BILL CONNORS, CFRE, is an independent consultant and trainer on the Blackbaud fundraising software The Raiser’s Edge. Until June 2005, Bill was Principal Consultant for Fundraising Systems for Blackbaud, having helped found the Blackbaud consulting program in 1998. He has been providing consulting and training on The Raiser’s Edge in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Europe since 1995. Bill also worked for Junior Achievement as the Director of Development in Arizona and as Director of Field IT for the national headquarters, overseeing the roll-out of The Raiser’s Edge in the field offices.
The book has a simple premise: If you are smart enough to be a professional fund raiser, you're smart enough to learn to properly use the software. Connors' work has a 3-fold purpose: to enable the professional to work with database staff to meet objectives with the least possible confusion and stress; to familiarize the professional with the parts of the database that it is necessary to master, in order to best utilize it; and, finally, to enable the organization's staff to set up, maintain, and maximize the database's usefulness. The fact that Connors meets these objectives in a concise and readable manner makes this book a must-have for every professional fundraiser. (SanFranciscoBookReview, June 2010)