Looking for Raiser's Edge and Banner Schools

Melissa Anderson

Help! We have been on RE for 8 years and the University has been on Banner for all other University systems for 3 years. All of a sudden there is a push to "sync" the systems for alumni addresses. Has anyone had solutions or experience in this area?

Patrick Manning

Melissa Anderson:

Help! We have been on RE for 8 years and the University has been on Banner for all other University systems for 3 years. All of a sudden there is a push to "sync" the systems for alumni addresses. Has anyone had solutions or experience in this area?

That sounds like our scenario, almost exactly.  We use Raiser's Edge as our fundraising (obviously) and primary alumni database.  We extract alumni, addresses, emails, etc. on a weekly basis and our student information systems department uploads the data into Banner.  And not just alumni with new bio updates - every alumnus, every week (in case there are deceased or other).

If an alumnus logs on to the College's main website and attempts to update their bio information manually, the are re-directed to our (NetCommunity) website and the update is processed on our end first.  Never the other way.

Melissa Anderson

Patrick Manning:

That sounds like our scenario, almost exactly.  We use Raiser's Edge as our fundraising (obviously) and primary alumni database.  We extract alumni, addresses, emails, etc. on a weekly basis and our student information systems department uploads the data into Banner.  And not just alumni with new bio updates - every alumnus, every week (in case there are deceased or other).

If an alumnus logs on to the College's main website and attempts to update their bio information manually, the are re-directed to our (NetCommunity) website and the update is processed on our end first.  Never the other way.

 Patrick,

What they want us to do is reversed. They want us to get the upload from Banner. RE would not be the database of record any more for addresses. Even the NCOA feed would come from Banner to RE. How do you handle addresses changed on Banner for say a student you have in RE or from a transcript request from an alum to the Registrar's Office? Appreciate any feedback you can provide.

 

Melissa

Debra Green

Melissa Anderson:

 Patrick,

What they want us to do is reversed. They want us to get the upload from Banner. RE would not be the database of record any more for addresses. Even the NCOA feed would come from Banner to RE. How do you handle addresses changed on Banner for say a student you have in RE or from a transcript request from an alum to the Registrar's Office? Appreciate any feedback you can provide.

 

Melissa

 I work at a community college in Ohio that has used Banner since the mid 90s.  Our advancement area started using RE in early 2012.  After much discussion with our student area who was very interested in continuing to benefit from the address changes our office receives, the process we use is to make address changes in Banner and then import those addresses and other updates (mainly name changes and deceased info) into RE on a weekly basis using Importomatic.  Community college graduates tend to continue taking classes at their alma mater so their information needs to be maintained in both systems.

 We also use Importomatic to import graduate information after each graduation, student activity information once a year and hr information as needed.  All of this information is pulled from Banner.

Melissa Anderson

Debra Green:

 I work at a community college in Ohio that has used Banner since the mid 90s.  Our advancement area started using RE in early 2012.  After much discussion with our student area who was very interested in continuing to benefit from the address changes our office receives, the process we use is to make address changes in Banner and then import those addresses and other updates (mainly name changes and deceased info) into RE on a weekly basis using Importomatic.  Community college graduates tend to continue taking classes at their alma mater so their information needs to be maintained in both systems.

 We also use Importomatic to import graduate information after each graduation, student activity information once a year and hr information as needed.  All of this information is pulled from Banner.

 Thanks, Debra. Do you do any address updates in RE that then move to Banner? Just wondering how that is handled. Is your staff updating the Banner system or is the Registrar's office for example making the address changes in Banner? How are you identifying what records are in both systems and what is the criteria for identifying the addresses that need to be brought into RE?

 Appreciate any answers you can provide!

 

Patrick Manning

Melissa Anderson:

 Patrick,

What they want us to do is reversed. They want us to get the upload from Banner. RE would not be the database of record any more for addresses. Even the NCOA feed would come from Banner to RE. How do you handle addresses changed on Banner for say a student you have in RE or from a transcript request from an alum to the Registrar's Office? Appreciate any feedback you can provide.

 

Melissa

From what I remember, our IT department "locked down" the ability to update alumni addresses in Banner.  In essense, it's read-only and the information is directed to our website.  If, however, we were taking Banner data to update our addresses, we would probably enforce the use of the "MOVE DATE" that is included in an NCOA file.  So if we have a more recent address, that address would be rejected.

As for student addresses, we might update their local / mailing address in Raiser's Edge but the "permanent" address (where official documentation from the College would be sent and usually corresponds to the parent / guardian address) is always the "preferred" address for us.  If we (Advancement or Alumni Relations) needs to contact a student it would be done through email.

Debra Green

Melissa Anderson:

 Thanks, Debra. Do you do any address updates in RE that then move to Banner? Just wondering how that is handled. Is your staff updating the Banner system or is the Registrar's office for example making the address changes in Banner? How are you identifying what records are in both systems and what is the criteria for identifying the addresses that need to be brought into RE?

 Appreciate any answers you can provide!

 

 In answer to your questions:

• We do not do any address updates in RE that are moved to Banner.  The only addresses we would change in RE only would be donors who have no other connection to the College - not a graduate, former student or employee.
  
• Our staff updates addresses in Banner and then we import those changes into RE on a weekly basis.
• The majority of the records that are in both RE and Banner are graduates or former students.  We make sure that all of those people are constituents in the advancement module of Banner.  Graduates are automatically made constituents during the graduate roll process; former students who wish to join the Alumni Association or donate are made constituents one at a time.  When we do our weekly update from Banner to RE, the process checks for changes made to that group (advancement module constituents) and creates the spreadsheet that we use for importing into RE.

Hope that answers everything.