Enable "User Impersonation" Capability for Admins in Raiser's Edge
As our team becomes increasingly remote and user needs grow more complex, it is essential that Admins in Raiser's Edge have the ability to impersonate users. This functionality would greatly enhance our ability to support both frontline fundraisers and administrative staff by allowing us to:
Customize Settings and Homepages More Effectively
Admins could directly configure dashboards, views, and homepage components tailored to each role, improving usability and reducing setup time for end users.Improve Role Assignment Accuracy
By impersonating users, Admins can verify exactly what a user sees, ensuring that role-based access and permissions are appropriate and functioning as intended.Support Remote Staff More Efficiently
With many staff working remotely, in-person troubleshooting is no longer feasible. Impersonation would allow Admins to quickly identify and resolve issues without needing screen-sharing sessions or multiple back-and-forth communications.Reduce Errors and Training Needs
By setting up users correctly the first time, we reduce the likelihood of configuration errors and minimize the need for training or technical support related to navigation or feature access.
This capability would significantly improve our administrative efficiency, user experience, and overall system integrity.
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Jen Cornell
- May 2 2025
- Reviewed: Voting Open
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- +208
Related ideas
Just today I was working with a new employee. I saw when they logged in that they had access to a certain area that employees of his type should not have access to. Now I need to go back and see why he has access to that area. Instead of having to create a user just to test permissions, it would be nice to be able to "impersonate" the user I am testing things for.
Sometimes I have a user who either can do something they shouldn't be doing, or cannot do something they should be able to do, and it can be SO hard to get to the bottom of things when we have to rely on going back and forth with the user. It would be so much easier if admin/supervisor users could easily see this info.
This would eliminate a lot of extra work when users say they cannot access functionality.
Agree with all the above. With regard to bullet 1, I know I have the option to 'Update existing layout with additional tiles' for user home pages but sometimes I only want to update the 'Quick links' and not the tiles. Unfortunately that is not an option at this time. Right now I have to replace the home page layout which is the only way to get quick links to update and therefore it resets the way a user has their tiles set up (e.g. appeals they select, events they selected, funds they selected, etc...)
This feature would be immensely helpful! I am currently messaging Support and a user separately to try to remedy a permissions issue. The user needs to log off, and so now my work with Support has to be put on hold until the user can log back in and test for us again. If this feature were available, I would not need to keep asking the user repeatedly, "Does it work now?"
This feature would be beneficial to Admins for sure! A user I gave access to said he could not see all the tabs across the dashboard, even after I made additional changes (which I thought were needed) to resolve the problem. I had him send me a screenshot of his page and I searched online for causes, and it turned out that his screen was made smaller so the tabs collapsed under a drop list. So if I was able to "impersonate" the user, I would have known the role setup was correct and the issue was unique to him and his page setting.
This would so great and important to have! I just recently went through having to work with ITS to create a test account which was not easy. Agree with all of Jen's points!
I second everything Jen laid out. We shouldn't have to create test accounts using a different email address just so we can see what the end user (i.e. staff member) sees. The ability to quickly see what the end user sees would definitely simplify what is already a complex job as an admin person for this database where I'm managing 50+ users at any given time.
This would be awesome. Great Idea!
Jen has laid out an incredibly compelling case for this improvement! We are very much lacking in data admin tools in webview and this would be a huge help. I agree with her 100% on all points and hope that Blackbaud will seriously consider this change.