Difference Between Raiser's Edge and BlackBaud CRM

Parker Leary

Hello all,

Recently the college I work for wants to use my department's (Foundation) Raiser's Edge database to track all relationships including the contracts the college has with businesses in the community. My impression of Raiser's Edge is, even though it stores relationship information, it is not a true CRM and that it's more of a donor based database, am I correct in saying that? The institution I work for is fairly large (5 campuses, close to 3,000 employees with 125,000 alumni) and I am afraid with so many departments inputting data that it's going to become a complete mess. My department, the Foundation, is a small office compared to the rest of the college, I am the only individual who inputs data into the database. I know Blackbaud has a CRM program and I am wondering if it makes sense to research that product as a CRM for the college? Any advise or input would be greatly appericated.


Thank you.

Joan Perry

Parker, There is also a community for Blackbaud CRM...you might want to post on their discussion page too!

Darrel Spacone

Parker, irregardless of what CRM or database is used, the more people entering data can potentially create a mess. From my understanding, RE is intended for small to medium sized local type organizations and Blackbaud CRM is for larger national sized organizations.

Heidi Tabat

Parker Leary:

Hello all,

Recently the college I work for wants to use my department's (Foundation) Raiser's Edge database to track all relationships including the contracts the college has with businesses in the community. My impression of Raiser's Edge is, even though it stores relationship information, it is not a true CRM and that it's more of a donor based database, am I correct in saying that? The institution I work for is fairly large (5 campuses, close to 3,000 employees with 125,000 alumni) and I am afraid with so many departments inputting data that it's going to become a complete mess. My department, the Foundation, is a small office compared to the rest of the college, I am the only individual who inputs data into the database. I know Blackbaud has a CRM program and I am wondering if it makes sense to research that product as a CRM for the college? Any advise or input would be greatly appericated.


Thank you.

Hello Parker,


Our organization uses RE to track constituents and relationships like a CRM as well.  I would say we still fall in the small to medium size but we do have approximately 15 people entering data.  Strong policies and procedures are important and regular data checks to verify integrity of data are essential.  Good luck!