeth Johnson Community All-Star
Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply All-Star Challenge: End of Year Fundraising Toolkit
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussions

We are getting ready for our first trip to visit donors and families in China in years. I'd love to hear what security protocols your gift officers are instructed with prior to their trip to safeguard RE and their equipment.

Comments

  • Elizabeth Johnson
    Elizabeth Johnson Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply All-Star Challenge: End of Year Fundraising Toolkit

    Our people have returned and to share some precautions we took:

    Burner phones

    Borrowed computers that were wiped and only contained the information needed for the trip

    Our IT installed a VPN that “should” have worked in China

    WeChat

    We are now working on getting Alipay as when they can access our donation pages they have a charge of $50 on top of our donations.

  • Amy Dana
    Amy Dana Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply Raiser's Edge NXT Fall 2025 Product Update Briefing Badge

    @Elizabeth Johnson Thanks for this update! Did the VPN not work? Was that an “us” thing or a “them” thing? I'm just curious if another VPN would have worked or if it's the whole VPN concept that was a problem.

  • Elizabeth Johnson
    Elizabeth Johnson Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply All-Star Challenge: End of Year Fundraising Toolkit

    @Amy Dana Thanks - It is a bit of a mystery. It worked for our head of school, not for our director of development. When the director of development tried to use the head's VPN it then stopped working. It worked the entire time for our Admissions representative.

    I inquired with our IT what they used and here is their response:

    We installed ExpressVPN, but their mileage may vary - the great firewall of China is a complicated thing, and seemingly doesn't always let VPNs out.

    There is no guaranteed solution

    Hope that helps.

  • Amy Dana
    Amy Dana Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply Raiser's Edge NXT Fall 2025 Product Update Briefing Badge

    @Elizabeth Johnson Ah, so it's a China thing. Thanks for the clarification! I don't have any plans on travelling there soon but it's always interesting to hear about the tech precautions people have to take.

  • Elizabeth Johnson
    Elizabeth Johnson Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply All-Star Challenge: End of Year Fundraising Toolkit

    @Amy Dana Oh yes - specific to China - we can't be the only org that uses Blackbaud that travels there. Still hopeful that others will share insights.

  • Elizabeth Johnson
    Elizabeth Johnson Community All-Star
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 First Reply All-Star Challenge: End of Year Fundraising Toolkit

    I have an update from another one of our IT staff:

    Right before they left for China we found out that ExpressVPN wasn't working so we installed Asterill VPN on their machines. That worked but definitely not flawlessly : )

    It very well could be that Express works now; it really seems to be a gamble in general with the VPNs over there.

Categories