GIVING STATEMENTS/YE TAX LETTERS

I have two questions/issues with regard to Blackbaud/RE NXT and I am wondering if there might be progress being made on either/both:

When will there be changes made to the options for annual giving statements/year-end tax letters?

I have spent considerable time searching the different discussions as well as the training that is available and I am, honestly, completely shocked to find how many people confirm and are more than disappointed with the same things I have found…the options are terrible. Multiple steps, downloading data into Word documents using a merge feature, etc. Or downloading the PDFs and then editing them in Adobe (which, you have to be paying for the correct version to do), which can be time-consuming.

RE is a pretty powerful tool and can do so many things! What everyone seems to want with regard to these giving statements seems fairly basic and does not seem as complex as the majority of the other things that RE is capable of.

For the amount of money we pay, it seems ridiculous that we cannot do even the simplest customization of what is truly a very important piece of donor communication! Not only is the statement itself very important to donors, whether they made monetary donations or gave in-kind, but it is a great touch-point opportunity and allows us to thank them for their support, among other things.

When will there be the ability to run an auction (in person and on-line)?

When we signed up several years ago we were told this was being worked on and was a priority. I would venture to say that there are likely thousands of organizations that have auctions, big and small, who would use this feature. There are FREE platforms on-line that can do a pretty good job and some of them can communicate with RE…this is great but since they are free, there are pieces missing unless I pay for the upgraded version. I don't really want to have to pay for another platform to access everything I need and then have it communicate with RE because I am already paying a considerable amount for RE. If a free platform on-line can offer almost what we need, it is very confusing to me why RE/Blackbaud can't figure it out.

While we do like quite a lot about RE, one of the reasons for signing up was to do everything out of one system rather than piecing things together. And it is how RE was pitched to us…even as we asked many very specific questions. If I have to piece things together, I could likely find something for far less than RE.

It would be a shame to no longer have access to the features that we have come to rely on and are great about RE. However, these two things are a pretty big deal for us…and, my guess is we are not the only ones who feel that way. Any chance either of these features is nearing completion and will be available any time soon?