9.28.17
Blackbaud today announced the results of a commissioned Total Economic Impact (TEI) study1 conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Blackbaud, examining the return on investment a higher education institution experienced by deploying Blackbaud’s smart cloud fundraising and relationship management solution. Forrester found that over a three-year period, Raiser’s Edge NXT™ helped an institution achieve a 484 percent return on investment, increase gift revenue of over $2.1 million primarily by fostering a 56 percent growth in major gifts, and save time and resources through efficiencies in gift officer research, scheduling and activity logging.
Forrester took a comprehensive approach to evaluate the impact that Raiser’s Edge NXT had on a higher education institution. Specifically, it interviewed Blackbaud subject matter experts, Forrester analysts and an institution currently using Raiser’s Edge NXT, and constructed a financial model representative of the interview using the TEI methodology. The objective of the framework was to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility and risk factors that affect the investment decision.
Forrester interviewed University of North Texas (UNT), one of Texas’ largest universities with more than 1,000 full-time faculty members, 37,000 students and 380,000 active constituents. UNT gift officers and executives found its former system archaic, difficult to navigate, time-consuming and frustrating, leading the University to distrust the software and avoid using it. “Our old system was very slow, and you had to use it from a computer—we all work off our mobile devices nowadays—and there was a big gap in what was needed for the front-line fundraiser; Raiser’s Edge NXT filled that gap,” said Clint Shipp, executive director of advancement services at UNT.
To address these challenges, UNT searched for an innovative cloud solution that could help gift officers effectively foster current and potential donors, enable executives to better track team KPIs and view reports, improve productivity and reporting, and seamlessly integrate with its existing systems and launch immediately without an expensive and time-consuming data and systems conversion. With Vice President of Advancement David Wolf championing the effort, UNT adopted Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT.
After Deploying Raiser’s Edge NXT, University of North Texas Experienced:
● Fostered new and repeat donors to give 56 percent more major gifts than average, resulting in a three-year revenue lift attributable to Raiser’s Edge NXT of over $2.1 million.
● Increased personal visits by 20 percent, and phone and email actions by 43 percent without any increase in development staff—with UNT setting a new fundraising record in 2017 of over $30 million raised with 24 percent more major gifts than even at the height of its 2012 major giving campaign.
● Avoided software and maintenance costs of $371,417 and recouped the cost of its investment in Raiser’s Edge NXT within six months of purchasing.
● Enabled UNT to recapture 6,411 hours of gift officer productivity worth $180,814. Gift officers reduced research time by 40 minutes per personal meeting and 10 minutes per phone or email action, and saved 20 minutes for scheduling per meeting. Staff also saved two hours per month logging activity.
“Personal visits have really been on the rise, a lot of which I attribute to our good systems in place; and because we now have the right solution to help our gift officers know what to do at the right time,” added Shipp. “Gift officers are not wasting as much time in the office — they are more active than I’ve ever seen before.”
“The ROI that Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT delivers for UNT goes beyond its stellar financial results,” said Tim Hill, president and general manager of Blackbaud Higher Education Solutions. “Our innovation also provides UNT’s advancement team a consistent, cohesive user experience and increases their productivity levels. We’re honored to partner with UNT in reaching its goals and fulfilling its mission.”
