Automating Web Donation Imports for Raiser’s Edge (VB6 Plugin)
Teen Challenge of Southern California reduced weekly web gift processing time from 4+ hours to under 30 minutes by implementing a custom Raiser’s Edge plugin that imports donations in batches from a consolidated in-house database.
Project Snapshot
Client: Teen Challenge of Southern California
Industry: Non-Profit
Project Type: Custom Plugin
Engagement Duration: 1 month
Services Provided: Raiser’s Edge plugin development (VB6)
Primary Outcome: Faster, simplified web donation imports
The Challenge
Teen Challenge of Southern California migrated from hosted Raiser’s Edge & Financial Edge to an in-house deployment.
During the transition, donations from multiple web properties were being entered manually—creating operational friction,
increasing the risk of errors, and slowing down gift processing.
The organization wanted an automated import process similar to a Blackbaud payment plugin experience, but tailored to their
in-house environment and workflows.
Objectives
- Safely push donor information into a consolidated, in-house database.
- Create a Raiser’s Edge plugin (built in VB6) to import donations in batches from that database.
- Enable mapping of incoming constituents to existing constituents to prevent duplicates.
- Ensure primary gift fields carried over cleanly (e.g., appeal, fund, subtype) aligned to the existing form structure.
Solution
Custom Raiser’s Edge Donation Import Plugin (VB6)
We built and tested a custom Raiser’s Edge plugin using VB6—an older language required by the platform’s plugin
environment—to enable batch imports of web donations from an in-house database.
Key Capabilities
- Batch donation import to streamline processing across multiple web sources.
- Constituent matching and mapping to improve accuracy and reduce duplicate records.
- Field alignment so key gift metadata (appeal, fund, subtype) flowed into the existing Raiser’s Edge form.
- Production-grade reliability designed for day-to-day operational use by non-technical staff.
Why VB6?
Raiser’s Edge plugins required an older development stack, so the solution was engineered in VB6 to integrate cleanly with the
client’s in-house deployment while delivering a modernized, automated workflow.
Impact
Time Savings
4+ hours → < 30 minutes
Weekly web gift processing time reduced dramatically.
Data Quality
Improved matching efficiency and reduced duplicate constituents being added to the system.
Longevity
Operated in production for five years without issue until the client returned to hosted Blackbaud.
By automating donation imports, the organization reduced operational friction and accelerated donor data entry—freeing staff
to focus more time on mission-critical work rather than manual processing.
Need to Modernize a Legacy Fundraising Workflow?
If you’re running mission-critical systems with legacy constraints (like VB6 or older platform requirements), you can still
streamline operations with reliable integrations and workflow automation.