When I joined my organization, I inherited a campaigns, funds, and appeals (CFA) structure that was serviceable but not intentionally designed to leverage Raiser’s Edge NXT’s built-in fundraising dashboards. As a result, the dashboards were not particularly helpful, and meaningful reporting, such as for board presentations, relied heavily on custom queries and Excel spreadsheets. Gift processing also required additional judgment at times, particularly when appeal categories overlapped and certain gifts could logically fit into more than one appeal, creating ambiguity and occasional inconsistency in data entry.

This session shares our journey of refining that structure, including what we kept, what we changed, and the thinking behind those decisions. Using our experience as a case study, I will highlight key considerations when designing or restructuring a CFA framework: defining campaigns as meaningful reporting buckets; structuring appeals around specific solicitations at specific moments in time; avoiding overlapping categories; and establishing clear internal guidelines to ensure consistency.

A central theme of this session is designing your CFA structure with reporting in mind from the start. By intentionally aligning our framework with Raiser's Edge NXT's built-in fundraising dashboards, we were able to rely far more on pre-configured reports, particularly for board reporting, significantly reducing the need for custom queries and external spreadsheets and saving substantial preparation time. Attendees will leave with practical tips and a clear, actionable framework for building a CFA structure that minimizes confusion, streamlines reporting, and maximizes the value of existing RE tools.