Updates for Connect Raiser's Edge

When gender values which are not male, female, or blank (unknown) are selected in Core, these other (non-binary) gender values are now synced to matched user records in Raiser’s Edge. If the gender value doesn't yet exist in Raiser’s Edge, then Connect Raiser’s Edge creates a table value for the gender value and then links the value for the sync. To learn more, read the documentation about gender values in Core.

We fixed the following issues:

• Previously, if a school set teacher and staff to not sync, an error cause female spouses who were also teacher and staff to be made constituents. This is fixed. Now, if teacher and staff are set to not sync, female spouses remain non-constituents after they are linked to their non-constituent records in Raiser's Edge.

• Previously, if a user added the last four digits of a zip code to a record in Core , an error caused a duplicate address record to be created in Raiser's Edge. This is fixed. Now, the existing address record in Raiser's Edge is updated to include the last four digits of a zip code.

• Previously, if a user selected to view the updates for a specific date, an error caused Connect Raiser's Edge to show the updates the user had most recently viewed. This is fixed. When you select a specific date, the updates for that date appear.

Be aware of how recent updates to Education Management may affect your data management strategy.

• Genders in Core that are not Male (M) or Female (F) will become Unknown in Raiser's Edge.

• Preferred pronouns in Core are not currently mapped or synced to Raiser's Edge.

• The single-select field for Ethnicity in Core still maps and syncs to Race in Raiser's Edge.

• The new multi-select field of Race in Core is not currently mapped or synced to Raiser's Edge.

We've made a number of improvements and fixes for the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in.

• When a business address is marked as the "primary" address in Raiser’s Edge and a home address exists in the Education Management Solutions (formerly ‘ON’ products), home address from Core is mapped to the home address in Raiser’s Edge and it becomes the "primary" address. Previously, the home address from Core was matched to the business address in Raiser’s Edge if the business address in Raiser’s Edge had been the "primary" address.

• When a specific date or “fuzzy date” date for a business relationship exists in Raiser’s Edge and no date exists in the Education Management Solutions (formerly ‘ON’ products), the date in Raiser’s Edge is preserved but the entry is no longer marked as “primary.” Previously, an error caused dates to be lost. Now, dates are correctly preserved.

We've made a number of improvements and fixes for the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in.

• A new “Welcome to Connect Raiser’s Edge” screen appears for schools. If your school has not yet purchased this functionality and wants to use these features, follow the instructions that appear with the welcome message. This ‘splash’ screen appears for all clients because of a recent hosting move to Azure.

• When a “fuzzy date” date exists in Raiser’s Edge and no date exists in the Education Management Solutions (formerly ‘ON’ products), the date in Raiser’s Edge is preserved but the entry is no longer marked as “primary.” Previously, an error caused fuzzy dates to be lost even as non-fuzzy dates were preserved. Now, both types of dates are correctly preserved. This error was most problematic for handling organization relationships.

• Previously, if a school selected to not sync roles for past students or alums, and then a student in Core graduated or was withdrawn from school, the individual’s record in Raiser’s Edge would be updated to include unexpected Constituent Codes. Now, even when your school select to not sync alum and past student roles, settings for withdrawn and alum constituent code settings will still appear.

• Previously, if a phone or address type was not in Core, the address type was updated to be a “former address type” in Raiser’s Edge. Now, the information is not only preserved, but it is assumed to still be current.

• Previously, if a constituent code in Raiser’s Edge was used for multiple roles in Core, and any of the roles were removed or changed in Core, an error caused the code to end. Now the code remains active as long as at least one role that matches to the code is still active.

We've made a number of improvements and fixes for the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in.

• Previously, when a new gender option of "Other" was added to Core, this was handled as a blank gender value in Raiser's Edge when the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in synced data.

  Now, constituents records in Raisers Edge can have a gender of "Male or Female." When a profile in Core indicates the "Other" gender, the matching record in Raiser's Edge will have the gender of "Unknown."

  This means the gender values in Core and Raiser's Edge will not be identical, even after the data syncs. However, the sync not result in a blank or binary-gendered value for Raiser's Edge records either.

  Only the latest patch of Raiser's Edge 7 handles non-binary gender values.

• Previously, if an organization was added as a non-constituent record to Raiser's Edge, and later a constituent record for the same organization (same name) was created in Raiser's Edge, then when the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in synced business relationships it created a non-linked relationship to the non-constituent organization, instead of a linked business relationship with the constituent organization. This error is fixed. Now the plug-in prioritizes constituent organizations; this maximizes linking business relationships.

• Now, when users create a new address for Business/College for a user record in Core which is already linked to a record in Raiser's Edge, and that new address is marked as the preferred address for contact purposes in Core, the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in now syncs this information as expected. It creates a new business relationship in Raiser's Edge (on the constituent's Bio tab) and marks it as preferred. Previously, this scenario would freeze the plugin in error due to an invalid business indicator. This is fixed.

• Previously, when a constituent record in Raiser's Edge included an "Other" education/school relationship which used fuzzy dates, and a record in Core was created with the same school relationship but no date information, the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in would overwrite the fuzzy date as blank dates when it synced the data for linked records. Now, fuzzy date information is preserved in Raiser's Edge when the plug-in syncs this data, even when Core does not include a date.

• Previously, if the zip code of a linked constituent was updated, but the first 5 digits of the 9 possible numbers remained the same, then an error prevented Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in from handling the updates for the final 4 digits when it synced data. This is fixed; the full zip-code is updated in Raiser's Edge when a change is entered in Core.

• Previously, when constituent records in Raiser's Edge were linked with shared addresses, and the address information was updated in Core to indicate that the family had moved to a new (and preferred) address, the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in handled this by listing the old address as "former" and adding the new address to the first constituent matched in Raiser's Edge. However, an error prevented the plug-in from handling the same update for the other constituent linked to the shared address. This is fixed. Now the shared addresses are correctly handled as former and new preferred addresses for linked constituents in Raiser's Edge.

• Previously, by default, an employee or staff role could be matched by the Connect Raiser's Edge plug-in and these users would appear under "new records found" during the match records process. If an integrations manager then edited the plug-in's settings to exclude an employee or staff role from matching, the users continued to appear as records for possible matching. Now, these records are cleared from the list of users to match, when the school's plug-in settings exclude these roles.

When finding potential matches, the integration now considers users with hyphenated names in one database, but a non-hyphenated name in the other database, as potential matches. This makes it easier to link the records of constituents who hyphenated their names upon marriage.

Previously, when users were affected by an error during the initial linking process, the users would no longer appear in Matching or Key Metrics. Now, users affected by those errors return to Matching so you can make the necessary corrections.

In September, we announced plans to update how the plug-in syncs information about current employment status, Business/College Address, and Business/College Phone for constituents. We indicated that you will need to review your existing data and possible run a Data Import to clean up the data before you could take advantage of the update. Because this update has significant changes and will require Data Importes, we ultimately decided to delay the update, so we could spend additional time working with users like you to ensure the changes best reflect your needs. This additional time and research proved insightful; we’ve adjusted our plans for this update to better serve your needs.

Now only current employment status and Business/College Address will be affected by the update. Business/College Phone numbers will still be handled as they are today.

Additionally, you can now choose when to start using the new way of syncing constituents’ current employment status and Business/College Address.

Warning: After you start using the new way of syncing this information, you can’t switch back.

To process records in the new way, review the details of this update and update your data as necessary. When you’re ready, select Yes for Has all the business information in Core Profiles been updated? and then select Use new way of syncing from now on.

As the integration processes new changes for constituents and their relatives, this new logic applies.

Connect Raiser’s Edge will use the Business/College Address and Currently Employed (Yes) from Education Management to update the Primary Business information in Raiser's Edge.

Remember that the Education Management database is your "database of record."

• In the Education Management database, you must use the Contact Card to indicate when constituents are currently employed (or self employed). Track the primary business address as the Business/College Address on the constituent's Education Management record.

• If you suspect there are constituents with primary business addresses in Raiser's Edge, but not in your Education Management database, you'll need to add the addresses to your Education Management database and use the Currently Employed status. To update records in bulk, use a Data Import.

• Otherwise, if you have no address or employment in your Education Management database, the integration will remove the primary business indicator from Raiser's Edge. The business address will remain in Raiser's Edge as a Relationship. If you also integrate Raiser’s Edge with Education Edge, phone contact information may be lost when the business is no longer marked as primary.

Previously:

• Connect Raiser's Edge created a new address type in Raiser’s Edge for Business/College. When users mapped fields for the integration, they handled the Business/College Address from Education Management by mapping it to this new address type, which appeared as a new business Relationship for each constituent in Raiser's Edge. The integration did not update the Primary Business address for the constituent record in the Raiser's Edge.

Now:

• If the Education Management record indicates that a constituent is currently employed, the integration handles the Business/College Address from Education Management as the Primary Business address. Therefore, any updates to the Business/College Address in Education Management will appear on the Primary Business of the matching constituent record in Raiser's Edge.

• However, if the Education Management database does not indicate that a constituent is currently employed, the integration maps as follows:

  • For constituents - The Business/College Address from Education Management as a separate address (type: Business).

  • For non-constituents - The Business/College Address from Education Management only appears in Raiser's Edge if Raiser's Edge is currently integrated with Education Edge.

  • In both cases - The primary business flag is turned off. The business information still appears on the Relationship tab in Raiser's Edge.

  Remember, in the Education Management database Business/College is still a single address for each constituent.

  • For example, you could use it to track the address of an alum's current employer or current university. In Raiser's Edge, there may be multiple, additional addresses for each of those types of information. In Raiser's Edge, the Primary Business information appears on the Employment tab of each constituent record. Other addresses, including non-primary business addresses, appear on constituent records too, but as part of the Relationship information for each constituent.

    With this update however, if a recent alum is currently employed and also enrolled in college, we recommend you add the employment information to the record in Education Management and use the Business/College as the business address. To track the alum's college address, use another address type in Education Management or add the address to the constituent’s record in Raiser's Edge.

Be sure to update your templates and files for Data Importes to include information about whether Primary Business Address for any relevant constituents and spouses.

For schools that previously mapped Business/College Addresses from Education Management into newly created Business/College types of addresses in Raiser's Edge, the integration will no longer update the Business/College types of addresses in Raiser's Edge. Therefore, you'll need to clean up some data.

For any constituent record in Raiser's Edge where Business/College Address is now an unnecessary duplicate, we recommend you remove it. The Business/College Address will not be recreated.

If the record in Raiser's Edge has Business/College Address as the most current information, update the Primary business or business Relationship with that information before you delete the Business/College Address.

Likewise, you can delete duplicate business relationships. The next time the constituent is updated, if the Education Management database indicates the constituent is Currently Employed, then the integration can match the Primary business relationship.

When you select to Process Now but some users still need to be linked or considered, an alert message now appears.

The following bugs were fixed.

• When there are no enrollment rows in Core, dates that pertain to alums graduation or withdrawal will no longer be removed from The Raiser’s Edge after processing changes through Connect Raiser's Edge.

• Previously, if a student in a family graduates or withdraws from school, the parent constituent code was updated to a past parent and also received an end date even if the family had other children still active in that school. This is now fixed.

Thanks to your feedback, we’ve made several improvements to help with data parity if schools are using both Connect Education Edge and Connect Raiser’s Edge.

• Profile fields for Ethnicity, Religion, Maiden Name and Gender are now included in the user sync for Connect Education Edge.

• The user sync in Connect Education Edge now supports spousal relationships. Users linked together as spouses will be linked in Core via the Spouse/Partner Relationship Type. Previously, spouses were not linked via Connect Education Edge and this caused users to appear as Divorced when sent to Raiser’s Edge via Connect Raiser’s Edge.

Schools can now update the integration’s participating roles. To do this, a manager can edit the Connect RE settings under Core > Settings > Integrations.

Now, integration managers can “link as you go.” You can match in smaller batches of records. The integration syncs data for any linked records. As more Raiser’s Edge records are matched with “on” product records over time, the integration syncs more data. This enables you to benefit from the data sync, even before all records are matched.

This change affects the setup process and your workflow for matching records. To review the latest instructions, refer to the online help.

Previously, you had to match all records in bulk before the integration would sync data. For schools with many records, this took a long time and during that time, they didn’t get the benefits of the data sync.

For information about other recent enhancements for Connect Raiser’s Edge, including information about wording changes and how to maintain data after records are linked, check out this post in the user community.

Connect Raiser’s Edge enables you to automatically update and add information to your Raiser’s Edge database based on information entered into your “on” products. For example, when a parent updates his address or a student graduates, that information can be easily shared with your fundraising team. For additional information about this plugin for Raiser’s Edge, contact your Blackbaud account representative.