Action for Children enhances donor
relations, streamlines operations with
Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT

Leading UK charity Action for Children has been making strides in improving the lives of children and their families and within the last two years has helped nearly 700,000 children, young people and families. With a goal to impact over a million children, the organisation has been on a transformative journey, leveraging the power of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT to streamline its fundraising efforts and enhance donor relationships. The charity’s commitment to making a significant difference is evident in its strategic use of data to drive their campaigns and initiatives.

“Our teams wanted advanced reporting to manage supporter and prospect pipelines better. Raiser’s Edge NXT enables us to run detailed queries and do the reporting we need, showing the data in a full visual display that looks fresh and modern,” said Fatima Sanyang, CRM Manager. “Blackbaud’s software enables us to make more data-driven decisions, analyse past trends, and successfully re-engage our supporter base.”

Streamlining for Success

The charity’s fundraising department, consisting of over 270 members across various teams, has seen a remarkable improvement in efficiency and coordination thanks to Raiser’s Edge NXT. The platform’s ability to provide a holistic view of supporters has been crucial in unifying the team’s approach, ensuring that donors receive consistent communication and engagement. This streamlined course of action has not only simplified internal processes but also improved the supporter experience, making every interaction count.

One of the key successes for Action for Children has been the integration of Raiser’s Edge NXT with their website, particularly for Gift Aid claims. The charity has tripled its Gift Aid claims, capturing hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue that might have otherwise been missed. “This efficiency gain is a testament to the power of Raiser’s Edge NXT’s integration capabilities, which have allowed us to claim Gift Aid in a more streamlined and automated manner,” said Sanyang. “By using the enhanced functionality, we also achieved a time-savings of 80 percent when compared to the time we previously spent on this process.”

Action for Children has also worked with Blackbaud to improve their pipeline management and reporting. This has helped them move away from using spreadsheets and instead utilise Raiser’s Edge NXT capabilities for more secure and efficient data management. Blackbaud conducted a data health check for the charity to help identify areas of their data that needed tidying up. This process significantly improved the quality of their data, enhancing the supporter experience and making their marketing more efficient.

Using the extended capabilities, the charity improved its acknowledgement processes and sending “thank yous” has never been easier. “Using the tools in Raiser’s Edge NXT, we can quickly acknowledge donations, ensuring that supporters feel appreciated,” said Sanyang. “This process includes marking gifts as acknowledged in the system, which has streamlined our fundraising operations and improved efficiencies.”

Action for Children participated in an early adopter program of Blackbaud’s event registration forms. This new functionality is expected to save hours of time by eliminating the need for manual data entry and making event data instantly available and usable.

Looking to the Future

As Action for Children continues to embrace the functionalities of Raiser’s Edge NXT, they are poised for even greater achievements. Some of the great work the charity has done alongside Blackbaud Advisory+ so far includes creating bespoke training for its fundraising teams so they can use the work centre effectively, looking at the Outlook integration, and using the exports and dashboards efficiently from an administrative perspective.

With plans to create a data warehouse for even more instantaneous reporting and to explore the potential of QR codes for donation tracking, the charity is setting the stage for a future where technology plays a central role in fundraising success.

“We’re excited about the potential of using artificial intelligence within Blackbaud’s tools to drive fundraising growth,” said Sanyang. “We’ve seen significant improvements in our fundraising and operational efficiency by using Blackbaud software, and we’re very optimistic about the future enhancements and functionalities that it will bring us.”