Organizational Challanges

This edition of my blog will outline some of the challenges and responsibilities faced by organizations that use Raiser’s Edge in multiple and often distant offices.

Recently we have been asked for advice by a couple of our clients that find themselves in a rather unique situation when managing their Raiser’s Edge database: that is, to help them identify and find solutions to the challenges faced by organizations that use the same Raiser’s Edge database in multiple office locations spread across the country.

As we know, the importance of maintaining consistency and continuity throughout the database is absolutely essential, as the quality of the statistical, demographical and financial information generated out of Raiser’s Edge is dependent on how the database is populated and maintained. Thus it is crucial that all data entry personnel follow pre-described policies and protocols whenever data is entered into Raiser’s Edge. Though frequently these protocols are very organizationally specific, the internal consistency, accuracy and continuity within that organization must be maintained.

For most organizations that use Raiser’s Edge, all of the users are in one centralized location, indeed if not in the same office. For these organizations it is a relatively easy and straightforward task to keep all of the Raiser’s Edge users working together in a consistent and cohesive manner. Yet even for these organizations, inconsistent data entry can be a serious issue and it is essential for any organization, regardless of how their staff is situated, to pay attention to how their database is being populated.

That being said, organizations that have users spread out across a wide geographic area face all kinds of additional challenges in keeping their database consistent. Frequently the needs and priorities of regional and local personnel can usurp the needs and priorities of the national organization as a whole.

For example, these organizations often struggle with the most appropriate means of populating the menus in Raiser’s Edge, as they try to take into account both the regional tracking needs and the national needs. Thus, by trying to please all, dropdown menus can become convoluted and unmanageable if each region has its own unique options populated. Furthermore, it is that much more difficult to see the national picture if, for example, prospects or volunteers are segmented according to province. This challenge of deciding what should be “national” vs. what should be “regional” can be very difficult, especially concerning fundraising analytics, such as a national appeal vs. a regional appeal.

Another challenge that these organizations may face is in dealing with a limited number of available user licenses with a handful of users across the country that all need access to Raiser’s Edge throughout the day. It is obviously much easier to see if the person sitting beside you is logged on at the moment than someone a thousand kilometers away. This also raises the issue of the staff being somewhat unfamiliar with each other and an individual may not always feel comfortable relaying a Raiser’s Edge question, issue or problem to someone in a distant office that they have never met.

It is also much more difficult for the national office to feel confident that all Raiser’s Edge users, regardless of location, have consistently received the same level of Raiser’s Edge training and that everyone is populating Raiser’s Edge in a consistent manner. The national managers often fail to convince all users of the national significance of the data, and therefore it is hard to keep all users working together and consistently – “on the same page”.

Even something as banal as time zone issues and the inconvenience of getting Raiser’s Edge users together for meetings, discussions and tutorials can lead to long term problems.

For these organizations, it is important to regularly bring together those Raiser’s Edge users in an on-line, real-time environment for instruction, conversation and the reinforcement of consistent data entry practices. It can also be extremely valuable to engage the services of a Raiser’s Edge consulting team, such as RESolutionsTECH, who can go a long way to ensuring that all users have up to date training and that system wide policies and procedures are well documented and follow up is done to ensure they are adhered to.

Once an organization loses the consistency and continuity in their Raiser’s Edge database, it is very difficult to have confidence in the information generated in queries, reports and the Dashboard feature. It can also be a tremendous amount of work, time and expense to rectify those data inconsistencies that have accumulated over time.

Thus, these organizations have additional responsibilities that they must be prepared to face in order to ensure the accuracy of their data. At the same time, the highest onus resides with each and every Raiser’s Edge user. In any organization that relies on its database for information, there is no single more important person in that organization than the individual doing the data entry. For if the information is not entered into Raiser’s Edge in a consistent, accurate and meaningful manner, then any information generated out of Raiser’s Edge will be worse than meaningless; it will be wrong.

These users need to go above and beyond the average user’s responsibilities and work in sync with the people in the disparate locations to ensure that accuracy and consistency is maintained.

Regional managers need to ensure that they are taking into account the needs of the entire organization, and not just their own specific region or area.

And the importance of that national consistency must be reinforced to all users. Frequently someone may think to themselves, “Well, here I am in Calgary and really I am only ever interested in looking at data that is relevant to me and to my region. It makes no difference how the office in Halifax manages their Constituents or how they populate their regional information”. The problem with this rather short-sighted view, however, is that this particular user is not taking into account the needs of the national office, and simply because somebody in Calgary may only be interested in seeing Alberta numbers does not mean that those national figures are not important, and for the national numbers to be accurate, it is essential that those users in those distant offices are tracking information in Raiser’s Edge in a consistent manner.

To assist your organization in managing your Raiser’s Edge users, here are 10 “take-aways” to keep in mind:

• Different users entering data consistently across the board is always a challenge, whether those users are located together or spread apart in multiple locations.

• The organization’s Human Resources department should establish a required Raiser’s Edge training program with regularly scheduled tutorials that all users must attend in order to learn more Raiser’s Edge skills and to reinforce “best practices” and data entry policies.

• There should be a central base of knowledge established through which users can contact a resource that is well versed in the organization’s overall set-up and procedures.

• One senior Raiser’s Edge user should be assigned the regular task of evaluating the data entry done over a given time period through the use of queries and reports.

• Saved queries should be used as a reconciliation tool and as a means of ensuring consistency of data pulled. This can be accomplished, for example, through the use of the “Ask” feature, whereby the basic criteria in the query remains unchanged over time, yet specifics in the query can be determined at run time.

• Saved queries should also be used as pre-built merge queries, for example standard query exclusions and suppressions.

• The Batch feature should be used for all gift entry, unless volume dictates entry via import. This ensures that every gift in the batch, as well as across batches, is entered consistently and that all applicable gift entry fields are populated appropriately.

• A system should be set up where there is a monthly reconciliation of all the data entered.

• The Solicitor feature in Raiser’s Edge should be utilized whereby individuals and offices can be assigned as leads on Constituents.

• If the number of user licenses is an issue and users have difficulty logging on to Raiser’s Edge, then an organizational schedule should be outlined based on need and flexibility. Also, automated export and reports can be created and accessed from a centralized location to ease the strain on the user licenses.

At RESolutionsTECH we are Raiser’s Edge experts and our training team is ready to assist everyone in your organization use Raiser’s Edge to its fullest. Whether you are in the same location, or spread out among distant offices, we will work with you to reach that level of consistency and continuity, and then provide the expertise and on-going support to ensure that the consistency is maintained as your organization moves forward.