Fundraisers Get Sharper Raiser's Edge"

Engaging supporters, improving data health and boosting fundraising efforts should be among the top priorities for nonprofits on the Web today.

Often cursed with small budgets and even smaller staffs, however, charitable organizations typically struggle with these types of improvements. Blackbaud looks to help. This week, it announced enhancements to its flagship CRM solution, The Raiser's Edge. Immediately available, the new functionality should help nonprofits address the previously mentioned priorities. 

Jonathan Puddle, director of retail and donor operations for nonprofit Catch the Fire, believes these new enhancements will solve a lot of functional, real-world problems, like:

- Crowdfunding with everydayhero - Nonprofits can unlock new revenue streams and grow their database by offering fans a self-service fundraising tool. In a matter of minutes, supporters can create their own fundraising campaigns, share them on social media and track progress online-with data integration to The Raiser's Edge.

- Credit Card Updater - Nonprofits now have access to functionality that automatically ensures donor credit card information is up to date, reducing gift loss and saving hours of research, phone calls and data entry time each month.

- Event Mobile App and MobilePay - Nonprofits can now register event attendees, check them in and accepts all forms of payments with an iPad. The financial and contact data is then instantly updated in The Raiser's Edge with no manual entry.

- Data Health Scorecard - Nonprofits will now benefit from built-in analytics capability that automatically analyzes and scores the quality of their data on a quarterly basis. Recommendations are then made to improve database quality, with a view into the potential benefit of making those improvements.