Join us for one of the most interactive sessions yet, where we’ll discuss tips and timesavers to help you clean up your Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge™ database. We’ll talk code tables, global changes, queries, and more to get you up to speed on database management for your organization.
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Date & Time
Wednesday December 19th, 2018 1:00pm EST
End Date & Time
Wednesday December 19th, 2018 1:30pm EST
Category
Raiser's Edge® Events
Event Attendees
11
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2
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0
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Event Comments
Then I include a query of the records i want that code removed from. I haven't had any problems doing this and I managed to bring our constituent code list down from 188 to 53
Whether it's your first time joining or you were with me from the beginning of the series in 2015, we collectively did something really cool and interactive at Blackbaud. Hundreds of us at a time went online and chatted about maximizing the usage of Raiser's Edge.
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As promised, the Q&A from today's session.
Helpful links
Records: Date Added/Changed and investigating in query
Is the “Added By” field accessible in NXT?
Chris>> No.
If someone opens a record and doesn't change anything, but click the “Save” button, is this record marked as “updated”/”changed”?
Chris>> Yes. Clicking “Save” or “Save and Close” marks a record as changed.
Global Add/Changes/Deletes
Is there a way to save a list of the constituents you want to delete before you delete them?
We would like to create a list of the constituents we are going to globally delete before we do. Is there a way to do this?
Chris>> You could export data out of Raiser’s Edge. There are also pre-delete reports in Global Delete. There is also a Blackbaud partner “Zeidman Development” that has some products that may help. https://www.zeidman.info/raisers-edge/
Are you going to cover mass address updates from NCOA? Our database has never been cleaned up and once I have cleaned up the duplicates and bad addresses, want to migrate that info.
Chris>> Sorry we didn’t cover this today. We focused on standard/base functionality in Raiser’s Edge.
Can you delete a value from only certain records if linked to a query selecting those records?
Chris>> Yes. This is typically done through global change.
Would you use global add appeal in place of importing a mail list?
Chris>> You could, but ultimately it depends what you want to accomplish. If you have a list of constituent ID numbers you could copy and paste them into a constituent query, then use Global Add Appeal. But ultimately it depends what you’re looking to do.
I have an employee who is globally adding appeals to the notes section of a constituent instead of appeals. Can you confirm the advantage of the appeals section? Thx
Chris>> Appeals for the win! My last DBA said that “notes is a graveyard for data”.
Re: getting Blackbaud to create a custom script to delete something in your Raiser’s Edge database (SQL database)… Can you only ask your AE to do something on the back-end if you are hosted?
Chris>> This can be done for all Raiser’s Edge installations. If you host your database on-premise you’ll need to run the script, or arrange access for Blackbaud to do the work.
Tip from Elizabeth – thanks! I also only use global options if there exceed a threshold like more than 100 records.
Chris>> Good thought. Global functions require some careful testing and verification. Sometimes it’s easier to make changes record-by-record.
Cleaning Up and/or Deleting Constituent Codes
Tip from Shameeka – thanks! I had to end up using an import file to change the Constituent Code type to Delete_Me and then use the plug-in to delete the specific consistuent code.
Tip from Elizabeth – thanks! You can globally delete a constituency code by deleting it through config.
Chris>> And caveat, in order to delete this constituent code in Config>Tables, that constituent must not be used anywhere in Raiser’s Edge.
For deleting constituent codes, would it be best to export a file, change and then import the updated file?
Chris>> Unfortunately importing will not delete constituent codes. However it will add or change constituent codes.
Tip from Lisa – thanks! Create a new constituent code "delete", go into Config>Tables, change the ones you want to delete to the new "delete" code, then do a global delete on that "delete" code.
Chris>> This is a pretty elegant way to delete constituent codes.
Tip from Elizabeth – thanks! The interesting thing about globally adding constituency codes is that it adds it to the end so you might need to subsequently change their order manually.
Tip from Marie – thanks! Typically, we don't want to delete Constituent Codes. It provides a quick look at the history a constituent's activity in the organization.
Tip from Ashley – thanks! Finding duplicate constituent codes: query by constituent code. Use output that includes the constituent code to force duplicate query rows. Export result to excel. Use countif and autofilter
Chris>> See, this is EXACTLY why the Q&A panel is so important in these webinars. I love how we can learn from each other.
Other
I regularly need it import lists of people from another database - not a BB product. Some of the people on the list are in RE, others will be new constituents. None have RE ID numbers and I do not know who is in Raiser’s Edge and who is not. What is the best practice for this process?
Chris>> This sounds like something for Omatic Software’s ImportOmatic app.
Is there a way to find people who have a relationship with someone who has a particular constituent code AND have both the relationship REID and their Constituent Code in the export?
Chris>> Yes should be possible, as long as the relationship record is linked to a full constituent record (so they have constituent codes on that record).
What is the best way to clean up the addressees and salutations table?
Chris>> Check out the webinar I presented “Using Import to Aid Data Cleanup” at http://bit.ly/BlackbaudTnT. I discussed this topic there.
How often do people use if/then/else logic in letters to cause automatic customization?
Chris>> Sorry I didn’t get a chance to get to this question in the webinar today. I’d like to suggest not many organizations are really taking advantage of these Microsoft Word merge fields, but they’re super cool. Remember the more of these conditions you use, the longer it takes to complete the mail merge.
Is there a way to merge duplicate memberships in the membership tab?
Chris>> I’m unaware of a way to do this. This could be something to ask your Account Executive at Blackbaud to see if Blackbaud can create a script.
I mail merge the acknowledgement letters-- can i globally add "acknowledged" the gift to those records?
Chris>> You can mark gifts as “acknowledged” during the mail merge if you’re using Donor Acknowledgement Letters in Mail. Also, you can mark gifts as “acknowledged” using global change (isolate the gifts you want to mark using a gift query).
What’s the best way to remove duplicate emails.
Chris>> This could be something to ask your Account Executive at Blackbaud to see if Blackbaud can create a script.
Other than Data Health, are there any standard reports for checking data health, e.g, bad zip codes, cities, odd characters in names?
Chris>> Create constituent queries that look for common mistakes. Also you can use AddressAccelerator in Raiser’s Edge to check address quality + AddressFinder to check multiple addresses against NCOA.