Onboard your Development Agent

Complete a one-time setup to start using your agent. On the left navigation of Raiser's Edge NXT:

  1. Go to Portfolio, Development Agent.

  2. In the Complete the hiring process section, select onboarding tasks.

  3. First, set display names.

Note: The Get Started button becomes active after all required onboarding steps are complete, including email forwarding testing.

Set display names

Name your Development Agent

Your agent's name appears in messages sent to your constituents. A good name feels approachable and aligned with your organization's voice. You can change this name at any time. For full guidance, see Name Your Development Agent: Build Trust and Transparency

Name your organization

Your agent will refer to your organization by the name that you specify in this field.

Set up your agent's email

Your agent needs an email address and configuration to send email messages from your organization's domain so that emails look legitimate and reach your constituents without being flagged as spam.

Complete the configuration steps outlined in Configure your agent's email.

Warning: Once created, you cannot change the email address. Use your organization’s domain to reassure recipients that messages come from a trusted source.

Choose your brand voice

Help the agent communicate in a way that reflects your organization's style and tone.

Your agent can't browse the web or pull information from external sources such as your website to learn your manner of communicating with constituents. Instead, it relies on the information and examples you provide.

Select voice settings and provide examples of content that represent how your organization communicates. For full guidance, see Brand Voice.

Manage data mapping

Configure how the agent records activities in Raiser's Edge NXT so interactions are tracked consistently and aligned with your organization's reporting practices.

For full guidance, see Manage Data Mappings.

Add knowledge

Give your agent information it can reference when talking with constituents, such as upcoming events, active initiatives, programs, campaigns, and organizational details.

Unlike brand voice, which influences how the agent writes, knowledge helps the agent understand what to talk about.

You can add knowledge during onboarding or any time later from Settings on the Development Agent page. For full guidance, see Knowledge.

Grant access to your team

You can control who in your organization can review content generated by the agent and manage escalated conversations. When you add the names here, the correct role is automatically assigned to them.

Note: By default, all supervisor users have access to the agent. While you can add people in this onboarding screen, you cannot remove them.

  1. During onboarding, select Grant access to your team.

  2. In the field, select names of the individuals who should have access. The correct roles and permissions are assigned automatically.

  3. Select Save.

You can assign management permissions to more colleagues at any time. See Development Agent Roles, Tasks, and Permissions.

Engagement types

Choose the types of outreach that you want your agent to provide, whether that's to start a conversation, strengthen a relationship, or inspire action. After the automatic introduction message, which is always sent and cannot be disabled, the agent uses the engagement types you enable — along with each constituent’s details — to determine the appropriate next step. See Development Agent Engagement Types.

Configure SMS

You can optionally configure SMS so you can send SMS messages in addition to email. Note that before submitting your configuration, you must publish required language in your privacy policy and terms and conditions.

 

Select Save to apply your settings or Cancel to discard changes.

Final steps

When all required onboarding steps are complete, including the email forwarding provisioning, the Get started button becomes available. Select Get started to begin final provisioning of your agent and initial assignments. On average, this process can take between 20 seconds to 5 minutes.

Onboarding begins with a small group so you can review messages and provide feedback. As constituents opt out or are reassigned, the agent automatically brings new prospects into the workflow.

Ensure transparency by adding a statement about automated fundraising to your website and listing your Development Agent alongside your staff to build donor trust.