Grow Your List with the New Constituent Form: Email Signup with Built-in Consent

A few weeks ago, we introduced the new Constituent form—a flexible, drag-and-drop form that writes directly to Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT®. One of the most powerful ways to put the new Constituent form to work is as an email signup form with built-in consent, so you can grow your list with the confidence that every contact has opted in through the channels and categories you’ve already configured in Raiser’s Edge NXT. 

What’s new 

You can now build an email signup form using the new Constituent form in Raiser’s Edge NXT. Supporters choose the communications they want to receive from your organization—by channel (such as email) and by category (such as newsletters, event invitations, or fundraising appeals). Their preferences flow directly into Raiser’s Edge NXT without manual imports and with flexible controls to reduce duplicate constituent records. 

If your organization currently uses an email signup form in Blackbaud Online Express™ or Blackbaud NetCommunity™, the Constituent form offers you a clear path forward for capturing and processing new email signups within Raiser’s Edge NXT. 

Why consent-based email signup matters 

Consent management is the modern approach to honoring how constituents want to hear from you. Rather than assuming preferences based on activity or broad opt-in lists, consent captures an individual’s explicit choices—by communication channel and by category—at the moment they sign up. In Raiser’s Edge NXT, these consent selections work together with solicit codes so your outreach respects both a supporter’s stated preferences and your organization’s existing communication rules.  

Healthy email programs start with clean, consent-based lists. Collecting explicit opt-ins by channel and category lets your organization: 

• Send the right message on the right channel, based on what each supporter actually asked for. 
• Meet data privacy expectations and regulatory requirements such as GDPR. 
• Build trust with supporters by honoring their wishes in how you communicate with them. 

Because the new Constituent form uses the same consent channels and categories you’ve already set up in Raiser’s Edge NXT, the preferences donors select on the form match the preferences your team manages in Raiser’s Edge NXT. You have one source of truth, no reconciliation needed. 

High-level setup: From Raiser’s Edge NXT to your live form 

Getting your first consent-based email signup form in front of supporters is a three-step process: 

1. Set up consent channels and categories in Raiser’s Edge NXT. From Settings, Control Panel, Consent Management in Raiser’s Edge NXT, configure the channels (such as Email) and the categories you want to offer constituents (such as Newsletter, Event Invitations, or Fundraising Appeals). These are the consent options supporters will see on your form. 
   As part of the setup process, configure which solicit code(s) should be added or removed based on that consent preference.   
2. Build a Constituent form in Online Giving. From Online Giving, go to Constituent forms and select Add form. Use the drag-and-drop designer to include the fields you need—at minimum, name and email address—and add custom text, images, or headers to match your brand. 
3. Add consent preferences to the form. Under Optional fields, select Collect opt-ins under Consent preferences, then add channels and categories for supporters to choose from. Display a consent statement to explain how you’ll use the information they share. You’ll be able to relabel each field to make each selection supporter-friendly.  

Once your form is live, every submission flows into Raiser’s Edge NXT through Online data review—either automatically or after your team reviews the record, depending on the settings you choose. Consent selections are written to the constituent record. Past consent entries will be preserved in the consent history.    

Already using consent on your donation forms? 

If you’ve added consent preferences to an Optimized or Standard donation form, the setup on the Constituent form will feel familiar: the consent experience on the Constituent form is modeled directly after the donation form. The same channels and categories you’ve configured in Raiser’s Edge NXT are available to select, and the form behaves the same way for your supporters. 

Get started today 

The new Constituent form is available now for all Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT customers worldwide. To learn more about each step, visit the following Help Center articles: 

• Manage Email Consent: Set up consent channels and categories in Raiser’s Edge NXT. 
• Add Consent to Constituent forms: Pull the Consent widget into your Constituent form and choose which consent channels and categories to include. 

 Have questions or want to share how your organization is using the new Constituent form? Drop a comment below—we’d love to hear from you.