Best Practices for a Clean Sync into Raiser's Edge NXT

1. Clean up your constituents

• Merge duplicate records for the same person or organization.
• Remove shared placeholder emails like "noemail@yourorg.org."
• Convert non-constituents who will give into full constituents. Non-constituents can't hold gifts.

2. Clear out old Funds, Campaigns, Appeals and Packages

• Mark ones you no longer use as inactive.
• Give each one a clear, unique name (see naming tips below).
• Make sure date ranges cover your whole sales period. Gifts dated outside them won't sync.
• Have a Fund ready for everything you sync. Gifts without a Fund fail.

Naming tips

When you set up a fundraiser in Trellis, you pick from dropdowns of your Raiser's Edge Campaigns, Funds, Appeals and Packages. If three Appeals are all called "Gala," it's easy to pick last year's by mistake, and gifts land in the wrong place.

Adding a few identifiers to each name fixes this:

• Event or program: what it's for (Gala, Golf Classic, Giving Tuesday)
• Year: when it happened (2026, or FY26 if you track by fiscal year)
• Driver: what was purchased, for Packages and Appeals split by ticket, auction, donation, etc.

Put them in the same order every time, so names sort together and are easy to scan.

For example:

• Campaign: "Gala" becomes "2026 Spring Gala"
• Appeal: "Gala Appeal" becomes "2026 Spring Gala - Tickets"
• Package: "Gala Package" becomes "2026 Spring Gala - Tickets - Online"
• Fund: "General Fund" stays "General Fund"

A few things to keep in mind:

• Year Campaigns, Appeals and Packages, but usually not Funds. Funds often run year to year, like a general or scholarship fund. Only add a year if the Fund is truly tied to one event.
• Give each Appeal its own Package. In Raiser's Edge, a Package can only belong to one Appeal. If tickets and auction items have separate Appeals, each needs its own Package too.
• Rename last year's too. Adding the year to old records is what keeps them from looking like this year's.
• Write down your format. Add it to your team's database rules so everyone names new records the same way.

3. Set database rules with your team

• Pick one person to create new Funds, Campaigns, Appeals and Packages.
• Never re-enter Trellis gifts in Raiser's Edge. They sync on their own.
• Collect a full name and real email for every purchaser and guest.
• Make fixes in Trellis, not Raiser's Edge, so they sync correctly.
• Check sync status in Trellis every week while sales are open.

Then turn on auto-sync

After syncing starts: stay on top of it

Catching a sync issue early makes it a quick fix. Trellis has four tools to help.

1. Check sync status. Go to Results > All Transactions and look at the Sync Status column. Use Open Filter to show only the ones that need attention.

• Full: everything synced. Nothing to do.
• Not Synced: hasn't synced yet. That's normal if you sync on payout date and the payout hasn't happened. Otherwise, check that auto-sync is on.
• Partial: some parts synced, like the constituent but not the gift. Contact support.
• Failed: nothing synced. Contact support so Trellis can resync it.

2. Pull the audit log. Go to Integrations > Blackbaud > Audit Log to see exactly what synced. It has three tabs: Constituent Match, Gift Sync and Event Participants. Search a Checkout ID to follow one transaction through all three.

• On Constituent Match but not Gift Sync? The gift likely failed because of a missing Fund, a mismatched Appeal and Package, or a gift date outside their date range.
• New constituent instead of a match? Check the Match Status column, then review your match criteria or the donor's record in Raiser's Edge.

3. Fix company vs. individual purchases in Trellis. If a gift went to the wrong organization or person, edit the checkout under Results > All Transactions and toggle "Purchase is on behalf of a company." Trellis moves the gift in Raiser's Edge automatically.

4. Reconcile after your event. Compare the All Transactions report, the Payout report and the audit log to confirm totals match. Offline transactions sync but don't appear on payout reports.

When you contact support, include the purchaser name, Checkout ID and fundraiser name so we can look into it quickly.

See How to Check Sync Status, How to Pull the Audit Log, How to Move a Gift Between Organization and Individual, and How to Reconcile Your Results.