Review Management Across Aid Years

Lindley Davis

Hi Everyone,

We've run into issues with the current review system in Blackbaud. We cannot archive opportunities until the end of the fiscal year however, applications for the upcoming academic year must open in the early spring. This means we have two iterations of each opportunity open at the same time.

Blackbaud reviews can only be preserved if the opportunity is archived before the review group. This means that we must keep all review groups open until the end of the fiscal year as well. While we do ensure that all of the previous year's opportunities are closed for review, we still have to deal with double the number of review groups and double the number of reviewer assignments. This is incredibly cumbersome on an organizational level and had caused confusion amongst reviewers.

We've had some communication with support but unfortunately, they were a bit rude and unable to help. Performance enhancements don't seem to get a lot of attention. I'm interested to hear how other universities in the same boat manage this process.

Oliver Mamangun

@Lindley Davis We run sort of a cycle management process with our review groups (i.e., clone and archive as we setup for a new cycle). We also use naming conventions to keep track of any overlapping review groups. For example:

• ABC Scholarship Committee - 2021-22
• ABC Scholarship Committee - 2022-23.

We are decentralized so we also preface the group name with a unit acronym. It helps keep the review groups in order when they don't fit nicely under a conditional app group. For example:

• DSA_ABC Scholarship Committee - 2022-23 (DSA = Division of Student Affairs)
• COE_XYZ Scholarship Committee - 2022-23 (COE = College of Engineering)

I still think it is cumbersome and I do hope Blackbaud continues to work on improving the reviewer portal. I don't think enough focus has been given to reviewer functionality in the last few years. But until then, this is what has worked for us.

Most important thing though is to make sure your opportunities are locked down so no new info leaks in until you are ready to archive. Hope that the helps and good luck!

Shawndi Wilson

@Lindley Davis We use a work around similar to what Oliver mentioned; however, because we have two years open at once it does create confusion. Because we review on the general application like this - students may have four reviews active at a time instead of two and could be assigned to different reviewers which skews their scores. We also have a University award limit by year so the encumbered funds that combine both open years is a huge issue for us. I would love performance enhancements in this area!

Lindley Davis

@Shawndi Wilson

Hi Shawndi!

We have an enhancement request for this issue and it's now open for voting.