Blackbaud, Inc. Charleston Glasgow Sydney

Blackbaud, Inc. Charleston ? Glasgow ? Sydney

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?2008 Blackbaud, Inc. This publication, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Blackbaud, Inc.

The information in this manual has been carefully checked and is believed to be accurate. Blackbaud, Inc., assumes no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions in this manual. In no event will Blackbaud, Inc., be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any defect or omission in this manual, even if advised of the possibility of damages.

In the interest of continuing product development, Blackbaud, Inc., reserves the right to make improvements in this manual and the products it describes at any time, without notice or obligation.

All Blackbaud product names appearing herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackbaud, Inc.

All other products and company names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective holder.

RE7Beginners-100208

The Raiser's Edge Top 10

Follow this list to optimally use The Raiser's Edge. It may not be as funny as David Letterman's Top 10 list, but it's definitely more helpful. Look for more about these tips in other chapters by searching the index or looking for the timesaver graphic throughout this book. If you follow these Top 10 Tips, you'll be using The Raiser's Edge like a pro in no time.

Save your parameter files. You can reuse or edit saved parameter files so you don't

have to recreate reports and mailings each time.

Don't forget to use Favorites so you can focus on just the parts of The Raiser's Edge

you need to use everyday.

Customize your "workspace" by using Home Page.

Use Dashboard to create reports and get a glimpse of how your fundraising efforts

are going.

See only the fields and information you want by using Custom View.

Speed up your data entry by using Batch to enter data in spreadsheet format.

Press F1 anywhere in The Raiser's Edge. The program knows where you are and

offers help on the area you're in. So easy!

Set User Options, or rules, to make The Raiser's Edge behave the way you want on

the workstation you are logged into.

Add system-wide Business Rules to help you work more efficiently in The Raiser's

Edge. This is for everyone in the office to work the same.

We can't say this one enough! Back up your data!

Resources

When you have questions about our products, we want to answer them right away. Therefore, we offer several resources to help you get the help you need when you need it. To get started, click Support on our website at .

To access many of our resources, you must be logged in to the website. Click Please Log in on any page, enter your user name and password, and click Log in. If you don't know your user name or password, click Login Help for assistance.

Knowledgebase

For answers to "How To" questions and steps to resolve issues and error messages, turn to Knowledgebase, which is updated with new solutions each day. Support analysts record every question they are asked and the answers they provide in Knowledgebase. If your question has been asked before, you can find the answer here. To access Knowledgebase, select it from the Support menu on our website.

FAQs

The FAQs include the most recently asked questions from the previous month. Each question is linked to a Knowledgebase solution. To access FAQs, select it from the Support menu on our website.

User Guides

The user guides contain step-by-step instructions and in-depth explanations for using The Raiser's Edge. To access the user guides, which open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, select Help, User Guides from the menu bar in The Raiser's Edge, or select Support, User Guides from the menu bar on our website. For help selecting which user guide best suits your needs, see Which Guides Should I Read in the Getting Started section.

Help File

While you work in The Raiser's Edge, you can press F1 on your keyboard or select Help, Raiser's Edge Help topics from the menu bar to open the help file. To find specific information about a process or function, type the keywords in the search field.

The Raiser's Edge 7 For Beginners

INTRODUCTION: FUNDRAISING MADE EASY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Background - Fundraising Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 So, What Is a Database? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 And We're Off! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

BASICS: LEARNING TO WALK WITH THE RAISER'S EDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Basics ? Logging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 You Make the Call - User Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Record Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Navigation Time-Savers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Congratulations! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

RECORDS: CONSTITUENTS + GIFTS = FUNDRAISING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Constituents: The MEAT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Gifts: The POTATOES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 User Options for Constituent and Gift Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Entering Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Part 1: Constituent Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Part 2: Gift Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

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QUERY: THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Query User Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Getting Information From The Raiser's Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Query Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Query Formats - Still Life or Still Kicking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Tabs on the Query Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Query Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Smooth Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Wildcards - Not Just for Poker Anymore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Combining Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 Output Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Sorting Query Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Running the Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Now That You've Created a Query, Please, Please Read This... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Making Query Your Own ? Custom Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Moving into Traffic - Merging Queries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Miscellaneous Query Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

GETTING YOUR REPORT CARD:

RAISER'S EDGE REPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Report User Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Where Do I Begin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Report Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Selecting a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Creating a Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Keeping Tabs on Your Information - Report Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Artist at Work - Formatting the Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Previewing and Running Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Troubleshooting Gifts in Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Wrapping Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

MAIL, MAIL, AND MORE MAIL!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Mail in The Raiser's Edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Where Do I Begin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

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What is a Parameter File? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Which Mail Task To Use? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Sifting Through the Tabs in Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Selecting Addressee/Salutations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222 The Two-Lane Highway: Mail Merge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

THE RAISER'S EDGE: IN AND OUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Configure This! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 Open For Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 Whip Up a Batch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Campaigns, Funds, and Appeals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Importing, Not Smuggling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 The Art of Exporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Custom View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

TIME OUT: HELP YOURSELF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

THE RAISER'S EDGE - FULLY LOADED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Which Do You Prefer - Automatic or Stick? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289 You've Got Me Sold! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW, AND THEN SOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Who is Blackbaud? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Blackbaud Corporate Headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

INDEX 311

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