2012 to Bring New Features and Mobile Access to The Raiser’s Edge

Press release (Jan. 5, 2012) — Blackbaud today announced new features coming to The Raiser’s Edge®, including The Giving Score® and several database administration operational improvements, which will be available to customers in March, 2012. In addition, users will benefit from a planned mobile application during the first half of the year.

“The Raiser’s Edge is the go-to solution for fundraisers and has become the most widely-used donor management solution in the world,” said Jana Eggers, Blackbaud’s senior vice president, products and marketing. “The new version, which includes a built-in segmentation tool to help nonprofits best identify and target prospective donors, will make organizations even more efficient and effective, helping them dedicate more time to their missions. The new year will also bring a mobile application for The Raiser’s Edge, enabling fundraisers to access profile and giving data on-the-go.”

A three-time winner of Campbell Rinker’s Donor and Member and Management Solution Software Survey, The Raiser’s Edge is used by more than 13,000 nonprofits around the world. The Raiser’s Edge enables organizations to communicate with their constituents, manage fundraising and membership, expand their development efforts, and make better informed decisions through powerful segmentation, analysis and reporting capabilities.

The Raiser’s Edge (v7.92), generally available in March, 2012, will help nonprofits:

• Find their best donors with The Giving Score - The Giving Score, available for US-based organizations, applies smart analytics to a nonprofit’s database by segmenting constituents into four unique groups. This segmentation allows organizations to focus cultivation and solicitation efforts on those who are more likely and capable to give - ultimately helping raise more money. The Raiser’s Edge Search module is needed to take advantage of this new feature.
• Engage supporters with easy-to-use marketing tools - The new Query Lists feature available for constituent, individual, or organizational queries, includes duplicate suppression and allows users to easily make batch or singular edits of a query from within The Raiser’s Edge based on giving history and constituent codes.
• Keep their data clean and accurate with improved duplicate management - Users can now employ a sophisticated duplicate prevention algorithm based on first name, middle initial, last name, suffix, address, email, and phone. Changes have also been made to the search screen enabling users to search on email and phone.
• Make daily processes faster and simpler with new tools - The process for tracking event attendees has been streamlined, users can now easily discover where queries are being used, and folders are available to help users manage their exports.
• “Managing queries and exports will be so much easier when we are able to see where queries are being used,” said Nora Isaac, The ALS Association Greater Philadelphia Chapter’s information technology director. “We will now be able to clean up our query list easily as part of monthly maintenance with the new feature. We’re excited about that!”

In the first half of the year, users will have access to The Raiser’s Edge mobile application for smartphones and tablets, which will help fundraisers stay in touch with their constituents by accessing detailed information when they’re on-the-go. The application will allow users to access important constituent and giving information and manage actions directly from their mobile devices.

“The Raiser’s Edge mobile application will be an incredible resource for our fundraisers,” said Andrea Cummings, Children's Home Society of Florida’s fund development systems manager. “Our fundraising team is always looking for more efficient ways to manage the information flowing through our Raiser’s Edge database, and this mobile app will be so much more convenient for our team that is traveling across the state. Being able to connect to The Raiser’s Edge will not only give our fundraisers access to vital information, but will also make it possible for them to add important information to constituent files without having to be sitting at their desks, (which they seem to have less and less time to do!)”