Implementation/Conversion

Installation fails

Matthew Daubert — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:39:23 GMT

Error 1935 An error occurred during the installation of assembly component. This happens when installation a fresh copy of Raiser's Edge 7.91 on Windows Server 2003. No problems when installing on clients. Couldn't find any information in the knowledge base about this error.

Has anyone found that RE update is a pain?

Chong Lor — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:08:48 GMT

First off, all RE/FE updates require the user to be in the local administrator group. Second of all, why don't Blackbaud has a utility like Windows Update where it will let configure when to download and install? Third, why dont' Blackbaud fix the problem of showing the Sample database every time we upgrade even if we did not have the Sample database installed? When I called Blackbaud, they suggest I hack the Registry. In the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Blackbaud\REINI_50\General] I have to set Visible=0 so that it does not appear as an option every time we run RE.

Purging records before conversion?

Jennifer Brink — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:49:27 GMT

We are planning on converting, but want to clean up the database before we do. Does anyone have a guideline on how far back you would keep a donor/constituent record (obviously with no activity) before purging it? I had one person say something about 3 years, but that seems kind of short. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

MissionFish

Monica Barnhill — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:56:52 GMT

Has anyone gotten donations from MissionFish and if so how do you code them; as a organization or do you get the individual donor info and code as individual and soft credit missionfish

Thanks

Improving Database

Syphoe — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:17:54 GMT

This is my second month in the Blackbaud commuity; I work for a large private school and support the RE database for our Development Office.
I have previous experience working with large database [other platforms] SAS, 4th Dimension, Access, etc.

The database was setup before I started working in this dept. and many users have experience varying from 1 yr. to 8 yrs.
I need to learn the structure database quickly; need to create queries, dashboards, reports, etc.

Question: What would be the best solution for learning more about how this database and attributes? Printout of Tables, etc.

I understand how tables are used, but need to know how the user has setup naming conventions, [a campaign and a fund] currently has the same named. When the director ask for a query - it very confusing!
Any suggestions will be helpful. I am scheduled for BB training and I have reviewed many user guides.
You can post or send email directly to gsyphoe@greateratlantachristian.org

Thank you!

Food bank donations tracked in RE?

Chris Parrish — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:49:07 GMT

I also put this on Blackbus. Are other food bank non-profits tracking in-kind food donations in RE? Are there best practices out there for tracking food bank donations in the database or are the in-kind donations handled by finance? It looks like many food banks have gone to a pounds-of-food tracking system instead of using FMV. Does the IRS require one method or the other? I'm just starting my research and have not checked the IRS site yet. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

RE Conversion - Postal code problems

Sofi Boyer — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:51:14 GMT

When we initially imported our 140,000 record database the records came in without a space eg.(V0H2H2) even though there was a space in the previous program. According to Canada Post standards there has to be one. Does anyone know how to make a global change to force in a space.

Changing every record individually seems extremely labourious.

Hoping there is a fix for this problem.

Do I have to upgrade to 7.91 ?

Jessica Rawn — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:16:56 GMT

Our Raisers Edge version is running just perfectly for what we need. Do I have to upgrade to 7.91 or is it just an option?

We don't collect credit card info in Raisers Edge, we use another piece of software for our financial and electronic fund transfers.

Help!

Importing large number of new constituents into RE

Rachael Cutcher — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:59:29 GMT

We are preparing to acquire a large number of alumni records from our college. This will be our first large-scale data import. I'm not worried about the "how to" import, so much as I'm concerned about the large number of potential duplicate records. We have been gathering alumni information painstakingly over the years from a variety of sources and have been provided with data "periodically" from our college. Our database currently has about 45,000 records. How would you recommend we best prepare/proceed with the import?

Raiser's Edge 7 on SQL Server 2008

Dave Schutz — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:19:55 GMT

Has anyone upgraded Raiser's Edge 7 to SQL Server 2008? Currently we are on SQL 2000 and I want to upgrade to SQL 2008. SQL Upgrade Advisor did not find any problems but I'm wondering about the Raiser's Edge side of things.

Thanks

Upgrading to RE 7.91 - Impact on Financial Edge?

Duncan Owen — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:21:56 GMT

Hi, we are planning to upgrade to Raiser's Edge 7.91 however we also use Financial Edge at the moment on version 7.0.5730.11.

I realise this is not the minimum version of FE required for the upgrade, however will we experience any issues in just upgrading Raiser's Edge?

Thanks!

How to start giving clubs

Amy Lewis — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:52:41 GMT

I'm in the process of researching annual giving clubs and planned giving clubs.

I realize once we start marketing giving clubs, there is no turning back, so I want to be as prepared as possible.

Has anyone gone through the process of setting up giving clubs? Does anyone have a sample proposal for board presentation or a constitution for your giving clubs?

Any input is helpful. Thanks!

Merchant Account Information - Upgrading from RE 7.82 to RE 7.91

Duncan Owen — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:15:36 GMT

Hi,

We have installed RE 7.91 on a test workstation, connecting to a duplicate database on a seperate server. We have filled in the login credentials for the Blackbaud Payment Service under Config/General and are looking to test batching of credit card gifts. However it looks as though our merchant account information was not carried across from the previous version.

I notice there is a new tab in config/business rules in RE 7.91 called 'Merchant Accounts', which looks like it has been taken out of 'Batch Options'. However it looks quite different, when setting up our accounts with IATS and when we go to save we get the error: "The Raisers Edge cannot connect to the Blackbaud Payment Service........". However I thought we were now connecting as when entering credit card numbers in the batch, RE replaces the numbers with ' * 's and allows you to proceed to the next line without an error.

Could anyone advise how we can set up our IATS accounts in the new version and where we do it? I can send screendumps if that helps. Thanks.

RE Conversion help

Terry Bianchi — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:46:02 GMT

Does anyone have conversion task plans, or evaluation docs? Ie. what went right, what could have gone better? I will be converting three different databases into our RE account. One is very basic access file, the other is a conversion from another RE system and the last is a conversion from an AS400 system. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Raiser's Edge - 7.80 vs. 7.85

Susie Vollmer — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:12:14 GMT

The Saint Francis Foundation is currently using 7.80. Where can I go and find out reasons why we should upgrade to 7.85?

I have looked at the release notes and it appears that 7.85 deals with a lot of solicitors and teams...something we don't use often.

What are the advantages for 7.85?

I don't need a manual, I found that. What I would like to see is a summary of why we should upgrade to 7.85 and what are the benefits.

Planned Giving Clubs

Chris Parrish — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:46:39 GMT

We are trying to start a planned giving club and I'm wondering how others have started and identified the best prospects for planned giving. A birthday overlay will give us a good place to start but I would like to know how others have identified planned giving propects outside of just using birthdays. Our annual giving program and board seem like the most obvious propects but how do we identify other donors? Any advice would be appreciated. We don't have a planned giving officer - this will fall under our individual giving/major donor program. Also, any creative names for a club would be helpful!

RE 7.91, Test Environment, Blackbaud Payment Service

Nick Guerrera — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:50:50 GMT

Hi all,

We are going to create a test environment for 7.91 before upgrading in production. Our question is: can remove the test credit card numbers from the payment service before upgrading production to avoid any conflicts? In knowledge base Solution Number: BB620504, i learned that test data will be automatically removed from the system after 2 weeks. But we will be upgrading within a few days after testing.

Thanks in advance!

Need Policy and Procedure Manual

Becky Pierson — Wed, 03 Mar 2004 15:50:45 GMT

If anyone is willing to Share their Policy and Procedure Manual in a TEXT file they would email to me, I would be most appreciative.

They are on the shared documents page but I would like a text file I can just change to fit our needs.

We run the membership and volunteer modules as well.

If so, email to [Email Removed]

TIA,
Becky Pierson
Salvador Dali Museum, Inc.

Auto-generated ID numbers

Kurstin Gnehm — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:27:37 GMT

We're trying to decide how we'd like RE to auto-generate ID numbers. None of the delivered options provide a format anywhere near our current format, and we're concerned about having five or six different number styles as IDs. Our current format is a seven digit number of individuals, and a seven digit number plus a "C" for corporations. How do other institutions handle this issue during conversion?

Kurstin Finch Gnehm '97Director of Advancement ServicesOffice of College RelationsLinfield College900 S.E. Baker StreetMcMinnville, OR 97128v 503.883.2492f 503.883.2497kfinchg@linfield.edu

Upgrade - Anybody use Microsoft Small Business Server 2003?

Julie Conway — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:13:57 GMT

We are currently running RE 7.61 and have not upgraded in 5 years. While looking into upgrading to RE 7.91, I discovered that Blackbaud does not support our server, MS SBS 2003, and does not know of any clients using that platform with any release of RE. While I'd like to be on a more current version of RE and take advantage of some of the new features, I certainly don't want to create a big mess. Has anyone successfully upgraded to any version of RE higher than 7.61 on a SBS 2003?

Many thanks,

Julie Conway

Homeless Solutions, Inc.

Raiser's Edge 7.91

Gayle Allison — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:33:37 GMT

I was just wondering what changes are going to be included with the RE 7.91 upgrade. Other than the credit card number storage change and the password requirement changes, has anyone seen anything released by Blackbaud that lists what is going to be included with this upgrade? Also, when is 7.91 going to be available? Just trying to plan ahead for any major changes.

Any information you can share would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

Sage conversion to RE

Sarah Leggin — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:06:30 GMT

Hi there,

I am looking for advise on a conversion of Sage data I've never seen to our existing RE database. Has anyone ever done a conversion of sight unseen data to RE. We are using a consultant for the conversion and I want to be sure to manage the process with as little restore of back-ups as possible. My hope is to actually see data prior to conversion but honestly I'm not sure it will be possible.

Thanks for any help!

Sarah

Importing Event Information from Excel into RE7

Carl Baratta — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:19:44 GMT

Hello,

What format should data be in on a spreadsheet so that it can import correctly into RE? For instance, I assume each column in Excel should have a header that corresponds with tab information in RE, correct?

Is there any specific order each column should be in to make the import run smoother or does it not really matter?

I searched the forum here to find out more on this but came up with nothing. If nayone could be so kind as to fill me in on what to do or point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Carl

Upgrade Questions for Raisers Edge 7.71 to 7.85

Franklin King — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:33:33 GMT

We are beginning out upgrade from RE 7.71 to RE 7.85. We bought a new Dell Server (1950) which has Duo Quad core processors and 32 Gb of memory. We are moving from a much older server...with only 4 Gb memory and a single processor. We have upgraded out 32 bit Windows 2000 OS to 64 bit Windows 2008 Server and the SQL from SQL 2000 Server to SQL 2005 Server. We have the SQL instance on the server, and have the DB stored on the SAN. Our users connect remotely via a terminal server, which we are upgrading as well.

I have installed RE 7.85 on the new server, and have passed the upgrading process on a copy of the DB, and it appeared to do well. We do have some customizations, and are working on that area now.

With the info above, how does this compare to what you experienced with your upgrade, and do you have any recommendations that may help me in the upgrade process.

In our current prod, we restart the server 1 to 2 times per week, and the terminal server, over the last 2 weeks, 1 time per week, usually mid week, due to issues. We are ready to get into the new server asap. I know the customizations will have to be reworked, but if there are any other recommendations...please let me know. :-)

Thanks...

Franklin King / Applications Administrator / Wycliffe Bible Translators (email- franklin_king@wycliffe.org)

Upgrade to RE 7.85

Leslie Choitz — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:15:32 GMT

Has anyone made the shift from RE 7.84 to 7.85? Any problems with the installation or actually using the new version?