Welcome to the The Raiser's Edge 7.81. Before you begin using the program, please take a moment to review the following notes, which highlight some of the new features. It is important to share this information with all Raiser's Edge users in your organization. A shortcut to the Release Notes for The Raiser's Edge has been added to your desktop, so you can access these notes at any time.

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.

Installation

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

  • Installation includes a Microsoft Windows installer package for MSI-based deployments.

  • The Raiser’s Edge provides the option to perform silent installations.

  • Before installation, The Raiser’s Edge checks for prerequisites and installs only what is not there.

  • The prerequisite installations are separate from The Raiser’s Edge installation.

  • The installation continues even if prerequisite installations fail.

  • If The Raiser’s Edge installation fails, The Raiser’s Edge installation rolls back but the prerequisite installations do not.

  • The Raiser's Edge installation failure information is sent to a log file.

  • For more information about installation see the Installation Guide.

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 access new export extensions and a new sample custom view.**

Records

  • In The Raiser’s Edge 7.81, we made a change to the action record. In action records, for an action with the Category of Email, a third column has been added to the Phone field drop-down list. When a phone number is marked as Do not Contact in the Phones/Email/Links grid, Do not Contact appears beside that number in the drop-down list.

  • On the Relationships tab of a constituent record, you can now sort the grid by Date From and Date To.

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.

  • 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.

Mapping

  • The Mapping functionality in The Raiser’s Edge is now compatible with MapPoint 2006. Mapping still works with MapPoint 2004. For more information, see the Mapping Guide.

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.

Filters

  • If you have a large number of campaigns, funds, and appeals, you now have a way to define filters using Campaign, Fund, and Appeal queries. In the past, when filtering by campaigns, funds, and appeals, you had to select each from a list. Now, you can define some filters by creating a Campaign, Fund, or Appeal query and saving it. Anywhere in the program where the Filters tab is used, you can now simply select that query when defining the Campaign, Fund, or Appeal filter. This can save you time, and can make your results more consistent.

Event Management

  • In Event Management, you can use the new Multiple Event Registration functionality to register a participant for multiple events at once. When you register a participant for multiple events, you can quickly pay registration fees and assign guests and seating for each event. To use the new Multiple Event Registration functionality, you must use the Group field on the event record to assign each event to a shared group.

  • In Event Management, the participant record has changed to accommodate multiple event registrations. For more information about participants see the Events chapter in the Event Management Data Entry Guide. For more information about registering a participant for multiple events at once, see the Multiple Registration for Grouped Events chapter in the Event Management Data Entry Guide.

  • You can copy an event record by selecting Event, Copy from the menu bar of the event record. For more information, see the Event Management chapter of the Event Management Data Entry Guide.

AuctionMaestro Pro Integration

  • With The Raiser’s Edge 7.81, you can integrate with AuctionMaestro Pro. When you use the new module AuctionMaestro Pro Integration in The Raiser’s Edge with AuctionMaestro Pro 4.5, you can send auction and auction participant data between your databases in The Raiser’s Edge and AuctionMaestro Pro. For more information, see the AuctionMaestro Pro Integration Guide.**

PlannedGiftTracker

  • If you use PlannedGiftTracker and have PG Calc’s GiftWrap software, you can calculate remainder value, net present value, and expected maturity date information in GiftWrap, and import the data to The Raiser's Edge.*

  • The NPV/as of fields have been added to planned gift records. Use these to store the net present value amount and date.

  • Planned gift records now have a new Life Insurance vehicle option.

  • You can also link a cash gift record to a planned gift record. For more information, see the Planned Gift Tracking Guide.

Query & Export

  • New fields have been added to Query and Export for planned gift records. For more information, see the New Features chapter of the Update Guide.

Administration

  • The new Personal Information security functionality added to Security affects several Administration functions: Globally Add Records, Globally Change Records, and Import. For more information, see the Security chapter in the Configuration & Security Guide.

Security

  • If you use Active Directory user/group schemes, you can now 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 user names to be used in different groups. So if you have previously specified on an individual user's security record that Windows authentication be used to access The Raiser’s Edge and you attempt to add an Active Directory or LDAP group to which that user belongs, the program will not allow you to add the group. You must unmark the Windows Authentication checkbox on that individual's record before you can add a Windows group that includes the user. For more information, see the Security chapter of the Configuration & Security Guide.

Configuration

  • In Business Rules, Gift Options, you can rename the term "gift" to reflect your business needs. The name you enter appears in the program where the term "gift" currently appears. For more information, see the Gift Record Basics chapter of the Gift Records Guide.

NetSolutions

A number of updates have been made to NetSolutions. For more information, see the NetSolutions Guide.

  • The NetSolutions page features a new design.

  • In Configure and Customize, submitting your Web site information sends the title table from your Raiser's Edge database to the NetSolutions server. When a constituent signs up for an account, he or she will be able to choose a title from the entries you defined within The Raiser's Edge.

  • In NetEvents, multiple price points can be defined for a single event and  constituents can register for multiple events from a single Web page.

  • In NetEvents and NetMembers, you can give your constituents the option to include additional donations during the registration process.

  • In NetMail, you can track the number of opt-outs for each message you send.

  • In NetDonors, NetEvents, NetDirectories, NetVolunteers, and NetMembers the final step of the page creation wizard includes HTML code. With HTML code, you can easily add a link on the newly created Web page to your existing Web site.

  • In NetDonors, NetMembers, and NetEvents, you can remove the ability for constituents to donate anonymously on a page-by-page basis.

  • Transactions downloaded from NetSolutions for entry into The Raiser's Edge are more intelligently matched with existing constituents in your database. New constituents can easily be added from their registration data by pressing F8 on your keyboard.

The Financial Edge Integration

  • If you fully integrate The Raiser's Edge with The Financial Edge, you can add an individual or organization as an Accounts Payable vendor record from the constituent record in The Raiser's Edge.

  • You can use the new fields available in export extensions and the new sample created for custom view. The new sample contains sections for fund relationships and current distributions. For more information, see the Gift Records Guide.

* = Available in US Only

**= Available in US & Canada Only