Database-to-Web View Translations

The database view — familiar to those with Raiser's Edge 7 experience — has many similar features as the web view, but some have different names. If you're familiar with a feature or concept that doesn't appear in the web view, it's possible it's just known as something else.

In the database view, you use annotations for reminders or special instructions to someone when they open a constituent's record, such as to not update the address before first contacting the assigned fundraiser or to handle a high-priority donor with care. In the web view, you use alerts to raise this flag with a message you can set to appear whenever the record opens. For more information, see Alerts.

While records provide many fields to track specific information, you can store specialized details — such as a constituent's dietary preferences or interests — as attributes in the database view. To better describe the intent of this feature, which enables your organization to manage fields unique to its needs, you store this information as custom fields in the web view. For more information, see Custom Fields.

In the database view, you track charitable gifts of money — regardless of payment method — as cash gifts. To help avoid confusion between these gifts and recurring gifts or other payments or gifts paid in cash — as a payment method — as one-time gifts.

Note: In the web view, you can track additional types of giving, such as Gifts-in-kind, Gifts of stock/property, or Gifts of Other. For more information, see Gift Types.

In the database view, you track the name an individual previously went by — such as before a name change or getting married — as their maiden name. In the web view, this information appears in the Former name field under their name on their record. For more information, see Names.

In the database view, you save collateral gathered about a constituent — such as correspondence, artifacts from prospect research, and pictures or videos from fundraising events — as media on their record. In the web view, you save these files to constituents — and other records — as attachments and enjoy additional features and benefits.

  • You can open attachments directly in their native applications such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat.

  • Attachments upload and open much, much faster than media files in the database view.

  • Attachments live in the cloud — not your database — so you can easily access and manage them across devices.

For more information, see Attachments.

In the database view, you track the informal name an individual prefers in familiar situations — like Rob instead of the more formal Robert — as their nickname. In the web view, this moniker appears in the Preferred name field under their name on their record. For more information, see Profile Information.

Note: The Preferred name field doesn't include the constituent's alias, used to track stage or pen names, organizations' acronyms, or other pseudonyms. In the database view, you can view and manage a constituent's aliases from the Bio 1 or Org 1 tab of their record.

In the database view, payments toward pledge installments appear as pay gifts — together with the payment method — such as Pay-Cash, Pay-Stock, or Pay-Other. To better explain the relationship these payments have with other gifts, they appear as pledge payments in the web view. On a gift's record, you can view how the donor paid for it under Payment information. For more information, see Gift Types.

With Prospect Research Management, you can track how confident you are that a proposal will result in giving as its rating in the database view. To help avoid confusion with other ratings, such as of a constituent's wealth, a proposal's rating appears as the opportunity's likelihood in the web view. For more information, see Opportunity Details.

With Prospect Research Management, you can plan and track your efforts to cultivate donor relationships and secure major gifts as proposals in the database view. To better reflect all the work — the identification, research, planning, and so on — that leads up to the ask (or proposal), you manage these efforts as opportunities in the web view. For more information, see Opportunities.

In database view, to help track special details about a gift, you can enter and edit a note in the Reference field to quickly summarize information you find valuable, such as the motivation behind the gift or a detailed description of a gift-in-kind. In the web view, you can view the note in the Comment field on the gift's record. For more information, see Gift Overview.

In the database view, the people who research and interact with constituents, manage actions and proposals, and ask for gifts — in short, all the work required to successfully fund-raise — on behalf of your organization are called solicitors. To better convey the types of work these people do, as well as the diversity of who should receive this title, they appear as fundraisers in the web view. For more information, see Fundraisers.