The Raiser's Edge User Guides

Getting Started

  • Program Basics Guide
    This guide includes information on basic navigation and procedures and how to set individual user options. It also provides information to assist you in setting up a policies and procedures manual for your organization.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
    This document lists keyboard shortcuts you can use to accomplish common tasks and navigate within the software.
  • The Raiser's Edge and Microsoft Office Integration Guide (PDF 2.78M) February 18, 2008
    This guide contains information about integrating The Raiser's Edge with Microsoft Outlook, Word, and PivotTables. With these features, you can simplify mail merges using Word and create versatile pivot reports. You can also synchronize Raiser's Edge records with Outlook contacts, appointments, and tasks.

Records

  • Alumni Data Entry Guide
    This guide provides step-by-step instructions for accessing, adding, and working with alumni and their relationships.
  • Campaigns, Funds, and Appeals Data Entry Guide (PDF 1.75M) June 19, 2008
    This guide shows how to set up these records and how they interact with each other. You can create campaigns to establish your overall objectives for raising money, funds to show the specific purposes for the money you raise, and appeals as the promotions and solicitations that bring in gifts. Also, learn how to use Campaign Giving Hierarchy to track and report on all aspects of your fund activity under the larger umbrella of campaigns.
  • Constituent Data Entry Guide
    This guide teaches you how to properly set up constituent records in your database. You learn how to manage biographical information, addresses, addressees and salutations, relationships, attributes, notes, media items, and appeals. You learn how to create a letter, set up a relationship tree, add a constituent annotation, merge constituent records, and convert an individual record to an organization and vice versa. You also learn how to set up action records, assign solicitors, and set up solicitor teams.
  • Event Management Data Entry Guide
    This guide helps you manage all aspects of your organization's events. You learn how to set up an event record, which encompasses the General, Prices, Expenses, Jobs, Actions, Attributes, Media, and Notes tabs of the event record. You also learn how to add participants to an event by using the Participants tab.
  • Prospect Data Entry Guide
    This guide includes detailed instructions for managing all types of prospect information — tracking gifts made by prospective donors to other organizations; financial information, such as sources of wealth, annual income, and real estate holdings of prospective donors; and how your organization can create proposals, documenting amounts solicited, amounts funded, and ratings data.
  • Tribute Data Entry Guide
    This guide helps you use Honor/Memorial Tracking to effectively manage your honor/memorial records. It provides instructions to add and edit tributes and view gifts given to a tribute.
  • Volunteers and Jobs Data Entry Guide (PDF 1.52M) February 19, 2008
    This guide teaches you how to track all aspects of your volunteers. You learn how to track volunteer information on the Volunteer tab of a constituent record. Information includes volunteer types and statuses, emergency contact information, volunteer qualifications, medical information, special needs and availability, checklists of tasks a volunteer must complete before starting a job, award information, and how to assign volunteers to job records in your database. You also learn how to set up job records.

Gift Entry

  • Gift Records Guide
    This guide contains information and explanations for all procedures related to adding, editing, and deleting gift records. For example, you can learn how to reschedule a pledge and add a matching gift. In addition, you can learn about posting to General Ledger and globally writing off pledges.
  • Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Guide
    This guide provides instructions for automatically generating and processing direct debit and credit card transactions using an electronic funds transfer. Electronic funds transfer is a general banking system by which transactions, such as deposits or bill payments, are made electronically from a donor's bank account or credit card to your bank account.
  • Event Gifts Guide
    This guide contains information for and explanations of all procedures related to adding and editing event gift records. For example, you can learn how to link a gift record to an event as an other donation and learn how to pay an existing sponsoring pledge from a gift batch.
  • Proposal Gifts Guide
    This guide contains information for and explanations of all procedures related to adding and editing proposal gift records. For example, you can learn how to link a gift to a proposal record for another constituent, and you can learn how to break the link between a gift record and a proposal.
  • Tribute Gifts Guide
    This guide contains information for and explanations of all procedures related to adding and editing tribute gift records. For example, you can learn how to add a tribute gift in a gift batch and edit tribute information entered on a gift record.

Query & Export

  • Query and Export Guide
    This guide contains information on extracting information from The Raiser's Edge Enterprise and exporting data to other software programs.

Reports

  • Reports Guide
    This guide includes detailed descriptions of each report, procedures for running reports, detailed explanations of the parameter tabs and each item on them, and tutorials.
  • Sample Reports Guide
    This guide includes descriptions of each report along with a sample and the parameter tab settings used to generate it.
  • Summaries Guide
    This guide provides instructions for creating summaries to track the performance of your organization's solicitors, campaigns, funds, and appeals, and to view a constituent's giving history.

Mail

  • Mail Guide
    This guide explains how to use each tab on all mail tasks in Mail to produce effective mailings, such as receipts, reminders, appeals cards, acknowledgement letters, labels, envelopes, and even Rolodex cards and name tags. You can learn how to create and send mailings, filter records to include, select addresses, and use address attributes. It also explains how to use the optional module PostalSaver to reduce costs by appropriately sorting your mailings.

Batch

  • Batch Guide
    This guide contains information about adding and committing constituents, gifts, and volunteer time sheets to your database. With Batch, you can enter and update information on constituent and gift records quickly because you do not need to open each individual gift or constituent record to add or update information.
  • Batch Quick Reference
    This guide contains information about adding and committing constituents, gifts, and volunteer time sheets to your database. With Batch, you can enter and update information on constituent and gift records quickly because you do not need to open each individual gift or constituent record to add or update information.

Dashboard

  • Dashboard Guide
    This guide includes in-depth instructions on how to take a snapshot of your fundraising success at any given time. Dashboard is ideal for development directors, executives, or any user who needs to quickly access data. Because Dashboard does not require a complete working knowledge of The Raiser's Edge, it is convenient for infrequent users.