What about Packages?

Karen Stuhlfeier

I'm loving the reports and lists in NXT, but what about packages? We use them quite extensively in RE. Does anyone know if they are going the become searchable and reportable in NXT anytime soon? If not I may have to abolish using them and make more appeals. I'd rather keep using packages.Thanks for any information.

Jarod Bonino

Karen Stuhlfeier:

I'm loving the reports and lists in NXT, but what about packages? We use them quite extensively in RE. Does anyone know if they are going the become searchable and reportable in NXT anytime soon? If not I may have to abolish using them and make more appeals. I'd rather keep using packages.Thanks for any information.

Hey Karen! 


Glad to hear you are liking the reports and lists features in NXT! We are aware that reporting and discoverability of Packages is a bit lacking in web view currently. We do have some short term actions items to help with this (such as lighting up a "Packages" tile on Appeal record pages). Throughout 2017 we will be adding more and more functionality around Packages in general, but unfortuntaely we do not have specific timelines for making them fully searchable and reportable.


Thanks,

Jarod

Karen Stuhlfeier

 As long as I know that I'll have that functionality eventually I'm good! I can still get the information that I need in RE7.


Eveyone in our office really likes NXT!

Carol Carrier

Jarod Bonino:

Karen Stuhlfeier:

I'm loving the reports and lists in NXT, but what about packages? We use them quite extensively in RE. Does anyone know if they are going the become searchable and reportable in NXT anytime soon? If not I may have to abolish using them and make more appeals. I'd rather keep using packages.Thanks for any information.

Hey Karen! 


Glad to hear you are liking the reports and lists features in NXT! We are aware that reporting and discoverability of Packages is a bit lacking in web view currently. We do have some short term actions items to help with this (such as lighting up a "Packages" tile on Appeal record pages). Throughout 2017 we will be adding more and more functionality around Packages in general, but unfortuntaely we do not have specific timelines for making them fully searchable and reportable.


Thanks,

Jarod

 

I am with Karen.  We use the same appeal with several different packages.  It would be really great if we could filter on packages in NXT.  An like she said, I can still get the information in RE7, but would like to get it in NXT.


 

Jill Collins

Carol Carrier:

Jarod Bonino:

Karen Stuhlfeier:

I'm loving the reports and lists in NXT, but what about packages? We use them quite extensively in RE. Does anyone know if they are going the become searchable and reportable in NXT anytime soon? If not I may have to abolish using them and make more appeals. I'd rather keep using packages.Thanks for any information.

Hey Karen! 


Glad to hear you are liking the reports and lists features in NXT! We are aware that reporting and discoverability of Packages is a bit lacking in web view currently. We do have some short term actions items to help with this (such as lighting up a "Packages" tile on Appeal record pages). Throughout 2017 we will be adding more and more functionality around Packages in general, but unfortuntaely we do not have specific timelines for making them fully searchable and reportable.


Thanks,

Jarod

 

I am with Karen.  We use the same appeal with several different packages.  It would be really great if we could filter on packages in NXT.  An like she said, I can still get the information in RE7, but would like to get it in NXT.


 

 

Yes - packages need to be separated from Appeals, and searchable. Right now it's kind of a mess

 

Jarod Bonino

Jill Collins:

Carol Carrier:

Jarod Bonino:

Karen Stuhlfeier:

I'm loving the reports and lists in NXT, but what about packages? We use them quite extensively in RE. Does anyone know if they are going the become searchable and reportable in NXT anytime soon? If not I may have to abolish using them and make more appeals. I'd rather keep using packages.Thanks for any information.

Hey Karen! 


Glad to hear you are liking the reports and lists features in NXT! We are aware that reporting and discoverability of Packages is a bit lacking in web view currently. We do have some short term actions items to help with this (such as lighting up a "Packages" tile on Appeal record pages). Throughout 2017 we will be adding more and more functionality around Packages in general, but unfortuntaely we do not have specific timelines for making them fully searchable and reportable.


Thanks,

Jarod

 

I am with Karen.  We use the same appeal with several different packages.  It would be really great if we could filter on packages in NXT.  An like she said, I can still get the information in RE7, but would like to get it in NXT.


 

 

Yes - packages need to be separated from Appeals, and searchable. Right now it's kind of a mess

 

 

Hey Jill, I'd love to get more clarity on what you mean by this. I think most of the comments on this thread are asking for the ability to filter reports based on a specific package (because the Appeal is too broad), which makes sense to me. When you say "separated from Appeals and searchable" though it makes me think you might be asking for something different. Are you asking for them to be a completely independent record? That is something I don't hear a lot. Do you have a desire to use the same package on different Appeals? What is the use case for that?


I love learning from this community about new creative ways people are using our products so please don't take my question to mean you shouldn't be doing that. I'm just interested in learning more about it!


Thanks,

Jarod Bonino

Product Manager, Raiser's Edge

Jill Collins

Hi there,

Good question! I mean that packages should be separate (like
you mentioned), so it would be an additional category under
Records: Campaign, Fund, Appeal, Package. Right now, you have to
load packages to appeals, and it can get really messy, especially
for reporting ROI. So essentially the # solicited gets really
messy. 

Hopefully that makes sense! Thanks so much for reaching
out.

Jill
Collins

Xavier College
Preparatory I Office of Advancement

Director of Data
Management

jcollins@xcp.org

Direct: 602.240.3134

Fax: 602.240.3178
www.xcp.org

Karen Stuhlfeier

Jill brings up some good points and thanks Jarod for wanting to hear more.


The thing that makes packages to work with in RE7 is that they aren't records and you need to have the exact name of the package in order to be able to use it. You can't pull up a table in something like a query and look for the specific package.When you create an appeal you create a record and a package is just a way to segment the appeal. I really like packages, because they make sense. For instance for our FY16-17 Annual Fund Appeal we have at least 10 different ways we are sending the appeal throughout the FY. Having said this, I'm considering just using appeals when the new FY starts because I think that it might be easier in both RE7 and NXT.


 

Jarod Bonino

Jill Collins:

Hi there,

Good question! I mean that packages should be separate (like you mentioned), so it would be an additional category under Records: Campaign, Fund, Appeal, Package. Right now, you have to load packages to appeals, and it can get really messy, especially for reporting ROI. So essentially the # solicited gets really messy. 

 

Hopefully that makes sense! Thanks so much for reaching out.

 

Jill Collins

Xavier College Preparatory I Office of Advancement

Director of Data Management

jcollins@xcp.org

 

 

Direct: 602.240.3134

Fax: 602.240.3178
www.xcp.org

 

Interesting... Does a Package make any sense though outside of the context of the Appeal it's asscoiated with? I know the answer is probably "it depends how you set them up" but to me, I've always thought of a package as a way to split a specific Appeal to do AB testing (color newsletter vs black & white newsletter) or to segment a particular deliverable for specific audiences within my CRM (alumni newsletter vs.board member newsletter). I could also argue though that those could/should be separate appeals...


Even if they do continue to live within the context of an Appeal, we may be able to grant you some of your wishes though over time (like the ability to search directly for a Package in some areas). 


Love the ideas! Keep them coming! And don't forget to post them in the Idea Bank as well where others can vote for them!


https://community.blackbaud.com/products/raisersedgenxt/ideas



Thanks,

Jarod Bonino

Product Manager, Raiser's Edge

Karen Diener 2

Jarod Bonino:

Jill Collins:

Hi there,

Good question! I mean that packages should be separate (like you mentioned), so it would be an additional category under Records: Campaign, Fund, Appeal, Package. Right now, you have to load packages to appeals, and it can get really messy, especially for reporting ROI. So essentially the # solicited gets really messy. 

 

Hopefully that makes sense! Thanks so much for reaching out.

 

Jill Collins

Xavier College Preparatory I Office of Advancement

Director of Data Management

jcollins@xcp.org

 

 

Direct: 602.240.3134

Fax: 602.240.3178
www.xcp.org

 

Interesting... Does a Package make any sense though outside of the context of the Appeal it's asscoiated with? I know the answer is probably "it depends how you set them up" but to me, I've always thought of a package as a way to split a specific Appeal to do AB testing (color newsletter vs black & white newsletter) or to segment a particular deliverable for specific audiences within my CRM (alumni newsletter vs.board member newsletter). I could also argue though that those could/should be separate appeals...


Even if they do continue to live within the context of an Appeal, we may be able to grant you some of your wishes though over time (like the ability to search directly for a Package in some areas). 


Love the ideas! Keep them coming! And don't forget to post them in the Idea Bank as well where others can vote for them!


https://community.blackbaud.com/products/raisersedgenxt/ideas



Thanks,

Jarod Bonino

Product Manager, Raiser's Edge

 

For us, packages are ONLY related to the appeal.  We use the same set of packages during a fiscal year to evaluate how each segment performed over the course of four mailings.  Our start list is the same, and we filter out people who give.  Every direct mail appeal has an appeal code, and we segment within each appeal code.  We've learned some things - assumptions were disproved! - after only 2-3 uses of this process, and are presenting at BBCON 2017 on it.

Twila Moore

We are thinking about trying to start using packages with our appeals.  I just want to make sure that Blackbaud is still planning to make these more user friendly in RE webview before we move that way.  If this is not going to be something that Blackbaud is going to be working on, I will recommend that we use more appeals instead.  Thanks!

Jarod Bonino

Twila Moore:

We are thinking about trying to start using packages with our appeals.  I just want to make sure that Blackbaud is still planning to make these more user friendly in RE webview before we move that way.  If this is not going to be something that Blackbaud is going to be working on, I will recommend that we use more appeals instead.  Thanks!

 

Hey Twila,


We  have no plans to discontinue support for Packages in any way. As with any area of the product, we hope to make web view even more intuitive in this area than database view is/has been.


Hope that helps!



Thanks,

Jarod Bonino

Product Manager, Raiser's Edge

Doris Pierce-Hardy 2

Jarod Bonino:

Twila Moore:

We are thinking about trying to start using packages with our appeals.  I just want to make sure that Blackbaud is still planning to make these more user friendly in RE webview before we move that way.  If this is not going to be something that Blackbaud is going to be working on, I will recommend that we use more appeals instead.  Thanks!

 

Hey Twila,


We  have no plans to discontinue support for Packages in any way. As with any area of the product, we hope to make web view even more intuitive in this area than database view is/has been.


Hope that helps!



Thanks,

Jarod Bonino

Product Manager, Raiser's Edge

 

I found this thread and was wondering when does RE plan to roll out the ability to segment by packages?  We use it heavily with our events -- sponsorships and different third parties and having the capacity to report on a particular package would be so much better than having to export a query.

Christi Beckley

Doris Pierce-Hardy:

Jarod Bonino:

Twila Moore:

We are thinking about trying to start using packages with our appeals.  I just want to make sure that Blackbaud is still planning to make these more user friendly in RE webview before we move that way.  If this is not going to be something that Blackbaud is going to be working on, I will recommend that we use more appeals instead.  Thanks!

 

Hey Twila,


We  have no plans to discontinue support for Packages in any way. As with any area of the product, we hope to make web view even more intuitive in this area than database view is/has been.


Hope that helps!



Thanks,

Jarod Bonino

Product Manager, Raiser's Edge

 

I found this thread and was wondering when does RE plan to roll out the ability to segment by packages?  We use it heavily with our events -- sponsorships and different third parties and having the capacity to report on a particular package would be so much better than having to export a query.

 

Great, but this is only helpful if we have a timeline associated with updates to Packages. We are just migrating to NXT and use packages in RE. If not visable for segmanting in NXT that that is a game changer for us. 

Andrea Marth

Joining the chorus requesting package dashboard options. What is the timeline?


Thanks so much,

Andrea

Tom Klimchak

This is a bit of an old post, but I just went poking around and noticed that Packages are now listed in their own separate data tree in the Insight Designer.  I haven't used them yet (I hadn't even seen the data tree before)... but it looks like they're active!




I know that Insight Designer has an extra expense to it, but it really is a pretty clever (and still expanding!) reporting tool.  I've been able to transition a fair bit (75%?) of my old Crystal Report custom reports to Insight Designer.  They're web-based and relatively easy for our Development Officers to use and understand.

 

Kathleen Eastman

Hi Tom,


I would love to see the types of reports you have been able to create in Insight Designer. We have not opted to make that purchase due to the cost and the need to see a better product than the one we looked at initially. I realize updates are being made all of the time, so to see what you have come up with would be very helpful.


With regards to packages and appeals, has there been any change to the ability to download OLX e-appeals as packages within an existing appeal record? If someone from BB could give us an updated on that functionality it would be much appreciated!


Kathy

Blake Moody 5

 

Thanks for resurfacing this thread. Tom is correct, that you can access packages in the Insights Designer. 


Worth noting that you can also access this in the Dashboard Builder even if you don't have access to the Insight Designer. Fields are  but this is also available if you don't have the insight designer. There is a canned or out-of-the-box insight called Package Giving. You can also override other insights with a fields about your packages including Package Category, Package Description, Package is Active, and Package Short Description.

 

Blake