Welcome to The Raiser's Edge 7.92. Before you begin to use the program, please take a moment to review the following notes, which highlight some of the new features and enhancements. 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.

 

Be sure to check out The Raiser's Edge 7.92 walkthrough for more information and about new features, including videos and more!

Administration

  • The Import Control Report now includes constituent import IDs in the Reason column for all potential duplicates.

  • The Duplicate Constituent Report now displays spouse name, phone number, email address, and the date each constituent was added to The Raiser's Edge.

Blackbaud Payment Service

  • Enhancements to Blackbaud Payment Service have been made to reduce the impact of intermittent connectivity problems.

  • If an internet connectivity error occurs while you are uploading a batch of transactions to Blackbaud Payment Service, checking the status of a batch that is being uploaded to Blackbaud Payment Service, downloading authorization and rejection codes from Blackbaud Payment Service, or uploading a batch of credit card information to Blackbaud Payment Service, the system will immediately retry five times with no delay between attempts. This prevents the operation you are trying to perform from failing if internet connection is lost for only a few seconds. If the operation does not succeed after five attempts, an error message appears.

Configuration

  • On the General page, you can now test your credentials and connection to Blackbaud Payment Service.

  • To confirm your credentials are correct on the General page, click the Test Connection button. If your credentials are correct, and you are connected to the Internet, a message appears to confirm a successful connection. If you are unable to connect to Blackbaud Payment Service, check your credentials or internet connection.
  • On the Business Rules page, you no longer set duplicate criteria. Throughout The Raiser's Edge, a new duplicate algorithm has been introduced that automatically checks name, address, phone number, and email address to determine duplicates. This allows for a more comprehensive and thorough search for duplicate records. All other duplicate rules on the Business Rules page have not changed.

Events

  • From the Participants tab of an event record, you can now easily mark registrants as attended or not attended on the action bar.

  • Helpful information such as number invited, number registered, and number attended appear at the bottom of event records.

Export

  • To help manage and organize the export records you create, you can create categories in which to group them, such as by user or by the export's intended use. You can drag and drop exports from the export list into the appropriate category.

Data Health Center

  • Target Analytics' Giving Score is a statistical tool that assigns a prospect rating of VIP, Fan, Acquaintance, or Long-Shot to every individual with an address in the United States in your database based on their giving history and capacity to give. To determine Giving Score ratings, Target Analytics also considers gift data such cash and recurring gifts. With this information, you can determine how best to communicate with each supporter and focus on the best candidates for your fundraising efforts and appeal mailings.
  • To use the Giving Score, you must submit your data through the Data Health Center to Target Analytics to be scored. This analysis does not change or remove any information in your database, but rather categorizes your supporters based on their Giving Scores.
  • After your data is scored, you return to the Data Health Center to download the information into The Raiser’s Edge.
  • You can view the Giving Score Control Report to view a summary of how your data was scored.

Constituents

  • If your data has been scored by Target Analytics for the Giving Score, Giving Score ratings now appear on the status bar of the constituent record.

  • You can also view Giving Score ratings under Ratings on the Prospects tab.

  • To assign a different Giving Score rating, you can manually override the rating from the status bar on the constituent record.

  • When you search for constituents, results are now displayed in the order of most likely match. Information such as criteria matched on appear in the results grid.

  • When you search for constituents, you can now search on criteria such as middle name, suffix, spouse name, phone number, and email address.

  • By default, enhanced search is enabled. This means that searches are "fuzzy," allowing for exact results as well as similar results. For example, if you enter "Neal" in the First name criteria field, first names with exact or similar spellings will appear in the results, such as "Neal," "Neil," and "Noel." This can help account for misspellings, but could possibly increase the length of time it takes to perform the search. If you deselect this checkbox, searches will not be "fuzzy." For example, if you enter "Neal" in the First name criteria field, only first names that contain those letters will appear, such as "Neal" or "Neale."

  • If you prefer the way the constituent search results grid appeared before the release of 7.92, click Options on the search screen, and select Show classic search view when using enhanced search to revert the grid to its previous appearance.

  • When you add a new constituent and click Save, if the constituent you entered is a potential duplicate in your system, the Duplicate Search Results screen appears. You can select to save the constituent as a new record if it is not a duplicate, or if it is a duplicate, you can discard your changes. On this screen, you can click Selected Record Is Not A Duplicate so that the two records will never again be considered as potential duplicates in your system.

  • If you do not use the optional module RE:Search for prospect management, the Ratings tab appears on the constituent record. The Ratings tab contains all constituent ratings information, such as WealthPoint and Giving Score ratings.

Dashboard

  • If your data has been scored by Target Analytics for the Giving Score, you can use the Giving Score dashboard panels to view and analyze Giving Score ratings assigned to your constituents. You can also use these panels to access Giving Score queries that have been created.
  • You can use the Giving Score Rating Summary panel to analyze a summary of how your data was scored for the Giving Score. The Giving Score panel provides the number of constituents who received each rating, as well as the number of constituents who received a score of No Rating.
  • You can use the Giving Score Queries panel to view each Giving Score query created in your system. Giving Score queries allow you to create lists of constituents based on their Giving Score ratings, such as to make a list of all your VIP’s for use in a mailing. You can also create a new Giving Score query from the Giving Score Queries panel.
  • You can use the Giving Score by Constituency panel to view the number of Giving Score ratings for each constituency, such as to view the number of board members who were given each rating.

Query

  • You can use Giving Score queries to create lists of your constituents to be used in other processes throughout the program, such as in mailings. The lists you create are based on the Giving Score ratings your constituents receive when your data is scored for the Giving Score through the Data Health Center, or when you manually assign a Giving Score rating.

  • The query results on a Giving Score query record appear as a list. You can perform a number of actions to customize and manage the constituents in each list.

  • From a Giving Score query record, you can search for specific constituents in the list, filter the list, add and remove constituents to the list, assign solicitors to constituents, override Giving Score ratings to assign new ratings, view giving history, view WealthPoint results, and create notes and actions.

  • You can now create query lists from any existing query in your system. Query lists take the results of an existing query and place them into a list you can edit and save separately for use in other processes throughout The Raiser's Edge, such as in mailings. You can add or remove the constituents, individuals, and organizations that appear in the results of your query list as necessary.

  • On the Query page, you can view where in the system each query is currently being used. When you select a query in the grid, under The selected query is used in the following... at the bottom of the page, you can view the name of the process where it is used, what type of process it is, and who created the process.

Reports

  • You can access the Giving Score Control Report under Analytical Reports.

SQL Server Compatibility

  • The Raiser's Edge 7.92 is now compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3.

  • The Raiser's Edge 7.92 is now compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2.

  • The Raiser's Edge 7.92 is now compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.

  • The Raiser's Edge 7.92 is now compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express.

  • The Raiser's Edge 7.92 is now compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.

  • The Raiser's Edge 7.92 is now compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Service Pack 1.