How to Become a Raiser's Edge Tech Geek

INTRODUCTION

About the talk and the Speaker
Fields and Attributes
Import
Segmentation
Case Studies of Repurposed Modules
Here be dragons: VBA and API
AGENDA

WHO AM I? … MY GEEK CRED GEEK RE Geek Gamer I “get” Big Bang Theory Social Media Socks + Sandals =  Math Degree

Director of Professional Services/Raiser’s Edge Consultant. Some current and former clients:
National Public Radio
Canadian Red Cross
Kidney Foundation of Canada
Former Raiser’s Edge DBA at the Canadian Cancer Society AB/NWT
DB of over 1M+ constituents and several million gifts
Have worked with The Raiser’s Edge, The Education Edge, The Financial Edge, NetCommunity, Sphere
Member of the Blackbaud User Society (kschmidt)
THE NON-GEEK CREDS

“ I didn’t know The Raiser’s Edge could do…”
“ I never thought about using that part in that way…”
“ Bow before me, for I am your Raiser’s Edge King/Queen…”
We are here to learn cool and different ways to use RE.
If you have done, or know of something cool - or just thought of something in the middle of this talk – please share.
WHAT IS THIS TALK ABOUT?

FIELDS AND ATTRIBUTES

WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT FIELDS?
Do you have unused RE database fields?
Depending on the field, you can do some or all of the following:
Make the field hidden
Make the field required
Switch the field between being text or a dropdown table
Rename the field
Just because it exists there does not mean you HAVE to use it, or for the reason originally intended!

FIELDS
Canada has two official languages, and sometimes, people prefer to be contacted in one or the other.
Preferred Language could be an attribute
Do we use solicit codes?
How about a repurposed Bio2 field? Do we store religion? Ethnicity?
EXAMPLE

Sometimes a text or table dropdown is the best option for your attribute.
But sometimes, it’s not…
Numbers
Financial Values
Date
Yes/No
Constituent Name
ATTRIBUTES: MORE THAN TEXT AND TABLES

ATTRIBUTES
We have a constituent attribute of Yes/No for whether or not our constituent receives renewal notices via email or not.
What do you do when there’s no email or DNC?
What does no value mean?
You cannot perform queries on “Does not equal ‘yes’ “/ Does Not equal ‘no’”
EXAMPLE 1

ATTRIBUTES
We are performing the action with Organization X, but we want to know who we actually performed the action with. Do we store the action on the contact record or the organization?
Advantages to each
Both
ZOMG! Store a “constituent name” attribute on the action to be able to query against.
EXAMPLE 2

Great! We’re going to use the former Religion field to store special codes about the constituent.
What? There’s 100 different values!
So.. You use import…
SEGWAY

IMPORT

There is no “Import Table Entries” type of Import
However, there is a “Create Table Entries” option on imports.
Create test constituent
Add constituent ID to every row of your CSV file
Set import to Create Table Entries
Import every entry
Delete the Constituent.
IMPORT TABLE ENTRIES

All imports have “Create Static Query” option.
So if you have a list – as long as it has SSN, Import ID, or Constituent IDs…
Create import with “Modify Existing Records”
Make the ONLY import field the ID
Create static query
Import
CREATE QUERIES FROM EXTERNAL LISTS

SEGMENTATION: THE HIDDEN TOOL

WHAT IS SEGMENTATION?

So you want to do A/B testing for your direct mail…
A/B TESTING USING SEGMENTATION…

Query A = Query 1 SUB Query 2
Query B = Query A SUB Query 3
Query C = Query B SUB Query 4
If all you really wanted was Query C…
OR…
Include Specific Records on the Mailing – Query 1
Segment 1: Query 2 – no output query
Segment 4: Query 1 – output query
MERGING AND KILL FILES

MID-WAY POINT Any questions so far? Anything that you want to share?

RE-PURPOSING MODULES: 2 CASE STUDIES

Forget about what the module is called.
What does the module do?
REPURPOSING MODULES

… runs, bikes, etc.
FRIENDS ASKING FRIENDS-STYLE EVENTS
Individuals fundraising on your behalf
Goal-based
How many gifts and how much each person raised is IMPORTANT

How does this work?
Tribute Type: Specific Event
Tribute Description: Team name (if applicable)
Gifts: Amounts given to the individual are linked to the Tribute, and then, by going to the Honour/Memorial tab, you can quickly see how many gifts they have received and for how much.
Reporting : Basic tribute reporting for amounts. If you want team totals, a Pivot Report looking at Tribute Type, Tribute Description, Tributee, and Donor will provide a drilldown for the entire event all the way down to individual donations.
USING TRIBUTES FOR PLEDGED EVENTS

Needed:
Actions to control internal timelines
Expenses
Store authors, editors, and any others people involved in the publication.
Options:
Action Tracks: Constituents, Appeals, & Events
Expenses: Appeals, and Events
… authors could be relationships, or…
REPURPOSED MODULE #2: PUBLICATIONS

How does it work?
Participation: Involvement in publication (Coordinator, Author, Editor, etc.).
Action Tracks: Based on track, controls the action track for the lifecycle of the publication development
Event Start Date : Date that the process started
Event End Date : Date published
Reporting : Major reporting has to do with number of publications of certain types. Other reporting includes how many publications individuals have been authors for, how many publications staff authors have been involved in (participant with Primary Business of This Organization).
USING EVENTS TO CONTROL PUBLICATIONS

MOVING ON… … and now here's something we hope you'll really like…

HERE BE DRAGONS: VBA/API

Almost anything is possible with VBA/API!
UNCHARTED WATERS
Automate processes
Auto-calculate fields
Access other databases
Manipulate File Structures
Take over the world… (ok, maybe not)

VBA: Visual Basic for Application
Similar functionality exists in Microsoft Office products
Runs within RE, but cannot run as an outside interface
API: Application Programming Interface
Similar to VBA, but with some extended functionality.
Can run outside RE, and act as an interface for applications.
WHAT ARE VBA AND API?

WHICH SHOULD I USE?
VBA
User interaction
Small scripts
Non-excessive customization
API
Want to run outside of user interaction
Developer
Need to interface with outside programs/websites

EXAMPLES…
Why is there No Valid Address?
A checkbox means no date, no reason, no historical information.
So we created an address attribute. A special data entry form popped up when the “Has No Valid Address” checkbox was changed upon save.
CONDITIONAL ENTRY WITH SPECIAL FORMS

EXAMPLES
Smart Attributes
I have categorized my donors as per giving levels.
One option would be to put those as an attribute, and try to manage it…
Or, I auto-populate the attribute based on the criteria, every time the record is saved.
AUTO-CALCULATED FIELDS

EXAMPLES
Auto-Populated Region
One org classifies donor address by region
They had an excel file with all cities/towns, and the corresponding regions
So we check the city field, compare against the database of city/regions, and auto-populate region.
AUTO-ENTERED FIELDS, TALK TO OTHER DATABASES

EXAMPLES
Gift Entry through Batch Only
For accounting purposes, we wanted all gifts entered by batch
We set “New Gift” not saveable unless the person was in a particular security group
Editing on the tab was still allowed.
USER CONTROL

EXAMPLES
Theoretically…
Step 1: Person opens constituent (trigger Before_Open)
Step 2: Supress standard form
Step 3: Bring up new, custom form, where you can set triggers on any field, and value, etc… Data entry in any order you want, with calculated controls…
*This is exceptionally dangerous and not an idea to be taken lightly. This is really just to illustrate that, theoretically, almost anything is possible with enough time and code…
THINKING BIG!

VBA/API costs:
Development time
Testing time
Computer Resources
What happens when Blackbaud upgrades the software?
WARNING WARNING, DANGER DANGER!

FINAL NOTES

IMPACT Tip One
Explore fields and attributes, and think about how the different options could be used to better store the data that you want stored.
IMPACT Tip Two
Use tools like Import and Segmentation to create very specific lists of constituents for your mailings.
IMPACT Tip Three
Forget what the module or the field is supposed to do – remember how it functions and how that could be of benefit to you. Raiser’s Edge is a framework, but it’s your database.
IMPACT TIPS

#BBCON TWEET TAKE AWAY: What do you want Raiser's Edge to do? Lots of hidden tools when you repurpose, script in VBA, and segment. #bbre

QUESTIONS/COMMENTS/HATE MAIL @kirkschmidt kschmidt [email_address]

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How to Become a Raiser's Edge Tech Geek

by kirkschmidt on Oct 03, 2011

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How to Become a Raiser’s Edge Tech Geek — Presentation Transcript