Options for Raiser's Edge Users

EMERGING TRENDS IN FUNDRAISING TECH

Introduction: Power Your Mission with the Best Technology

So you’re at a crossroads with your fundraising technology. Whether you’re on Raiser’s Edge 7 and facing the end of Database View, or you’re on NXT and it’s not meeting your needs, making the right decision for your organization’s future requires careful consideration of your unique needs, challenges, and goals.

Today’s nonprofit leaders have more choices than ever. Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge continues to excel at core fundraising functions like gift processing, donor management, and traditional fundraising workflows. For many organizations, it remains a reliable and effective solution. At the same time, your current implementation isn’t keeping pace with evolving fundraising strategies, digital transformation initiatives, and the need for cross-departmental collaboration.

This guide is designed to help you:

Assess your current fundraising technology needs and future requirements
Understand the strengths and limitations of different approaches
Evaluate platform-based solutions versus specialized fundraising products
Consider integration possibilities within your existing technology ecosystem
Make an informed decision that aligns with your organization’s strategic vision

At Heller Consulting, our goal is to help nonprofits and education institutions find the best technology solutions for their needs—not just point everyone to a specific system. Each organization has unique requirements and must weigh the pros and cons of any technology decision—whether it’s to enhance what you have, integrate with complementary systems, or transition to a new platform.

With these ideas in mind, here’s what you need to know as you navigate your fundraising technology options.

Comparing Apples to Oranges

Platform vs Product

Something to keep in mind if you’re considering CRM solutions from Salesforce or Microsoft is that you’re not looking at an apples-to-apples comparison with your current system. Raiser’s Edge is a fundraising-specific product, while Salesforce and Microsoft offer platforms on which fundraising (and many other) solutions are built. Blackbaud is bridging the gap with its BB CRM solution, which is marketed to enterprise-level orgs with large fundraising volume. It includes membership and volunteer management, financial accounting, and analytics.

Know Your Functionality Needs

A product is a single application that solves a specific need, like fundraising. It is already built out by a provider based on typical functional requirements and is usually easy to deploy. But keep in mind that a product will not be able to support a multitude of operations, and it will lack the flexibility you could gain with a platform. It also doesn’t necessarily integrate with other tools, meaning that the bidirectional information sharing required from modern fundraising best practices like responsive suggested gift amounts may not be easy, or possible.

On the other hand, when executed well, an ecosystem of tools connected to or built on a platform can support even the most complex nonprofit operations. This requires a change in thinking about the nature of your fundraising software, but it can pay off in the long run—especially if you want to do more with your fundraising program than Raiser’s Edge can support. Even though moving to Salesforce or Microsoft will take time and effort, in the end, it’s possible to not only reach parity with traditional fundraising functionality in Raiser’s Edge, but also be able to do much more.

There are several core areas of fundraising-related functionality that you would be replacing if you were to move away from Raiser’s Edge:

Biographical and demographical data management
Gift processing
Prospect management
Donor portal
Event management
Marketing automation

Raiser’s Edge provides this functionality in one solution but you’re locked into using each of the tools provided. For example, if you find the email or marketing automation tool doesn’t meet your needs, you don’t have much choice except to continue using it.

With platforms, you can choose from a host of products and select the one in each area that best meets your needs.

Platform Benefits and Tradeoffs

Salesforce, Microsoft, and BB CRM are all platforms that allow you to customize your system to your unique organizational and fundraising needs.

At the same time, the idea of moving to a platform versus an individual product might seem intimidating. It requires a shift in thought for your development team and your organization. And it will require an investment in time and dollars for the implementation and migration.

Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRMs have a lot to offer organizations, including:

FLEXIBILITY

They offer app marketplaces and integration options that allow you to customize and extend the solutions with best-of-breed products to meet your specific needs.

INTEGRATED DATA

A solution built on Salesforce or Microsoft is centered around CRM, which can help you grow donor relationships more effectively. It gives you a holistic view of constituents and donors, allowing you to collect more data and use data from other departments in your organization so you have more insights into donor behaviors and preferences, and helps you send targeted messages at the right time to the right constituents and donors.

EFFICIENCY

Tools available in the platforms give you the ability to automate processes, such as sending a targeted email series, to help you do more with less manual work.

Evaluating Platforms

If you’re thinking about moving to a platform, here are the top eight things to keep in mind

Your requirements

Start by listing your organization’s must-haves, such as ease of use, features and functionality, and integration needs. Then, refer to that list as you review the following considerations.

Solutions available

Consider what other solutions are available within the platform ecosystem, such as productivity and marketing automation tools, portals or community engagement tools.

Data model

Microsoft and Salesforce each use different nonprofit data models that specify how information, such as account and contact records, are treated within the system; and both differ from Raiser’s Edge. Be sure to understand these models, as they determine how your data will be mapped from your current system to the new system and might require changes to your processes to function optimally.

App marketplace and integration options

Understand the third-party applications that integrate with each system. For example, Salesforce has a large and mature AppExchange marketplace, which might be important if you anticipate needing to expand and enhance your solution extensively. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s AppSource is smaller and less mature, but might have the solutions you need. Microsoft also offers integration options using Power Automate, with hundreds of pre-built connectors. Both solutions also support API integrations.

User experience

Depending on your staff’s technology experience, you might find that one system is more intuitive for your organization than another. Be sure to review the look and feel of each system, as well as how they organize navigation, to better understand which user experience will work best for your team.

Adoption and enablement

Consider how long it will take your organization to learn and begin using each system. This will depend not only on specific technology learning, but also on the degree to which you will need to update or change business processes to use the new system and how your organization handles change.

Portal functionality

Both Microsoft and Salesforce offer portal, or community, solutions, allowing a nonprofit to expose data in several standard and custom objects to constituents. Microsoft offers Power Portals, which also allow you to display data to constituents. Both solutions come with templates for the most common types of portals, plus tools to manage the web content and the data you want to expose, and two user types.

System maintenance and administration

Make sure you understand what it will take to maintain each system and handle user profiles, roles, permissions, data access, and overall security. Depending on the size and experience of the staff that will be maintaining and administering your system, you might find that one system is a better fit for your organization.

For example, if you are already using Microsoft tools, your IT team might have less of a learning curve to incorporate Dynamics 365 into the mix. Alternately, if your team has already been exposed to the Salesforce security model, Nonprofit Cloud or a Salesforce managed package might be a better fit.

The Bottom Line

If your goals are mostly to improve the user experience because you find Raiser’s Edge to be outdated, then you might be a good candidate for other product offerings, including those from Blackbaud. But if you have new strategies you want to try and are looking to improve collaboration across your organization, or you have useful data you want to leverage from other departments (such as programs), then you are a good candidate to move to a flexible platform like Salesforce or Microsoft. Forward-thinking organizations who want to unlock new potential for fundraising typically find that moving to a platform is worth the investment.

Should I Stay with Raiser's Edge?

Nonprofits that have long relied on Raiser’s Edge often choose to stay with the platform due to its deep-rooted integration into their fundraising operations and institutional knowledge. Many organizations have heavily customized their Raiser’s Edge environments over the years, tailoring workflows, reports, and data structures to their unique needs. This level of investment in time and training makes switching to a new system a daunting and potentially disruptive process. It may seem old hat now, but Raiser’s Edge 7 was revolutionary at the time, and it served a wide range of nonprofits over many decades. That kind of service inspires a level of loyalty for many veteran fundraisers.

For RE7 users in particular, Raiser’s Edge NXT offers a familiar interface and functionality that eases the transition for existing users while introducing modern capabilities. Blackbaud emphasizes that NXT helps nonprofits raise more money through features like AI-driven donor insights, optimized donation forms, and integrated event and proposal tracking. The platform also supports a multi-channel fundraising approach, enabling organizations to manage everything from major gifts to recurring donations within a single system. This consolidation reduces the need for multiple disconnected tools, streamlining operations and improving data accuracy.

Another compelling reason to stay with Raiser’s Edge is its seamless integration with Blackbaud’s sister product Financial Edge, creating a unified ecosystem for fundraising and financial management. This integration allows for an efficient gift reconciliation process , accurate financial reporting, and better accountability across departments. For nonprofits already using Financial Edge, using Raiser’s Edge NXT ensures that staff can continue leveraging familiar tools while benefiting from ongoing enhancements and support tailored to for the nonprofit sector.

Extending Raiser’s Edge with Microsoft Tools

Blackbaud products are becoming increasingly interoperable with Microsoft’s Power Platform, extending nonprofit capabilities in data management and donor engagement. Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps can be integrated with Raiser’s Edge NXT to create custom dashboards, automate workflows, and develop applications for specific needs.

Some projects we worked on at Heller Consulting:

We built sophisticated reports in Power BI to provide deeper insights into donor data, enabling more effective fundraising strategies.
We used Power Automate to streamline repetitive tasks, such as data entry and email notifications, freeing up staff to focus on higher-value activities.
We created custom applications with Power Apps that enhance the functionality of Raiser’s Edge, making it easier for staff to access and manage donor information on the go.

Another significant advantage of extending Raiser’s Edge with Microsoft tools is the ability to utilize Microsoft’s Common Data Model for Nonprofits, which alows for a unified view of donor interactions and more efficient data management.

For example, we recently supported the Kennedy Krieger Institute to extend Raiser’s Edge NXT with Microsoft’s Power Platform, resulting in improved data strategy, enhanced donor engagement practices, and the creation of a self-service tool for gift officers. This approach not only maximizes the value of existing CRM investments but also provides a scalable solution that can grow with the organization’s needs.

What About Another Product?

Before leaping into platform options, it’s important to point out that you can choose to leave Raiser’s Edge for another fundraising-specific product. Many Heller Consulting clients have found success with newer fundraising products that do one thing but do it well. By going to another product, you will still have a suite of functionality and a vendor that is equipped to demo the product for your team and provide support over time. Adopting a new product instead of switching to a platform can often be a good fit for development teams that are not necessarily looking to share data or workflows with other departments in the organization.

Navigating the Automation and AI Frontier

As artificial intelligence and automation continue to transform the nonprofit sector, fundraising leaders are increasingly evaluating how their systems can keep pace. Raiser’s Edge has responded to this shift by integrating automation features that streamline key fundraising operations. One of its core strengths remains in gift processing automation, where batch gift entry and automated receipting significantly reduce manual data entry, saving time and minimizing errors.

The platform’s NXT version has expanded its automation capabilities to include routine workflows such as acknowledgment letters, pledge reminders, and basic constituent communications. These enhancements help fundraising teams maintain consistent engagement with donors while freeing up staff to focus on more strategic tasks. Additionally, Raiser’s Edge NXT offers basic predictive features, including donor scoring and lapsed donor identification, which, while still evolving, provide valuable insights for targeting fundraising efforts.

Another notable advancement is in data health monitoring. Raiser’s Edge now includes automated tools that help identify duplicate records and maintain overall data quality. This helps nonprofits get accurate, clean data for reporting and decision-making.

The Automation and AI Gap

Despite the advancements in Raiser’s Edge, many nonprofits encounter limitations when comparing it to newer, more advanced technology platforms. One key area is predictive analytics. While Raiser’s Edge offers basic donor scoring, it lacks the depth of AI-driven analytics that can forecast specific giving behaviors, suggest optimal ask amounts, or detect signs of donor fatigue. To get these more sophisticated insights, Raiser’s Edge nonprofits must find third-party tools or integrations, adding complexity and cost.

It has other limitations in segmentation and personalization. Modern platforms increasingly offer intelligent segmentation that goes beyond traditional Recency, Frequency, Monetary (RFM) models. These systems can identify micro-segments based on nuanced behavioral patterns and engagement signals. Similarly, true personalization at scale—where messaging dynamically adapts to individual donor preferences and behaviors using machine learning—is not fully realized within Raiser’s Edge alone. This can hinder efforts to deliver highly tailored donor experiences that drive deeper engagement.

Additionally, Raiser’s Edge has limited capabilities in areas like natural language processing and complex process automation. It struggles to automatically analyze and categorize donor communications, social media mentions, and qualitative feedback. And while it supports basic workflow automation, more intricate, multi-step processes that span departments often require external platforms or custom integrations.

Future-Proofing Your Fundraising Strategy

Regardless of whether you stay with Raiser’s Edge or transition to another platform, consider these approaches:

Data Strategy First: Develop comprehensive data governance practices that ensure your data remains clean, consistent, and usable for whatever automation and AI tools you adopt.
Skills Development: Invest in staff training focused on data literacy and understanding how to collaborate effectively with new-generation tools.
Ethical AI Framework: Establish guidelines for responsible AI use that respects donor privacy and maintains transparency.
Pilot Program Approach: Start with small, focused AI projects to demonstrate value before larger implementations.
Regular Technology Assessment: Schedule annual reviews of your AI and automation capabilities in line with modern nonprofit sector standards.

Finding the Right Balance

Yhe most successful nonprofits don’t view the AI decision as binary—either fully embracing cutting-edge AI or rejecting it entirely. Instead, they take a thoughtful approach that:

Identifies specific fundraising challenges that AI and automation can help solve
Maintains the human touch in donor relationships while automating routine tasks
Balances technological innovation with practical implementation realities
Considers the total cost of ownership, including integration and maintenance
Aligns technology decisions with their overall fundraising strategy and organizational mission

By approaching AI and automation as tools to enhance your fundraising efforts rather than replace existing systems outright, you can chart a course that maximizes the value of your technology investments while continuing to build meaningful donor relationships.

Moving Forward

Start with the Future

Technology decisions don’t exist in isolation—they’re foundational to your organization’s ability to advance its mission. The Heller Consulting team brings proven methodologies and specialized nonprofit expertise to help you navigate your options and implement the right solution for your unique needs.

Our collaborative approach means we work alongside your team to:

Evaluate your current technology ecosystem against strategic objectives
Identify opportunities for process improvement and automation
Develop a practical roadmap that balances ambition with reality
Implement solutions using best practices in project and change management
Provide ongoing support to ensure sustainable success

Whether your future includes an optimization plan for Raiser’s Edge, a hybrid approach with strategic integrations, or a transition to a new platform, we help you make informed decisions that align with your mission and maximize your technology investment.

No matter what you decide to do with your fundraising technology, consider these tips based on our extensive experience helping nonprofits get the most from their tools:

Review Contracts and Plan Timelines

Analyze your Raiser’s Edge contract terms, including renewal dates and notice periods, and develop a realistic timeline that accounts for selection, implementation, and transition. We recommend building in buffer time—most platform migrations require 6-12 months for proper execution.

Map Your Technology Ecosystem

Document all Raiser’s Edge modules currently in use—for example gift processing, events, and membership. Identify the critical workflows each module supports and their importance to your operations. Catalog existing integrations with other systems, both formal and informal, and conduct a workflow analysis that covers key business processes and manual workarounds.

Understand Your Data

Simply moving to a new system will do nothing to clean up bad data. Start now to get a sense of how much data clean-up you might need to do before changing to new software. Many orgs we work with have inconsistent use of data, especially in campaign structure, attributes, and constituent codes. Start there—and we have a guide for that too! Even if you ultimately decide to stay on Raiser’s Edge, having clean, updated data will help you operate more efficiently and effectively.

Heller Consulting's Implementation Approach

Methodology

Our structured implementation methodology includes strategic discovery, tailored roadmap development, and solution design that respects your unique processes. We integrate comprehensive change management throughout implementation—including stakeholder engagement, communication planning, and customized training—ensuring high adoption rates. Our partnership extends beyond go-live with ongoing optimization support to help you continually evolve your technology ecosystem.

Qualifications

With 29 years focused exclusively on nonprofit technology, our team brings certified expertise in both Raiser’s Edge and alternative platforms. Our consultants combine technical mastery with nonprofit-specific knowledge, having successfully guided thousands of organizations through technology transitions. Our specialized data migration experience and integration expertise are particularly valuable for Raiser’s Edge clients looking to optimize their current system or build connections with complementary technologies while maintaining data integrity and operational continuity.

Get in Touch with Our Team

Heller Consulting helps nonprofits and education institutions leverage technology to achieve their missions. With deep expertise in CRM strategy, implementation, and change management, we guide organizations through digital transformation to improve fundraising, engagement, and operational efficiency. Our team combines nonprofit experience with technical know-how to deliver solutions that are both strategic and practical.

Known for our collaborative approach, we work closely with clients to align your technology and organizational goals. We work with platforms including Salesforce, Microsoft, and Blackbaud to design and implement systems that support long-term success. Services include CRM roadmapping, data strategy, system selection, and implementation support tailored to the unique needs of mission-driven organizations.