Independent Schools

Email Appeal

Ashley Van Sant — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:57:22 GMT

Would anyone be willing to share email appeals they have done? I would like to get some ideas. Thanks.

School Cafeteria

Peggy Preis — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:23:24 GMT

Is anyone using school store to operate their cafeteria?

Fair Market Value of Events (benefit) used to determine tax deductible contribution

Pat Ratcliffe-Lee — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:17:01 GMT

We have both a golf outing and an auction. I would like to know how others determine the estimate of the fair market value of a ticket to these events - the value of the "goods & services" or benefit received in return for the purchase of the ticket. How to determine the amount that you must report on your receipt or solicitation for the event is what I am looking for. I have spoken to some other non profits who have told me that they use the cost of the meals & golfing fees. Some include the cost of prizes purchased. I think that an estimate of all of the costs involved in staging the event....printing, donated prizes, hole-in-one prize insurance, table decorations etc is a valid estimate of the fair market value of the ticket.

Parent Student Directories

Kristen Cooper — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:04:18 GMT

I was wondering how everyone is setting up the export for Student/Parent/Faculty Staff School Directories. Any Export templates or ideas would be very helpful.

Thanks

Database Administrator Position-Jesuit Dallas

Tiffany Davis — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:25:31 GMT

Database Administrator – Raiser’s Edge Summary: The Jesuit Foundation, in conjunction with Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas, an all-boys Catholic high school with a proud sixty-six year history in North Dallas, seeks a Database Administrator – Raiser’s Edge to join the team in the Office of Institutional Advancement. This position, working closely with all members of the advancement staff, will report to the Foundation president and will be responsible for the overall maintenance and ownership of the constituent data base, implementation and execution of donor stewardship pieces and assist as needed with other functions within the Office of Institutional Advancement. The administrator will support the mission of the Advancement Office and practice sound economic principles. Job Duties: The following is a sampling of the duties to be performed by the Database Administrator: · Serve as primary database manager using Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge software, specific Raiser’s Edge duties to include:§ Daily gift and pledge processing using batch entry§ Regular review of database to insure accuracy of information§ Adjust contact information on a daily basis based on new information received· Create and process weekly donor acknowledgement letters to include thank-you’s, honor memorial donations, pledge reminders, and past due reminders.· Work closely with school finance office on daily and monthly finance reports and yearly audit requirements; reconciles all gifts and records with the school finance office and foundation accountant. · Assist with the coordination of additional thank you efforts including giving level benefits.· Audit and confirm accuracy of reports and queries; design new queries.· Provide periodic Raiser’s Edge training and product updates to team members.· Assist at special events as needed.· Provide Foundation office administrative support. Job Requirements of the Successful Applicant:· Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited institution of higher education· Extensive experience in working with Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge software and the ability to demonstrate proficiency with it· Proficiency with MS Office Suite with excellent MS Word and Excel skills· Ability to demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills· Knowledge and comfort with bookkeeping practices· Multi-tasking capability in teamwork environment· Customer-first attitude and welcoming presence; commitment to achievement of best in class donor stewardship· Strong organizational skills and work ethic· Strong attention to detail Work Schedule: Primarily weekdays. Salary: Commensurate with experience Start Date: ASAP Application process: Please submit resume with cover letter, including salary requirements, to: The Jesuit FoundationAttn: John F. Hughes12345 Inwood RoadDallas, TX 75244jhughes@jesuitcp.org

Parent Child Realtionships

Kristen Cooper — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:02:15 GMT

I was wondering if anyone had ideas about where to keep children's graduation class yrs. on the Parent record? I have the student's listed on the realtionship tab and then their graduation yr. but it makes looking at the children's graduation yrs. at first glance quite difficult. We are also having a little bit of dificulty pulling acurate parent/child class yr. giving reports correctly, even when I pull primary eduaction I am sometimes getting other children and their college graduation yr. that matches in this report.

Hope this makes sense.

Kristen Cooper

kcooper@spa.edu

Job Descriptions

Julie Gillikin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:27:16 GMT

We have a very small Development office at our small independent K-12 school (600 students). We are trying to divide the workload between a small staff and I am wondering if any other schools of similar size could give us advice on an efficient division of duties. We use Raiser's Edge to manage our data and process gift donations. We also do Alumni Relations, Volunteer Management and many special events. Thanks.

Parent - Student Directory

Joni Hafley — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:08:03 GMT

When I try to export Parent - Student Information to Excel (names of both, class years, address, phone and emails) I get a lot of duplicates. I already clicked "suprress duplicates" in the query. That did not seem to help at all. The reason it does not work is that one line will have all the exact info, except it will not list the home phone number and the other will. I think it has something to do with the home phone number and the "helpful hint" said to filter on the phone number. How do you do that if the phone number is only the output, not in the criteria?? I can dump everything in Excel and then spend hours, and (worse) introduce error by "cleaning it up". I tried limiting the output by only listing names and home phone numbers.---Same result.

Any ideas ??

Has anyone used PCR Educator?

Jamie King — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:27:51 GMT

Hi there,

Has anyone had any experience using the Development module from PCR Educator? How was it compared to Raiser's Edge?

Thank you,

Jamie

GRADEBOOK

Mark Capps — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:45:34 GMT

Does anyone out there have a good working knowledge of the gradebook program for faculty access for the web? Our school is using faculty access for attendence and grade entering at the end of the term but has chosen not to train anyone on the gradebook use. I am using it anyway and learning on the go but would like to get proficient enough to train the rest of the faculty. Is there training available?

Nebraska Nonprofits

Michelle Paulk — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 19:21:41 GMT

Some Lincoln, Nebraska area nonprofits have met a few times recently in the form of Raiser's Edge Roundtable Discussion Groups, as a way to gather RE-minded individuals together to answer questions and brainstorm ideas to help each other do our RE work. Questions can be posted here from any group, but is designed for Nebraska nonprofits.

Site visit?

Ros Perry — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:41:47 GMT

Hello all

I am travelling to Charleston to the Blackbaud Conference in November. To help justify the expense of travelling half way around the world from Sydney, Australia my manager has asked if I could visit some higher education institutions to 'benchmark' our use of Raiser's Edge with some USA universities and colleges.

Unfortunately I have a fairly fixed itinerary but would really like to make visits on the following dates: Washington DC area on either Thursday 20th or Friday 21st November and New York area between Monday 24th and Wednesday 26th November. I would really appreciate if I could come and talk to Raiser's Edge DBA, managers or administrators at some educational institutions. I expect 1 -2 hour would be a good estimate of the time involved. We at University of wollongong have been using Raiser's Edge for alumni management for 10 years and are now developing our fundraising systems. We use Net Solutions and I would really like obtain extra resources to investigate using VB/API etc. Hope to hear from you.

Regards Ros Perry
DBA
University of Wollongong NSW Australia

rperry@uow.edu.au

Registrar Position

Veronique Dibuono — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:34:37 GMT

French-American School of New York is seeking a highly motivated candidate for its registrar position. The registrar is responsible for maintaining the School database, entering and maintaining student records, and creating and maintaining schoolwide students’ and teachers’ schedules. The candidate must have a minimum of three years experience in a related field and an Associate Degree. Excellent computer skills and experience with Word, Excel, and database software are required. Accuracy with data entry is a must. Knowledge of Blackbaud software, Crystal Reports, and French is a plus. Competitive salary based on experience, and great benefit package. Qualified candidates should e-mail their resume and cover letter to: hrcv@fasny.org or fax to :( 914) 940-2216, attention HR Dept.

User Profile update for parents to update relations

Janet Ellis — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:53:31 GMT

I am looking for a simple way to convert our yearly student information form mailouts to parents into the user profile update that would update the students in a family and the grandparents. Does anyone know how to do this? I have set up what I think is the form I need. Although, when I edit the relations and check to include them, they do not show up on my personal form. do I have to save and close after adding each relation? And will this update our records in registrars? www.jacksonacademy.org

Janet Ellis

Parent and faculty/staff Annual Fund participation - important for foundation giving?

Erin Lockley — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:46:56 GMT

Hello everyone,

We are an independent school with an Annual Fund. We obviously solicit our current parents as well as faculty and staff members, among other constituencies. We have always used as part of our case to these two groups that the percentage of participation is an important and powerful statistic for our grant writer to include in her foundation proposals. (Our grant writer just told me that she generally has to account for board giving more often than anything else, which is why I question this.) I'm curious if others have actually found this to be true. We are currently spending a good deal of time trying to increase participation even though we are fairly happy with the amount of money raised.

Thoughts, please!

Thanks,

Erin

Regristration Programs Integration - PCR Educator in particular

Kathie Richmond — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:14:30 GMT

Here at the Washington International School, our registrar and admissions offices use PCR Educator. When I started my job at Data Analyst for the Advancement (Development) Office, it was because of extensive experience with Raiser's Edge. The folks at PCR had offered to develop (for a fee, of course) an interface that would automatically read PCR data every night and automatically update our Raiser's Edge data. I was skeptical that such a product could be developed that would be reliable, and, guess what - they couldn't do it.

Does anyone know of such a product - or does anyone have anything that automatically updates Raiser's Edge from any similar Registration database product. PCR is simply a student-centered, household-friendly relational database capable of handling rather complex family structures an atypical naming conventions (did you know that the Dutch last names are still based on the father's first name? Frederick Pederson's son's name could be Johann Frederickson and his daughter could be Gretel Fredericksdaughter?)

Any help would be appreciated!

Kathie Richmond, Washington International School, Washington DC

Database Administrator Position

Michael Moulton — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:55:03 GMT

We have a Database Administrator job opening. Please share the description with folks you think would be interested in applying. Sincerely, Michael Moulton Director of Technology William Penn Charter School Job Description: Full Time All Divisions The William Penn Charter School seeks a database administrator to manage its administrative database. The school's database includes student information, admissions, scheduling, accounting, student billing, and fundraising Duties include: - working with people in school departments to understand and meet current information needs, developing custom reports, and researching future capabilities - consolidating the databases and developing methods for consistent information entry across school departments - training and supporting database system users - managing database system maintenance, upgrades and conversions - consulting on issues of information privacy & security The successful candidate will have attention to detail and strong interpersonal and problem solving skills. S/he will also have demonstrated ability in administrating Blackbaud software systems or a other database package. While not required, school experience is a plus. The desired start month is July 2008 or sooner. William Penn Charter School is a Quaker, coeducational, k-12 day school on a 44 acre campus in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Our diverse student body of 900 students travels to Penn Charter from 95 different zip codes. Established in 1689 by William Penn, the school emphasizes academics, the arts, athletics, spiritual awareness and service learning. Applications must be received by: March 3, 2008. Applicants should supply the following materials: a resume, cover letter and a list of three references. Stephanie Judson William Penn Charter School 3000 West School House Lane Philadelphia, PA 19144 Email: [Email Removed]

Purchasing

Vicki Roberts — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:24:32 GMT

Does anyone have a formal written purchasing policy that they would be willing to share with me? I am the Business Manager of a PK-12 Catholic Girls School.

Parent Surveys

Linda Fox — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:28:47 GMT

Our school is planning to conduct a parent survey. Does anyone have a parent survey that they would be willing to share? I am looking for a starting point as I am sure the questions can be overwhelming. Thanks for your help. Linda Fox Director of Parent Relations Nichols School [Email Removed] Linda Fox Directors of Parent Relations Nichols School [Email Removed]

Job Opening...

Jeff Schroeder — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:29:09 GMT

Hey, Wanted to let anyone who might be interested know that my position at Francis Parker School in San Diego, CA is available. I'm leaving to join a local Software Engineering Firm. Please pass onto anyone you know that might be interested. Send an e-mail with your resume to John Thorsen - Chief Advancement Officer, his e-mail is [Email Removed] The basics of the job are: Administration of Raiser's Edge 7.7 & Researcher's Edge databases Must have Advanced skill-level for MS Access Utilize & create custom reporting tools in Access Understanding Relational Database Theory and Design ** May also be responsible for Education Edge in future Jeff Schroeder Database Manager Francis Parker School San Diego, CA [Email Removed] "Work Smarter, Not Harder!"

Merging Facility Info

Cheryl Mersch — Wed, 17 May 2006 23:15:49 GMT

Does anyone have experience with merging financial info for upper and lower schools? Specifically, Accounts Receivable and Payroll. We would like to continue inputting data from each facility with the capability of running consolidated reports (i.e., Tuition statements, financial statements, etc.) Also, how is your chart of accounts established to keep costs for each facility separate for analysis purposes. I had thought of setting up cost centers. Any suggestions?

Disaster Recovery Advice

Michelle Snow — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 15:32:52 GMT

Like many schools affected by Hurricane Katrina, we'll be opening our doors again shortly. We're very interested in how other schools are addressing the unique situations caused by Katrina. For example: * How are you recording credit and grade information for students in classes that are not being offered post-Katrina? * What attendance codes are you using for absences caused by Katrina? * If students are attending another school temporarily and then returning to your school, will you expect a transcript from the school? Will you record grades received at the other school as if they were awarded at your school? * Have you added a new student status (such as On Hold) to designate students that aren’t returning to your school at this time but will in the future? * Are you changing your academic year setup and schedules to reflect more school days per week and longer periods? Are you using another program to document these changes so you can easily return to the original setup? All feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Michelle Snow Technology Specialist St. Martin's Episcopal School Metairie, LA 504-736-9981

% of alumni donors

Leilani Fortuno — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 01:28:30 GMT

In generating the percentage of alumni donors who gave to your organization within a time frame, we are wondering how other organizations determine the alumni donor percentage. For example, to determine the number of alumni who gave within the last fiscal year, do you also include constituents who were marked "lost" (no valid address) in the formula?

Students that leave, not considered non-grad alums

Karen Saludo — Tue, 05 Jul 2005 15:21:02 GMT

If you have current students in the database as I do, what do you do with them if they leave early and do not graduate? For example, you may have a kindergartner who only stays for that year. Do you delete them from the database? I plan on keeping the parent in the database, keeping the student in their relations tab, but removing the student.

Posting

Debbie Drummond — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 16:17:22 GMT

We are in need of help with a posting question? We have Trustee/Executors some with company’s names and address and some not. We have sent a book and video to Trustee/Executors and want to track this in action. If we add the company’s as org and put the action on the org record it’s really not telling us that we sent it to only one person at that firm. I would like to know how other people out there are handling thing like this?