The Raiser's Edge User Guides

• The Raiser's Edge user guides are now available only from Blackbaud's Web site; they are no longer embedded in the software. If you have problems accessing the user guides, send an email to userguides@blackbaud.com.

Personal Information Security

• Credit card, social security, bank account, and insurance policy numbers are now masked so the full numbers do not appear in records, reports, or other areas of the program. For more information about these security options and best practices for setting access to Personal Information, see the Security chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

• Credit card, social security, bank account, and insurance policy numbers are encrypted in The Raiser's Edge database. Version 7.81 employs AES encryption.

Security

• You can now base users' access to The Raiser’s Edge on their Windows login information instead of creating a Raiser’s Edge specific user name and password for them. On an individual users' security records, you can mark a checkbox to specify that their Windows login information be used to access The Raiser's Edge.

• Additionally, if you use Active Directory user/group schemes, you can also leverage that infrastructure when creating your Raiser’s Edge security groups. This enables you to manage your users from a single location without the need to duplicate your network directory in The Raiser’s Edge. You can assign multiple Windows users to a Raiser’s Edge security group either by specifying an Active Directory group or via an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) query. LDAP is an Internet protocol that programs use to look up information from a server.

• The program does not allow the same Windows security user names to be used in different groups, so users added through Active Directory or LDAP groups cannot also be set to use Windows authentication on their individual records as part of another group. If names in an Active Directory or LDAP group match existing Raiser’s Edge users, the program will not allow you to add the group. For more information, see the Security chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

The Raiser’s Edge installation package features many new enhancements.

CounterPoint SQL Integration

• With The Raiser's Edge 7.81, you have the ability to integrate with CounterPoint SQL 8.3.4. CounterPoint SQL, owned by Synchronics, is an inventory management and graphical product sales system. For more information, see the CounterPoint SQL Integration Guide.**

• CounterPoint SQL is accessible from The Raiser's Edge and you can also access new export extensions and a new sample custom view.**

Reports

In Reports, you can now encrypt credit card, bank account, and social security information, keep track of do not contact phone information, and more. For information, see the Reports Guide.

• The new Personal Information security option in Security controls credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and social security information displayed on Individual Profile, Organization Profile, and Constituent Profile reports. It also controls credit card numbers displayed on the Gift Entry Validation report. For more information, see the Security chapter in the Configuration & Security Guide.

• We added a new Demographic and Statistical Report. The new Advocacy Tallies Report counts the number of advocates, communications sent, and the number of times an action was taken based on records with specific field values. You can use this report to help analyze your advocates.

• We made some changes to the Gift Detail and Summary Report. We added a new column, Matching Gift Company, to the list of Available Columns in this report. We also changed how the report processes a single matching gift payment applied to multiple matching gifts pledges. For more information, see the Reports Guide.

• If you have the optional module PlannedGiftTracker, we made a number of changes to the Planned Gifts Report to accommodate changes made to the Planned Giving. For more information, see the Update Guide.

• We added the Net Present Value column as an optional column on the Columns tab in the Expected Maturity Year Report.

Crystal Reports

• The Raiser’s Edge 7.81 is compatible with Crystal Reports XI.

• The Raiser’s Edge 7.81 is still compatible with Crystal Reports 8.5.

• For more information about Crystal Reports, see the Creating Custom Crystal Reports Tutorial.

Dashboard

• A Do Not Contact optional column has been added for the following dashboard panels: Event Expense List, Event Sponsoring Pledges List, Volunteer Assignment List, Constituent Action List, Solicitor Action List, Action Reminders, and the Patron Contact List (if you have The Patron Edge). For more information, see the Dashboard Guide.

• Before using Dashboard, you must now install Microsoft Office Web Components. For more information, see the Installation Guide.