RE newbie - looking for "homework" to practice on

Tori Correll

First time poster to the community. Last week I attended a three-day in-person Blackbaud training on RE Fundamentals.


I'm not an everyday RE user as we have a database person. I'd like to keep my skills sharp - any ideas on where I could find some RE exercises or "homework" that I can work through on an ongoing basis? Maybe something like this?: https://www.gcn.org/blog/Resources/Flex-Your-Raisers-Edge-Muscle


Appreciate any ideas, thanks!

Joanne Felci 2

Tori - you are wise to try to keep using the system before you start to lose all the great stuff you learned


This is one of my favorite resources: https://www.blackbaud.com/files/support/guides/re7/re7begin.pdf

Melissa Rancour

Tori Correll:

First time poster to the community. Last week I attended a three-day in-person Blackbaud training on RE Fundamentals.


I'm not an everyday RE user as we have a database person. I'd like to keep my skills sharp - any ideas on where I could find some RE exercises or "homework" that I can work through on an ongoing basis? Maybe something like this?: https://www.gcn.org/blog/Resources/Flex-Your-Raisers-Edge-Muscle


Appreciate any ideas, thanks!

Hi Tori!,


Kudos to you for wanting to keep your skills sharp. If you have a Learn Subscription, you can take one of our great eLearnings on a regular basis to ensure that you remember all of the basics. We also have a series of additional instructor-led trainings that you can take to further your knowledge. 


Melissa 

Joy park

Some ideas:


Wander through a Indv. record and a Corp. record, see what information gets saved where - attributes, actions, notes, etc.  Which modules do you have?  Is there info actually stored within it?  :-p  


Use Query to explore your database!  Don't worry too much about the Criteria tab at first, just swing over to Output and start seeing what you can extract out - birthdays, kids' names, favorite fund designation, whatever...  


Once you see where data goes, and where it comes back out, you have a much better picture of your org's fundraising style and your donors!


Make a list of tasks that you believe could be more successful if you are using RE.  Start breaking down those tasks into even smaller items and slowly, manually, work through them until you feel confident enough to upgrade how you achieve them with stronger tools!   Eventually you will upgrade from using just Query to using Export ; you will eventually stop opening and saving manually through records and start using Import.  :)


Example:  You are starting a new campaign for Bikes to Underpriviledged Youth.  First steps in RE: use Query to search if donors have given to this kind of fund before, or if they have given an actual bike, whatever.  You can create a list of donors in Query to send a solicitation to - you can record this in RE.  You can even create the actual solicitation letter in RE.  Then you can create Actions when the donor/s reply with their "Yes, I will give/No I can't give this time", you can record if they volunteer at the Bike Give-away.... you can record all their stewardship, and so on.  


Good luck!  Have fun!