What's Recent with Actions

• Assign fundraisers to actions created in Google Gmail — With the Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail add-on, you can view constituent details about email senders and recipients and create actions from their messages in your Google Gmail inbox. When you add an action with the add-on, you can now select Assign fundraisers to search for who to assign it to. For more information, see Blackbaud for Gmail.

  

  Note: To ease fundraiser assignment, actions created in Gmail are automatically assigned to the same fundraisers assigned the previous action. To assign actions to yourself, your constituent record must be marked as a fundraiser.

• Assign fundraisers to actions created in Microsoft Outlook With the Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook add-in, you can view constituent details about email senders and recipients and create actions from their messages in your Microsoft Outlook inbox. When you add an action with the add-in, you can now select Assign fundraisers to choose who to assign it to. For more information, see Blackbaud for Outlook.

  Note: To ease fundraiser assignment, actions created in Outlook are automatically assigned to the same fundraisers assigned the previous action. To assign actions to yourself, your constituent record must be marked as a fundraiser.

View summary notes in action lists — On an action's record, you can manage its summary as a note to track pertinent details such as the talking points or intent of the interaction. To reference these details in an action list, the Action summary column now includes the actions' summary notes. To include this column in a list, select Choose columns, Action summary, and Apply changes. For more information, see Actions.

Note: When you export an action list that includes the Action summary column, the Note description column now appears in the comma-separate values (CSV) file. For more information, see Export Lists.

Add actions for new email messages in Gmail — With the Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail add-on, you can now add actions for new email messages as you create them. In Google Gmail, select Compose, enter the constituent's email address in the To field, and then select Raiser's Edge NXT - Blackbaud or — if the add-in is open to the constituent information — Add action. For more information, see Blackbaud for Gmail.

Note: Admins only! To enable others at your organization to install the add-on, from Control Panel, Applications, browse to Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail under Available Apps, and select Connect. Once enabled, users at your organization can then install the add-on through the G Suite Marketplace.

Search for who to apply actions to with Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail — With the Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail add-on, you can view constituent details about email senders and recipients and create actions from their messages in your Google Gmail inbox or mobile app. If you select a message in your inbox but no constituent record has the email address, you can now search for who to apply the action to in the Search for a constituent field.

Note: Admins only! To enable others at your organization to install the add-on, from Control Panel, Applications, browse to Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail under Available Apps, and select Connect. Once enabled, users at your organization can then install the add-on through the G Suite Marketplace.

For more information, see Blackbaud for Gmail.

Search for who to apply actions to with Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook — With the Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook add-in, you can view constituent details about email senders and recipients and create actions from their messages in your Microsoft Outlook inbox. If you select a message in your inbox but no constituent record has the email address, you can now search for who to apply the action to in the Search for a constituent field.

Note: Admins! To enable others at your organization to install the add-in, from Control Panel, Applications, browse to Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook under Available Apps, and select Connect. Once enabled, users at your organization can then install the application through the Microsoft Office Store.

For more information, see Blackbaud for Outlook.

Save a summary, opportunity, and fundraiser to actions with Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook or Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail — With the Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook add-in or Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail add-on, you can view constituent details about email senders and recipients and create actions from their messages in your Microsoft Outlook or Google Gmail inbox. To help save time, you can now add an action as soon as you select Raiser's Edge NXT - Blackbaud from your inbox.

Tip: To instead view constituent details about the email's sender or recipient when you first open the add-in or add-on, select View constituent info.

When you create an action from the add-in or add-on:

• It now automatically offers the type of the last action saved, to help save time. You can choose another action type if necessary.

• It now includes the email's subject line as a summary on the action. You can edit the action's summary as necessary.

• If you're a fundraiser, it automatically assigns you to the action.

• With Prospect Research Management, you can now choose which of the constituent's opportunities the action supports.

In addition, you can use multiple databases with the add-in. To choose which database to connect to, you now select Settings , Select database. From Settings , you can now also sign out of the add-in or access its Help content.

Note: Admins! To enable others at your organization to install the add-in or add-on, from Control Panel, Applications, browse to Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook or Raiser's Edge NXT for Gmail under Available Apps, and select Connect. Once enabled, users at your organization can then install the application through the Microsoft Office Store or G Suite Marketplace.

For more information, see Blackbaud for Outlook or Blackbaud for Gmail.

Connect to multiple databases in Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook — To help manage interactions with your constituents, you can now connect to and switch between multiple databases with the Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook add-in. To connect to a new database, select Add next to the name of the connected database, sign in with your Blackbaud ID, choose the database to use, and select Authorize. For more information, see Blackbaud for Outlook.

Add actions in Microsoft Outlook — To help manage and track email interactions, you can now install the new Raiser’s Edge NXT for Outlook add-in to view constituent information and add actions directly in Microsoft Outlook. From an email message in Outlook, you can:

• Quickly review details from the constituent record of the sender or recipient, including their name, contact information, and recent giving.

• Automatically add the email interaction as an action on the constituent’s record, complete with what was said and when.

Note: Admins only! To enable others at your organization to install the add-in, from Control Panel, Applications, browse to Raiser's Edge NXT for Outlook under Available Apps, and select Connect. Once enabled, users at your organization can then install the application through the Microsoft Office Store.

For more information, see Blackbaud for Outlook.

Choose whether to view inactive filter options in action lists — To help narrow the focus of your lists, you can now choose whether to view items marked as inactive when you use filters. To view inactive options, select Show inactive when you set the filter. In action lists, you can choose whether to view inactive:

• Custom status codes

• Action types

• Assigned fundraisers

• Update notes when you edit an action — To more easily maintain information about an action, you can now update its notes when you edit the task or interaction.

  

  • For a short — less than 255 characters — description, enter it in the Summary field or Notes box.

  • For a longer description, enter a synopsis in the Summary field and then the full content in the Notes box.

• Save and manage action details — When you add an action, you can now quickly choose its category and save any custom fields or detailed information, including:

  • The date and outcome — Good or Bad — of a completed action

  • The action's priority — High or Low

  • The direction of an interaction — Outbound to the constituent or Inboundfrom them to your organization

  • Where and when an interaction or task takes place

  • The person contacted at an organization constituent

  

  On the action's record, you can now view and manage this additional information under Action details. For more information, see Action Details.

  When you mark an action as complete, you can now also specify when it was completed and how it went. For a completed action, you can view its outcome in the summary information at the top of its record. For more information, see Action Records.

  For more information, see Actions.

• Manage an action's custom fields — On an action's record, you can now track specialized information — such as the purpose of making contact or specifics about a meeting location — under Custom fields. For more information, see Custom Fields.

  

• Add actions to Microsoft Outlook 365 — To help ensure you perform an action, you can add it as a calendar appointment, such as a reminder of a phone call or follow-up meeting. You can now choose to automatically add appointments to your calendar in Microsoft Outlook 365. To always add appointments to Outlook 365, select Change calendar preferences when you next add an action or appointment, and then select Send to Outlook 365 calendar and Save. For more information, see Calendar Appointments.

  

  Note: Calendar appointments no longer download as .ics files by default. When you add an appointment, you can quickly set your preference (which you can change at any time).

• View actions from related records and lists — When you open an action from a list or the record of its constituent or opportunity, it now appears in a panel rather than its own record so you can easily browse and work with multiple actions. To best fit your screen, you can adjust the size of the panel as necessary. To open the action’s record, select View full record. For more information, see Action Records.

• Analyze your actions — With SKY Reporting, you — and others at your organization, including directors and fundraisers — can track and analyze the overall fundraising performance. With this easy-to-consume analysis, you can quickly discover fundraising gaps, act on insights to drive results, and share knowledge across your organization. From Fundraising, Analyze, you can now gauge and visualize your organization's actions with several dashboards of metrics. For more information, see Fundraising Reporting.

  Tip: To review the metrics offline, you can download them as a PDF or automatically receive one as an email on a regular basis. For more information, see PDFs or Spreadsheets of Dashboards.

  Note: Admins! For each security group, choose which metrics its members should access in Fundraising, Analyze. For information, see Reporting Rights.

  To view a list of records included in the number-crunching, select the total or metric. To fine-tune the analysis, you can apply filters to the list. For further analysis, select Create list to open the list — with any filters applied — in Lists, where you can apply additional filters, choose columns, and save for future reuse. For more information, see Lists.

• Manage actions from their records — To help track information about an action and its status, you can now view and manage its details directly from its record. To open an action's record, select its category and type under Notes and actions on its constituent's record or under Actions on its opportunity's record.

  

  From an action's record, you can:

  • Review pertinent details about the task or interaction, including its priority, constituent, and associated opportunity.

  • Quickly scan and manage who the action's assigned to as well as its date and status.

  • Add the action as an appointment to your calendar as a reminder of when it takes place.

    Tip: By default, appointments download as .ics files. To add appointments to Google Calendar, or to set how you want to always add appointments, you can select a preference when you add an appointment. For more information, see Calendar Appointments.

  • Work with notes and attachments to track important details and related collateral, such as correspondence or presentation files.

  For more information, see Action Records.

• Manage actions from their opportunities — You can now delete an action or mark it as complete from the record of its opportunity. Under Actions, select Delete action or Mark completed from the action's menu . For more information, see Action Records.

  

Filter actions by date range — When you work with lists, you can filter records by a period of time, such as This fiscal year or Last week. In a list of actions, you can now also filter records by a range of dates. To filter based on this detail, select Filters and, in the time period or date filter, select Specific range, enter the start and end dates to include, and select Apply filters.

Add attachments to actions — To help build a complete view of your interactions with constituents, you can now upload or link images , videos , PDFs , Microsoft Word documents , Excel spreadsheets , and other files to actions, such as to save a contact report from a meeting. For more information, see Attachments.

Overview! Quickly gauge your fundraising performance — To gauge the performance of your fundraising efforts — at a glance — and help plan how to focus your energy, you can now select Overview in Work Center. Under Overview, you can quickly check how many of your assigned actions are open, past due, or completed. You can also quickly access lists filtered based on this information, such as to view your past due actions. For more information, see Work Center Overview.

• Filter lists of actions by custom status — If your organization uses custom status codes to track the progress of actions, you can now filter lists of actions — such as in Work Center or from a constituent's record — to view only those with specific statuses. To filter a list of actions by custom status code, select Filters, select Status code under With status of, choose which statuses to include, and then select Select.

• View custom action statuses in lists — To help track an action's progress, any custom statuses your organization may use now appear in lists of actions, such as in Work Center or from a constituent's record. In the Status column, the current custom status of each action appears, in addition to the current completion status. For more information, see Action Statuses.

• Track an action's progress with custom statuses — To help track the progress of a task or interaction, you can now save a custom action status instead of the default completion status. For example, your organization can tailor action statuses to suit its specific workflow or detailed reporting. For more information, see Action Statuses.

  

• "Solicitors" are now "fundraisers" — To more accurately describe the people who interact with constituents and manage actions and proposals on behalf of your organization, they now appear as "fundraisers" throughout the web view. Previously, they appeared as "solicitors." For more information, see Fundraisers.

  Note: In the database view, fundraisers still appear as "solicitors."

• Add actions from the Actions list in Work Center — From Work Center, you can now quickly add actions to the Actions list. To add an action, simply select Add action and search for who to add the action to. For more information, see Actions.

  

• Save authors of notes and actions — To help track who creates notes and actions, the name of who adds a note or action now appears in the Author field on its record in the database view.

  Note: If the author's name isn't available, their email address appears instead.

Action list security by constituent code, action type, and proposal — To help focus on only what's important to you, lists of actions — such as in Work Center or from a constituent's record — now display only interactions and tasks you should view based on the types of actions, the constituent codes of their constituents, and — with Prospect Research Management — the proposals they support, based on your Security settings in the database view. For more information about security by constituent code, see Record Security.

• Easily assign actions to fundraisers — When you add a task or interaction for a constituent you're assigned to as a fundraiser, you're now automatically assigned the action. To quickly assign it to someone else, you can now select a suggested fundraiser from a list. For more information, see Actions.

• Add actions to proposals in Work Center — From Work Center, you can now save the actions performed to support your efforts to cultivate relationships and major gift asks. To add a task or interaction to a proposal, select its menu on the Proposals list and then Add action. For more information, see Actions.

• Edit actions from proposals — You can now edit the details of an action — such as to adjust its date — under Actions on a proposal record. To edit an action, select its menu , select Edit action, adjust its information as necessary, and select Save.

• Manage all actions for a constituent — To manage all tasks and interactions related to a constituent, you can now view a full list of their assigned actions. To open this list, select the Actions total under Notes and actions on the constituent's record. For more information, see Actions.

• Add actions to proposals — With Prospect Research Management, you can manage proposal efforts to cultivate relationships with prospective donors. To help manage tasks and interactions in context of a proposal rather than its constituent, you can now add actions under Actions on a proposal record.

• Delete notes and actions from constituents — To remove a note, task, or interaction from a constituent — such as if you inadvertently add it to the wrong person — you can now delete it from their record. To delete a note or action, select its menu under Notes and actions and select Delete note or Delete action. For more information, see Notes or Actions.

• Mark actions as complete — As you finish a task or interaction for a constituent relationship, you can mark it as complete to track the progress and remove the action from your To-Do list. You can mark an action as complete from the Actions list in Work Center or under Notes and actions on the constituent's record. To complete an action, select its menu , select Mark completed, enter a summary or notes about its results, and select Complete. For more information, see Actions.

• Refresh actions in Work Center — To update the Actions list in Work Center, such as to include new or edited information, select Refresh.