Administration and Configuration

Administrative logout ?

Paul Ward — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:50:00 GMT

Hey everyone,

Is it possible to administratively end a session on raisers edge?

For some reason the database in question is not able to be attached by the BB Management console so i have manually attached it to SQL server.

The problem is I need to manually end a session so that I can reuse the account.

Any ideas ?

Globally write off pledges

Carol Mcgrath — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:10:56 GMT

Is there a way to globally write off pledges on a date prior to the date I am writing off the pledges? Example: I want to write off pledges through 10/31/09 on 11/15/09 and I want the system to think the write off was done on 10/31/09. Purpose: to pull future reports as of 10/31/09 that reflect the write offs done after 10/31/09.

Thank you,

Carol

Best practices for User Groups

Ken Berg — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:15:09 GMT

We are new to Raisers' Edge and I have been tasked with making recommendations for user/staff access and rights. We need to establish controls on who can enter & modify data, who has access to what data, etc. Can anyone point me to an appropriate knowledgebase article or have templates, defined groups, or written policy on the subject?

Any help would be much appreciated

Tracking RE Changes

Tina Gorski-Strong — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:45:26 GMT

Is there any way to track or report on when or who made global changes to records? Or, how can you track changes that may have been made with tables/attributes? It need to resolve some training/security issues but this would be incredible helpful in the meantime.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

Tina Gorski-Strong
The Wheeler School

tinagorskistrong@wheelerschool.org

New Indexes and Performance Issues

Matthew Norris — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:44:33 GMT

Hello,

we are new to the RE world, just going live this week so I'm still getting up to speed on best practices and the like. I've been writing some Reporting Services reports and I am having a serious performance issue related to gift attributes. SQL Server Query Analyzer is suggesting there are some new indexes that would drastically improve performance (99%), but I'm reticent to make any kind of changes as I don't know if this is acceptable or not. Has anyone else added custom indexes? Is there a better way to improve performance?

The other potential resolution is in my sql statement. How do most people check if an attribute is the correct type for inclusion? I'm currently looking up the description and using an IN clause or a JOIN? Does anyone hard code ATTRIBUTETYPEID? Is this bad technique?

Thanks in advance!

Matt

Address Updates

Cheryl Dancey — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:31:06 GMT

Some questions have recently come up in our organization about when it is appropriate to update and address on a records in the database. Such as ... should identification be required to change the address? Can we change an address on a record simply as a result of returned mail and a NCOA sticker? I guess the question is what make a change valid? The questions are a result of a new policy to prevent identity theft but has left me asking questions about when it's ok to change an address. Likewise ... do you require a death certificate to mark a constituent as deceased? Can all of you Raiser's Edge gurus ... DBA's out there let me know what your policies are on changing address information in your database? Much appreciated!! Cheryl

Tracking event attendance without Event Module

Carlene Schmidt — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:26:52 GMT

We don't have the event module but would like to track the donors who attend our events in their record. Can anyone suggest the best way to do this?

Thank you,

Carlene Schmidt

Hospice of the Valley

San Jose, CA

Sample Database

Rose Orr — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:42:09 GMT

I am trying to install a copy of our actual database onto a computer that is not connected to our server to use as a sample database. I find the sample database provided by Blackbaud to be woefully inadequate. I have never worked with a database, and I've worked with some cheezy databases in my day, where you couldn't copy your own data quickly and easily into a sample database...but I digress. Any how, it seems to install just fine, then the installation process gets to the very last step (I think registering may be the last step) and instead of finishing, the message "rolling back" comes up and the installer uninstalls everything that it had previously installed. Can anyone tell me what the problem might be?

Office 2007 synchronization Issue

Sarah Traut — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:16:40 GMT

This is the error that pops up when outlook 2007 is opened

Could not install Collaboration Data Objects for the following reasons: failed to install outlookcdo: configurefeature,product,feature,installstate. please install cdo before using the raiser's edge outlooks synchronization tool.

Record Add Date

Cindy Frosheiser — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:47:51 GMT

Where is the add date located on the donor record? We converted our Results Plus database in April of 2009 to Raiser's Edge. I am now attempting to find out the records that were added in the last three years, but cannot find an add date on the record.

Thanks for any help you can give!

Cindy

IRS current recognition letter

Zoe LaRocca — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:35:20 GMT

Has anyone been asked to supply a current recognition letter from the IRS? Recently, in our area organizations, making a donation to, are requiring current IRS documentation. We've always supplied them with our IRS verification of our registration with the state. Obviously, this documentation is no longer acceptable. Can anyone share what you know about this? Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge on this subject.

Zoe LaRocca

Troubles Abound...

Chris Lambert — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:14:00 GMT

Ok, I dont really know where to begin here. I guess i just need a little reassurance from other admins of raisers. We have about 6 faily active users with a db of about 1.5 gb in size. Its running on a 2003 server using the sql 2005 included with raisers. There is only 2gb of ram in the server.

It seems users are always having multitudes of issues with raisers. Could be sql connection issues... runtime issues... locking during queries... crashing out during queries... not exporting data properly... and on and on. The problem is that most of the issues work when raisers reopens or there is a solution in the knowledge base that fixes the issue. That really might not seem like a problem to some but it really is as when one issue is resolved a new one always replaces it or the issue comes back a day or two later...

My users are beyond frustrated... I have over the last year done multitudes of suggestions from blackbaud to find and fix errors to no avail. Even so far as to building a new server that the only thing it does is serve raiser's. Which in retrospect was probably the right idea from the beginning but i was not the admin here then and have inherited these issues. Now even in the new server I began with having the same issues. Finally i have it set to run all the maintenance options every night and the users mostly make it through the day without errors. The problem now seems to be on days when bigger queries are being run the errors keep coming back before days end.

I am sure there is other info i should be putting here... I am just pulling my hair out, getting a major headache from end user complaints. I just wanna know if there are others out there that have similar issues or headaches with raisers having daily issues or are the people out there that raisers runs fluidly for all the time. And if so would you share your specs and what you do to keep it this way?

Thanking you all in advance... Greatly. I mean you have no idea how grateful i am. :-)

-Chris Lambert

clambert@mcht.org

MIP Sage Fund Accounting

Sofia Durkee — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:54:11 GMT

Good morning! I would like to know if any of you is using the MIP Sage Fund Accounting Program and if you do? How are you transfering the pledges and pledge payments. Do you include the gift type in your export. Also, where are you adding your accounts number in Raiser's Edge? Are you using the Fund ID.

thanks, Sofia

Two Line Addressees for Alumni

Gayle Allison — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:57:22 GMT

I have been asked to research how to accomplish the following format change for our mailings.

For alumni, we would like to move away from the formal combined addressee format and use the following:

Change from

Mr. and Mrs. John Smith

12 Main Street

Anywhere, PA 00000

to a 2 line addressee for married alumni:

Mrs. Mary Smith

John Smith

12 Main Street

Anywhere, PA 00000

where Mary is the Alumni.

Is anyone currently using a two line addressee as shown above? If so, how do you configure this to create the two lines?

Thanks!

Basic Import Error message

Val D — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:40:56 GMT

I am doing a constituent attribute import and I am getting the following message" The Import ID field is required to Update existing records" ..... I do have the import ID on my file and it is mapped on the fields tab. Might anyone know why I am receiving this message?

Thank you,

Mobile giving/Text to give - is anyone using it?

Chris Parrish — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:14:26 GMT

There has been a lot of talk about mobile giving and there are providers out there but it seems expensive and the start up costs are high. Does anyone use it and has it been successful in raising donations? Does Blackbaud/Sphere plan on getting into this arena in the future?

Solicitor Field

Wendy Decicco — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:26:34 GMT

I want to make it easier to view "Solicitor" without having to dig down on the relationship tab in a donor record. Does anyone have a good idea?

setting up a capital campaign

Christopher Kearns — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:13:36 GMT

Does anyone have any ideas on how to set up a Capital Campaign? I am new to this project and have no idea where to begin. We need some policies and procedures on how to handle gifts, prospective donors, etc...

Creating an Output Query through Import

Ellen Skura — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:36:21 GMT

I have been away from RE for a few months. I can't remember how to do the following:

Create a list (query) of constituents that I would like to perform further queries on

I know I have to create a CSV file and use Import and select Output Query, but I am unsure of what to select for 'What do you want to do?' I do NOT want to change/update any existing records in RE - simply create a list of constituents that I can use to make further queries.

Thank you.

Importing new addresses for old constituents

Shirley Platt — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:48:39 GMT

I am having the hardest time following the knowledge base answers for importing new preferred addresses for old constituent accounts. Does anyone have a header row that I can look at to see if I can follow it?

Workstation automatic log out

Susie Trentham — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:40:38 GMT

We just had an update to RE 7.91.36. One of the updates is that the workstation will automatically log out after 15 minutes of inactivity. I have had several people ask me if we can choose whether or not to allow this to happen. i have looked through Administration and Configuration and could not find any kind of option for this. Is this something we can control or not? Thank you for your help.

Does anyone use "Umbrella" records?

Karen Romano — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:01:30 GMT

Hello All,

We have a lot of individuals in RE associated with organizations in RE. For instance, John Doe and the John Doe Foundation. We receive gifts from John Doe and also from the Foundation. Our solicitors would like a way to have an "umbrella" account where all the gifts are stored, in addition to the individual records. Has anyone done this and can you share pros and cons? Other suggestions?

Karen

Microsoft Office Web Components software

Jackie Li — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:21:52 GMT

I installed Microsoft Office Web Components software, but i still have error on Home page of Raiser edge:

Before you can use the Dashboard feature, you need to install Microsoft Office Web Components software. Please refer to the Raiser's Edge Installation Guide for instructions.

What went wrong?

Thanks,

Jackie

Is your database available to staff for telecommuting?

Karen Mandel — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:36:36 GMT

Has someone written a policy about staff working at home and having access to the database? We are growing and need to develop a policy.

Matching gifts acknowledgements

Chris Parrish — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:30:23 GMT

Hi all,

This may seem very obvious but I wanted to run it by all of you. At my previous job, they never acknowledged or receipted matching gifts. I have no idea why but it had always been done that way. Now that I'm getting some coming in, I am questioning how to treat them. The matching gifts are considered a charitible contribution from the company, right? So we should be acknowledging as a contribution and not just a general "Thank you". Is that correct? I am already soft-crediting the original donor so that's not an issue. I'm just not sure about the receipting to the matching gift company. Is there any advice?