The Raiser's Edge

The Raiser's Edge tracks are very always popular and once again we’re including sessions that we know are of great importance to delegates. Our experts will guide you through the software giving new ideas and information on how you can get more for the product. These sessions include hints & tips and well as updates and version upgrades. The presentations also bring some client experiences and applications of The Raiser's Edge.

Look out for more additions as we near the Conference.

Dive into Blackbaud Payment Services. Robert McAllen, Blackbaud
Learn how Blackbaud is changing the way that payments are processed through it’s software.  With a beginners guide to payment processing and the complexities you should look out for when selecting a payment processing option.  This session will look at all aspects from choosing the right processor to PCI compliance and much in between.

The Raiser's Edge development plans. Ryan Frere, Blackbaud
Come and hear about the impactful enhancements recently made to Blackbaud's Fundraising solutions, and the areas we’ll be focusing on for the next 6-12 months. In addition, you’ll learn how you can be an active and influencing participant in our process for developing the additions and enhancements that positively impact your organisation!

Rolling-out the Raiser's Edge: the positives and pitfalls of inter-departmental expansion. James Coleman, University of Glasgow and Nikki Cameron, Blackbaud.
Faced with having to expand marketing and alumni engagement efforts in the face of frozen or reduced budgets, many higher education institutions are trying to take The Raiser's Edge beyond alumni relations and fundraising into managing corporate contact data. Drawing on the experience of the University of Glasgow's roll-out project, this session will look at the benefits and pitfalls of centralising corporate contacts in The Raiser's Edge: developing control processes, pulling all that data together, and breaking open long-cherished silos.

Top Ten Customisations. Anuraag Lal, Blackbaud

Using Default Sets in The Raiser's Edge. Ross Murphy, Blackbaud
Do you have certain attributes that are required for every record you add? Do you have groups of records that have common data elements? Do you want a way to manage requests for centralised maintenance so that your organisation s data integrity is maintained? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then default sets in The Raiser's Edge are your answer! Learn how to use default sets to facilitate data entry and improve the accuracy of your data!

How Prostate Cancer Charity customised The Raiser's Edge to help their call handling process. Jolynne De Souza, The Prostate Cancer Charity and Anuraag Lal, Blackbaud
 
Ready, Steady, Query! Alan Mitchell, Blackbaud
Ready, Steady, Query! Do you think querying is just for advanced Raiser's Edge users?  It is time to find out how user friendly this very powerful tool can be! We will take it one step at a time. This session will cover the basics of what a query is, query types, how to create a query and how queries are used in The Raiser's Edge. This session is targeted toward beginners but all levels of query expertise are welcome to attend.

The Raiser's Edge for the Blackbaud NetCommunity User. Tim Bowden, Blackbaud

Advanced Querying in The Raiser s Edge. Alan Mitchell, Blackbaud
Are you ready to move beyond creating simple queries?  It's time for you to learn about the true power of Query! After attending this session, you will be well on your way to becoming the Query guru at the office. You will discover the power of unusual operators, complex query creation, and creative ways that queries are used throughout The Raiser's Edge.

9 Guaranteed Ways (Really!) to Improve the Use of Your Database - Ivan Wainewright, IT for Charities 
I will outline 9 distinct ideas which I guarantee will improve the use of your database - really! Some are simpler than others, some are free and some definitely require investment; some require technical skills and some just need a new business approach. But they are guaranteed to bring you benefits if you don't already follow such practises or you haven't implemented such functionality. And you can quote me on that! I will also try to indicate for each one how easy it is, how long it would take and how much it would cost.

Dive into Direct Debits. Gordon Mitchell, Blackbaud

Data Provider to The Raiser's Edge Outsider - Raiser's Edge in harmony with the rest of your organisation - David Mitchell, SCIAF 
Join David Mitchell for this step by step guide to improving the speed and efficiency of data flow between Raiser’s Edge and all other areas of your organisation, and your external partners. This session will cover topics such as the quickest ways to handle data returned by mailing houses, data cleansers and call centres, as well as touching on methods of store information gathered from emerging sources like web forms and social networking sites. In addition to working with incoming data, David will discuss techniques to help your fundraisers, campaigners and other data-clients request information in a consistent and accurate manner - ensuring you're always supplying exactly what they need. Finally, David will look at encouraging your novice Raiser's Edge users to safely gather their own data, and how to avoid information being stored in external data silos.

Should we customise just because we can? - David Zeidman, Zeidman Development
A look at the advantages and disadvantages of customising your Blackbaud product. This session will focus on to what extent you should make changes to The Raiser's Edge or Blackbaud CRM to make it fit your organisation's business rules. What do we mean by customisations versus configuration? What kind of changes can be made, how do you go about making them and is it worth it? Is it better to make changes to your business practises so that they work with the applications or is customising your database application a good alternative?

Understanding Standard Reports/Customising Reports. Tim Bowden, Blackbaud

Keeping The Raiser's Edge alive in a Connected World - Jeffrey Montgomery, O-matic Software
Do you need a strategy for enhancing or integrating your current Raiser's Edge database with other systems? Are your employees labouring with manual data entry that could be automated? Have your tech people told you what you want is impossible? Need to break down data silos and connect systems? This session for non-technical decision makers will arm you with the knowledge of how extensible The Raiser's Edge is and explore the possibilities.

Reporting for the Power User: Taking the Mystery out of Crystal Reports and Pivot Reports - Robert Franke, Blackbaud
Are you the reports expert at your organisation? Do you run advanced Crystal Reports and create pivot tables, or are you ready to learn how? In this session, we’ll dive into more advanced features and functions of Crystal Reports, such as creating formulas and conditional formatting, and show you how to use the drag and drop pivot table tool in The Raiser’s Edge. Please note that this session will be technical in nature. 

Home Pages and Dashboards in The Raiser's Edge - Daithi O’Flaherty, Blackbaud
The Raisers Edge has easy to use functionality which allows you to customise your home page and create top-level reports on important elements of your organisation’s activities.  These reports are held in Dashboards.  This session will start from the basics and will teach you how you can  build dashboards and customise your home page to give you key metrics specific to your  unique needs. There will be time for any questions you bring.

The Basics and Beyond: Importing into the Raiser’s Edge - Daithi O’Flaherty
The Raiser’s Edge Import function allows you to add records to the database en masse: ideal if you’re working with data from outside sources such as other departments & teams or 3rd party suppliers; but before you begin it’s really important to understand the process from start to finish. This session will first guide you through the basic steps of using the Import functionality for Constituents; file preparation; navigating the import process and using unique identifiers. Then once we have that safely under our belts, the session will move onto more complex imports, such as adding Actions, Relationships and even Event Participation to existing records.

The e-receipts option in Mail - to send personalised acknowledgement letters by email from The Raiser's Edge - Daithi O’Flaherty, Blackbaud

Fundraising on the move. Robert McAllen, Blackbaud


Please note; Sessions and speakers may be subject to change.