Conversion from Friends Asking Friends to TeamRaiser

Hi Michele,


We are making plans to move from Sphere to TeamRaiser. We learned that TeamRaiser can only be used for Peer-to-Peer events, and will need to get something else for our non-Peer-to-Peer events (Luncheon, Light the Landscape) and non-event donation forms. Online Express seems to be the least expensive way to go. I would love to find out more from real people who have made the switch to TeamRaiser. 


best regards, Jill

Hi Michelle:


We made the switch two years ago.  As much as I loved Sphere for its simplicity, we just outgrew it.  If they had made some improvements as far a more control over design, I would have stayed with Sphere.  Luminate/Teamraiser is a beast.  I have been working with Blackbaud products for 20 years.  I am no novice when it comes to Sphere and NetCommunity and understanding the complexity and nuances of the product and integration in to RE.  Luminate is a whole new ballgame.  I still can't figure out why things are done the way they are. I have a lot of advice for you but I will give you a few tips.


1.  Before Blackbaud does your data sync, clean up your database.  This mean REMOVE any duplicate email address.  We were not told to do this since sphere allows duplicate emai, luminate does not.  This has caused us and are still trying to resolve, issues merging records in RE.  This became an issue this year when people were requesting their log in information and they would get emails with other peoples names on them.  MAJOR ISSUE!!  It also will copy over previous registered records.


2.  Once the data conversion is done, do a query in RE.  Alias type does not equal Luminate ID.  If this comes back 0 you are in good shape.  If there are any records in that query like me I have 54K, it means they did not sync back down to RE.  This will cause major issues as I have been dealing with for the past year, since I discovered this.


3.  Multiple registration is the worst.  If you don't need to use it, DON'T.  It also seems to mess up records.


4.  All records in Luminate must have a unique email address (see #1).  If you sync up your data with duplicate emails, if you are in luminate and open a record then go to save it, it will not because it will say this email already exits on another record.  Then you have to do a query to find out what other records that email address is on and then remove the incorrect one.  But you can't save those records unless you create fake email address for them.  We finally turned off the required email address on the back end.  But that doesn't solve the duplicates already in there.  It just allows you to save a record without an email. 


5.  Get plenty of training to fully understand TeamRaiser.  It is complicated, confusing and to me as a database administrator for 20 years,  makes no sense at times. 


6.  Understand the difference between Luminate 360 which is your RE database and TeamRaiser which is your event database. 


7.  I won't even get in to the issues in the connector.  That will be for my next book!


8.  You can run other events in Luminate as we do.


There are so many tips and tricks  I would love to share with you but don't want to overwhelm you. 


What I will say, this product has the potential to be great but to me has a way to go.  I've been doining this for 20 years and can never understand why they make these programs so complicated and confusing when all we want to do is enter our data and be able to pull it out "logically."  I have a very long list of the things that need to be improved or trashed in this product.


Good luck and feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need help.


Patti Posey

Stamford Hospital Foundation

(203) 276-5975


 

Michele Dabal:

Does anyone have any advice or experience converting from Friends Asking Friends/Sphere to TeamRaiser?


I work for a non-profit in NJ and we are researching all our options. We would love to hear about your conversion experiences, both positive and negative, of converting to TeamRaiser. If it is easier to discuss by phone, please email me at MDabal@NJSharingNetwork.org

Thanks