Split Gift Analysis

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 Hey you guys! It’s not a big secret that one of the more controversial features for many long year in Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge is the split gift feature. On one hand it offers a great way to divide a single contribution into multiple funds, campaigns, or appeals. On the other hand it makes analysis somewhat difficult.  Many institutions simply don’t use split gifts at all and would enter a single check or credit card gift as multiple gifts in the batch. One of the things that makes analyzing split gifts difficult is the lack of a split gift ID in the Query and Export modules. While it is technically possible to get the split gift ID from the administrator import function, there’s another way that you can create a unique ID for each split gift segment.   In this demo , I show example examples using Excel and tableau how this can be quickly accomplished.  What do you think? What are some of the other issues working with split gifts    in Raiser’s Edge!...
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Quick Takeaways from the Raiser's Edge PUB

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 Hey you guys!

Just a few quick takeaways from the Raiser's Edge Product Update Briefing last week...

Overall, I commend Blackbaud for finally articulating its clear vision for its flagship product. I believe that nonprofits new to Blackbaud will find a wealth of valuable resources. However, long-standing customers may not be as pleased with the new bold direction.  


  • The total RE web view solution is not for long time Blackbaud customers. Blackbaud hopes they come along for the ride, but it clearly wasn’t made for them   
  • While Blackbaud will offer an array of products, as far as extending the abilities of RE goes, this will largely be up to third-party services
  • Blackbaud offers many tools to extend the abilities of RE (some might argue not enough) but it demands end users pick up skills they didn’t have during the classic era
  • Almost no mention of Insights Designer. This is interesting given how Blackbaud has shackled the product with very limited fields and no calculated fields ability. I wouldn’t be surprised if this feature is killed in favor of the partnership with Microsoft (Power BI). 
  • RE is a fundraising platform first, and a CRM second. Despite all the features and improvements(some might bristle at the latter) it’s ability to manage relationships still pales compared to some competitors 


I think over the next few months MANY Blackbaud customers will engage in serious existential discussions about the future of Blackbaud at their organizations - if they haven’t already.  


As always....


Yours in Data

-Dave

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