Neon CRM - Avis

We're a small environmental nonprofit with limited staff (4 FTE) and limited budget. We started using Neon about three years ago and it has proved a very capable, affordable solution. We use it to manage our membership files, mailing lists, credit card donations, event registration and our Birdathon (social fundraising like a walkathon). It was a HUGE improvement over our clunky old Access membership database. It also allows us to do all these things with one program, rather than separate programs for fundraising, event registration etc.

I also like that it is a cloud-based program, so if I am away from the office but need to look up a donor's email address or print out the attendance list for an event, I can do it from anywhere.

Of course there are downsides and occasional things that are a little clunky. Because it does so many things, there are instances where it won't manage a function as well as a program that is dedicated to that sole function. For instance, we would probably have more features in a social fundraising program that was ONLY social fundraising. BUT we don't have the budget or staff to manage multiple software programs and vendors plus multiple programs wouldn't be integrated like Neon is.

Our level of customer support from Neon allows us to submit help requests via email and get an email response. This took a little getting used to (there were times at the start where I just wanted to call up and get an immediate answer on the phone!). But the responses are usually very quick -- within an hour or two -- and on target. Once I got used to it, the email support system has worked fine for us.

I would definitely recommend Neon for other small or midsize nonprofits.

We chose this software because it appeared to be able to do everything we needed it to. However, when getting into it more fully we consistently run into obstacles.

Upgrading from an Excel donor database to Neon has brought our organization to a new level that I didn't anticipate. Beyond safely organizing donor information and easily exporting donor reports (expected), we now have a seamless donation process that allows us to quickly thank donors and keep in contact with them, showing our appreciation and cultivating long-term donor relationships (i.e., beautiful online donations forms, automated acknowledgement/thank you emails for donors, easy-to-use email marketing builder for donors and e-list subscribers).

Our overall experience with Neon CRM has been positive. I am excited to use the software creatively to diversify our revenue, and grow our social impact. Neon CRM was the exact "next step" we needed.

The training sessions coupled with the learning paths have made the transition from Salesforce to Neon CRM pretty seamless.

Above all, Neon CRM is part of our institutional memory efforts. Previously, we had one employee who kept all notes in his brain, on cocktail napkins, and in Arts People ticketing. I've seen other CRM interfaces, and Neon looks the best, works the best, and does its best to keep things simple.

So far, I have enjoyed the widgets and being able to see or not see what I am most concerned with at the time.

I used NeonCRM daily to manage memberships, events, and programming for a small nonprofit.

I like Neon. The CS team is great, but, like I said, I wish I wouldn't get the "no service representatives are available" recording when we've paid for phone support. We also had to drop the Web integration. Only one support person at the time.

I have actually used Neon CRM in two very different nonprofits. One was previously using eTapestry and we switched because of the greater flexibility offered by Neon. That organization received much of its funding from individuals and was focused on one main program. The second was a transportation think tank that had no previous CRM system and received much of its funding through memberships. In both cases, I have found the system to work well and meet the needs of two very different organizations.

You want CRM software to do 3 things:
1. Safely store you data
2. Allow you to leverage your data
3. Allow you to interact with your organizations website

Most systems do the first 2 - they better (!), NEON does the third one too and better than any other product in the industry. My only hope is they don't get bought by Blackbaud.

I've done 15 or more conversions with many different product and have never been happier than with NEON. Feel free to drop me a line and I'll share more with you.

I feel very confident using Neon. It has been a good fit for us, in tracking donors and maintaining their record of giving. Many are monthly donors, that are utilizing the e-check and credit card features on a recurring basis. We have seen growth in our fan base, and it is reflected in the financial support that we can see in Neon's documented record-keeping.

We are an environmental educational nonprofit. We provide many educational events for our members and the public to learn how to identify and manage noxious weeds. We also provide educational publications.

We made the decision to leave our other system after increase fees and what we felt was decreased interest in smaller nonprofits after they were purchased by another vendor. We also did not like the fact each year when we did events their system did not allow us to customize things ourselves using their system but required us to get out the checkbook and pay them to do so.

We initially bought the base plus two modules with Neon in 2011. We purchased the website shell overlay. The second year we expanded to the full product.

We did our own data conversion in less than 30 days. We brought over the history of membership and events that we had exported into Excel spreadsheets. We felt the conversion was very easy. The vendor was there for help, though it was easy enough and well documented such that we did not require much help.

We learned to use the system quickly using their documentation, videos, and knowledge-based website and forums. Honestly, for the most part, the system has been intuitive.

Their customer service rocks. We use the ticket system exclusively, and they have provided responses in a timely and professional manner. We really appreciate that their help desk appears to have a stable employee base with low turnover, so we feel that they know us. More importantly, the development team at Neon seems to want to grow this product by listening and making regular system changes that reflect the changing needs of NPOs. Each year when we renew, we can always think of a thing or two that happened that makes us glad again we are with Neon.

We have benefited by being with a system that listens to their user base. I see things that we have suggested incorporated into the system. There are twice a year updates that we can depend on, which are documented and announced (unlike our old system, which dropped things in unannounced, and then we would have problems and not be able to figure out why). Releases have been fully tested and it is not buggy software.

We have saved money for our nonprofit by reducing the number of SAS vendors we deal with. We have improved efficiency and understanding of our donors and members as we have brought all of relationship interfaces to a single database. When we pull up a donor, we now know what they bought, when they last donated, if they are a member, how long they have been a member, which events they have attended, and more.

This has been a great economic move for us, but it has turned into an even better strategic move that will allow us to better understand all those we interface with, which will in turn allow us to better fulfill our mission .

Overall, a great system which I'm glad we found. We tried a few others to manage our 3 levels of membership, and none of them lived up to the sales pitch. NeonCRM has so far.

I've used several different CRM programs and I find Neon CRM relatively easy to use and affordable. It is very capable of fulfilling the needs of our organization. I also appreciate how fast Neon customer service responds to questions.

It constantly surprises me with how well they have designed features. There is a lot we haven't explored yet. The Help and Support site is great, especially the video modules and the webinars. We don't pay for support as the few issues we have had they answer in a day or so with helpful answers. The one exception was an obscure bug I found in the 'new" workflow process. It was fixed in the next release.

I work for a small, public charter school. The school had never tracked donors, incoming donations, or consistently sent thank yous. The only data that I had available to load into NeonCRM were from folders of thank you letters that had incomplete/incorrect contact information in some cases. I imported the current parents of our students this year as well as any data I could glean from the thank you letters for the previous 3 school years.

NeonCRM allowed us to more easily communicate with all of our constituents. The thank you letters are formatted to include tokens that make the letters more personal as well as contain photos and accomplishments of our student body. They are also are set up with different text and photos based on whether the donation is designated, in-kind, or unrestricted because that data is easily tracked in the software.

For the first time, KAPS participated in Giving Tuesday with an email campaign and also did an EOY appeal, neither of which had been attempted in the past. The EOY campaign brought in 30% of our donations for the year in the last two weeks of December. Several of the donors elected to become part of a new Friends of KAPS organization that is in its infancy. We were also able to send a donation summary for tax purposes this January, which had also never been done by the school. The reporting helps us target donors for specific appeals and know who has (and hasn't) given recently. We were able to get several people to sign up for recurring donations that increased our sustainability.

My current efforts are two-fold:

1) increase the use of the constituent portal, and
2) track volunteer hours using the Volunteer module so that we can report this data in grants that we are pursuing.

NeonCRM has been instrumental in taking our organization to the next level: helping us to maximize our constituents, increase our bottom line, and help us to become a professional charter school that is responsible with our constituents monetary donations. I would highly recommend NeonCRM to others looking for a constituent database.

(My only reason for giving a 4 on Ease of Use is that, being a small organization, I was not able to attend training. However, the videos and online manuals helped me determine how to use the software. The NeonCRM support staff were also very helpful if I couldn't find the answer to my question on my own.)

I do like this program for its donation and I love the Neone ONe Library with videos and self-training. However, this product does not fully meet our needs, and I am having difficulty convincing Board Members to use Neon One. Some will not log in.

We are very proud to partner with Neon One. Their business team is responsive and helpful. The company is an exceptional corporate citizen. I have also been very impressed with their willingness to help us network with their other clients.