Luminate Online Responsibilities

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lisbeth fernandez 2
lisbeth fernandez 2
Eighth Anniversary First Comment
in Blackbaud Luminate Online® & Blackbaud TeamRaiser® Discussions
Good Afternoon:


Our Foundation recently transitioned from Sphere to Luminate Online. We use Raiser's Edge as our main CRM. For us, this was a challenging process and we are still dealing with a lot of cleanup from when we turned on the integration. I think most of our challenges have to do with the fact that no one in our office has taken full ownership of the Luminate Transition. We are a small foundation and it is unclear what department/staff person should be responsible for maintaining Luminate Online. In your offices, is there a main staff person responsible for Luminate Online or are the tasks spread out among various departments/staff members? I would love to speak with anyone who would be willing to share their thoughts/experience with Luminate Online?


Thanks!

Lisbeth Fernandez
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  • Alicia Searfoss
    Alicia Searfoss
    Ancient Membership 100 Comments 25 Likes Photogenic

    Hi
    Lizbeth,

     

    We have a
    separate department that handles the majority of work in
    Luminate.  It’s small, but we handle all the online marketing,
    including websites, emarketing, etc.  The only other
    department that does anything in Luminate is Data Processing. 
    There are some files that get uploaded from our offline database
    (not Raiser’s Edge) to Luminate and visa versa.  Typically
    that is one person and all she does is import/export and dedup
    records.  They are responsible for the offline database. 
    As the online manager, I am responsible for everything overall in
    Luminate so she keeps me informed.

     

    Personally, I
    think it is a good idea to have one department/one person
    responsible.  It helps with the integrity and organization of
    the records.

     

    Good luck with
    everything!

     

    Regards,

    Alicia

     

     





    Alicia Searfoss | Internet Marketing Manager

    Partnership With Native Americans
    www.nativepartnership.org

    O: 214-217-2600 Ext 106

    16415 Addison Rd Suite 200 | Addison, Texas 75001
    PWNA

    IMPORTANT NOTICE: This message is intended only for
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  • Lisa Slawinski
    Lisa Slawinski
    Ninth Anniversary 100 Comments 25 Likes Photogenic

    lisbeth fernandez:

    Good Afternoon:


    Our Foundation recently transitioned from Sphere to Luminate Online. We use Raiser's Edge as our main CRM. For us, this was a challenging process and we are still dealing with a lot of cleanup from when we turned on the integration. I think most of our challenges have to do with the fact that no one in our office has taken full ownership of the Luminate Transition. We are a small foundation and it is unclear what department/staff person should be responsible for maintaining Luminate Online. In your offices, is there a main staff person responsible for Luminate Online or are the tasks spread out among various departments/staff members? I would love to speak with anyone who would be willing to share their thoughts/experience with Luminate Online?


    Thanks!

    Lisbeth Fernandez

    Hi Lisbeth--


    Our Development team is small--just 3 of us.  I'm the Development & Database Associate and manage Luminate alongside our Marketing Manager.   We transitioned to Luminate last fall and only recently started sending our monthly newsletter through Luminate from Constant Contact.  It's been a struggle learning the system and understanding how infomation flows into it.  I agree with Alicia regarding having one person responsible for the data.  I have a better handle on how, who and what goes into Luminate from Raiser's Edge and help our staff understand the importance of clean data.


    Let me know if you have any more questions.


    Lisa

     

  • Patti Posey
    Patti Posey
    Ancient Membership 100 Comments 100 Likes Name Dropper

    lisbeth fernandez:

    Good Afternoon:


    Our Foundation recently transitioned from Sphere to Luminate Online. We use Raiser's Edge as our main CRM. For us, this was a challenging process and we are still dealing with a lot of cleanup from when we turned on the integration. I think most of our challenges have to do with the fact that no one in our office has taken full ownership of the Luminate Transition. We are a small foundation and it is unclear what department/staff person should be responsible for maintaining Luminate Online. In your offices, is there a main staff person responsible for Luminate Online or are the tasks spread out among various departments/staff members? I would love to speak with anyone who would be willing to share their thoughts/experience with Luminate Online?


    Thanks!

    Lisbeth Fernandez

    Hi Lisabeth,


    We transitioned from Sphere and NetCommunity four years ago.  It was a struggle the first year with the data clean up and records not did not sync  back down to Raiser's Edge.  Had lots of dups.  We got everything cleaned up.  I manage both RE and Luminate/TeamRaiser.  All of my data updates and changes are made in RE which then syncs and updates the Luminate database.  We don't make any bio changes to the Luminate database.   Also when someone donates online they end up creating a new record in luminate (not realizing they already have one) it will either link to the RE record or allows you to search RE and if not create a new record.  So really you only need to manage the data in RE and the information in the RE/LO connector.  I would strongly recommend the person who manages the RE database to manage Luminate/TeamRaiser.  Too many hands can make your RE database a mess.  Feel free to contact me if you want to learn more about how we are processing the data from Luminat/TeamRaiser in to RE.




    Patti Posey

    Stamford Hospital Foundation

  • lisbeth fernandez 2
    lisbeth fernandez 2
    Eighth Anniversary First Comment

    Thank you all for your feedback!


    lisbeth fernandez    :

    Good Afternoon:


    Our Foundation recently transitioned from Sphere to Luminate Online. We use Raiser's Edge as our main CRM. For us, this was a challenging process and we are still dealing with a lot of cleanup from when we turned on the integration. I think most of our challenges have to do with the fact that no one in our office has taken full ownership of the Luminate Transition. We are a small foundation and it is unclear what department/staff person should be responsible for maintaining Luminate Online. In your offices, is there a main staff person responsible for Luminate Online or are the tasks spread out among various departments/staff members? I would love to speak with anyone who would be willing to share their thoughts/experience with Luminate Online?


    Thanks!

    Lisbeth Fernandez

     

  • Ryan Hyde
    Ryan Hyde
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Likes 500 Comments Name Dropper
    Our Communications department primarily handles Luminate, but I (RE DBA) am in charge of the connector, creating contact lists for email blasts (which link to groups in LO), and deduping, since integration with RE disables LO's built in duplicate merge feature. So it's a bit of a mixed bag, really. Any time someone wants to do something major with LO or sees a problem, typically there's a meeting with three Communications folks and me and we sort of hash out who needs to do what. We transitioned from Sphere to LO about a year ago.
  • Jill Freidmutter
    Jill Freidmutter
    Ancient Membership 100 Likes 100 Comments Photogenic
    Hi Lizbeth,


    We are a small non-profit hospice and also recently switched from Sphere to Luminate Online (LO) and use Raiser's Edge (RE) as our CRM. Well, actually we switched from Sphere to TeamRaiser (TR), which is on the LO platform. There are two of us that were intimately involved in the transition and current operation and maintenance of LO and TR. Both me (Database Manager and Development Coordinator) and the Event Coordinator attended the cohort. I was/am the primary contact for migrating data from Sphere to LO, syncing LO with RE, and bringing gifts through from LO to RE. Our Events Coordinator built the wrapper and TR event and continues to manage TR, add donations, create messages to participants, etc. Instead of getting the full LO, we added Online Express (OLX) for non-peer-to-peer events, and use Constant Contact for our e-newsletter. 


    If there is any way I can help ease your transition, please don't hesitate to ask. Ours had some rough spots. 


    best wishes, Jill

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