Neon CRM Reviews

Summary: Our organization needed to find a new CRM to transition to for member management, event registration, and our online store. We are still in the configuration stages of our migration and have not gone live yet, but just from our experience so far, it's pretty clear we made the right decision.

Positive: * Neon's sales team was informative, approachable, and patient. They have been transparent about the capabilities and limitations of their system and knowledgeable about how they imagined our needs could map onto their existing products.
* Speaking of transparency, I appreciated that the fee structure was right there on the website. As a nonprofit, we didn't want to spend time on pitches that were out of our price point.
* The onboarding process has been clear and well-thought-through.
* The user interface of the system itself is very intuitive and clean. Their ready-to-go modules for Membership, Event Management, and Online Store are about 75% already set up how we need them to be, and there's enough autonomy built in to allow for a lot of customization.
* The price is right!
* We do a lot of asynchronous work with volunteers across the country, and the live reporting feature will help considerably with data sharing and version control.

Negative: Really nothing to actively dislike so far. There are a few things we're used to in our prior system for which Neon does not have functionality - we track our members by X variable, while their system is set up to track by Y variable, for instance. It will take some getting used to.

Summary: Neon is an easy-to-use database with additional features that make it a comprehensive database that I would recommend to others.

Positive: I have used several CRM databases. I prefer Neon over all of the others. It is intuitive, user-friendly, simple and yet comprehensive. Tech support responds quickly through email. I also like having robust add-on options, including text-to-give.

Negative: I would like to be able to add two mailing addresses and two email addresses for an account. Currently you can only do one for each. I also would like more easy-to-use tutorials rather than working through the Neon One Academy.

Summary: Excellent overall experience, from setup and migration to daily use. I wish there was a mobile app, but even without it, I am far more productive.

Positive: I love the ability to customize the system to suit what you need. The workflow automations and connection to Quickbooks was what sold me on this CRM, and it's been better than I could have imagined.

Negative: I wish there was a usable mobile app, as I find I need to edit records on the go.

Summary: I came from 10+ years of using Raiser's Edge and when I began with my current employer, they were using a CRM that I'd never heard of before. It was not just difficult to navigate, it was practically from the neolithic age. There was no integration with other systems, no capabilities to accept online donations, and pulling a query was beyond infuriating ... it usually required consulting the user's manual of many hundreds of pages or calling/emailing their one-person 'help line' for assistance. Sometimes responses took days. We evaluated five different platforms before selecting Neon -- everything from Blackbaud to Network for Good.
It's not designed for the novice user; it does take time and patience to get acclimated. But if you persevere, you'll find you've got a valuable tool with many diverse capabilities.

Positive: When we made the switch to Neon, we had looked at a wide array of other options, but Neon was--and still is-- the clear winner for our organization. It's a comprehensive platform, one that hits nearly all the marks. The ability to integrate with QuickBooks was key as was the ease of linking online donations, we also liked the ability to customize the dashboard for each person, and so on. To me, it's very user friendly -- if you've had experience in another database, you should get the feel of it pretty quickly. But then, I'm a tactile learner, so the more I had my hands in the database the easier it became to use it. If that's not your style, don't worry, help is always available (there are tons of tutorials to take advantage of if you need them) and there's Neon One Academy, which is a rich repository of short courses you can take to help you gain broader knowledge of the program and use it to its full potential. Customer support is excellent, they're very responsive. I will say that I think it's probably best suited for small to medium development shops.

Negative: Neon is not a panacea for all situations and what works well for some may not work for others. For example, it can automate the acknowledgement process, however that was not the case for us. We still must do our letters manually, but this is primarily due to the way they are formatted. If that ever changes then that's a feature we'd certainly incorporate. For now, it's not a hurdle we can overcome. Building and running queries at times can be challenging/frustrating; it's not always an intuitive process and as fundraisers we need to know the data we're pulling is correct. The other pain point for me is that Neon does not integrate with auction software such as OneCause and that's a bit of a headache because the information must be entered manually; hopefully that's something that can be worked on in the future.

Summary: Absolutely wonderful. I was able to take a very antiquated process and bring it up to speed. We have raised more money through our CRM than ever before! It has completely changed (for the better) how we function and operate today.

Positive: From start to finish, the process was great! The team worked with me to fulfill each unique feature I needed to make the database functional for our needs. Training was super helpful and they provided easy step by step instruction. The database we created together, has been a such an added value to how we run our Foundation and events.

Negative: Not a thing. Honestly. Your team was extremely helpful and the online classes are easy to follow. Every question I encountered, you all helped me develop a solution.

Summary: Tracking, reporting, coding and segmenting our list of donors has allowed us to improve our productivity and our communication. Our team is on top of our game and NEON has given us great results and has made a difference in the way we work. I would recommend NEON to small, medium and large organizations. It's the best donor software that I've ever used in my many years working in the development field.

Positive: As a member of a team that utilizes Neon, I love NEON's tools that help us stay up to date with goals and progress daily. At the same time I like having my own dashboard and notes that help me remain productive with my individual goals and tasks.

Negative: Neon offers so many benefits! We are still learning and have the desire to master the software. It has been a changemaker for our team. One wish I have since we utilize it daily is the ability to make our emailable and mailable letters look a bit more professional. Formatting can be a bit challenging.

Summary: The communication tools it has to track emails, letters, phone calls it's very helpful. Not only does this CRM allows you to add basic information, but also more sophisticated data such as household contacts, addresses, account relations, and employment history.

Positive: Something I really like about this CRM is the timelines, which show you all the details you need to understand your supporters. The revenue management tab also allows you to manage both online and offline gifts. Something I use on a daily basis is the email campaign for when you want to send an e-blast or a newsletter to a group of people.

Negative: It runs pretty slow from time to time, but I still recommend it to anyone who's looking for a great CRM.

Summary: Great software for agency to keep data in same place where all teams can have access to it. Easy was to edit pervious data.

Positive: Data is safe.
All notes are in one place.
Easy to collect old data.
Easy to navigate.
Teams accessibility to data.

Negative: Must have Internet connection.
Some data is duplicated which creates confusion.

Summary: I use a lot of commercial CRM systems for work and we use neon for our non profit. It's a very good product for our usage and we love it.

Positive: We use this for our Cycling Organization which is a 501C3 and it's very good how it really ties everything we need around the year together.

Negative: I haven't found any downsides on the product so far.

Summary: Cost matters to non-profits who are trying to leverage the most value out of nominal revenue, and as far as CRM platforms go I have never seen one with the robust set of features that NEON has for the price. The promise of ongoing product improvements and good customer service is encouraging, and I hope NEON can help smooth down some of the rough edges. In my experience though, all CRM platforms have rough edges. I have used at least 5 different CRMs in my time, and none of them have had the value for the money, especially for a non-profit, as NEON.

Positive: NEON CRM is a surprisingly good value for the money. The different modules for membership, events, donations, and email campaigns have little features that make a huge impact on a non-profit's quality of life. Tracking volunteer hours at an event? Done. Emailing a custom form for registrants to select different sessions at a conference? Done. Triggering emails to send prior to a membership expiring? Done.

Negative: NEON CRM has strengths in membership, events, and emails, but as all CRMs go it can be bulky and awkward for anything it was not explicitly designed to do. One of the hardest to overcome has been the formatting of emails and forms, as well as ways of adding custom fields and having these data points available for reporting. The Account custom fields are very helpful, but other places that a similar custom field capability could use some additional work. We are able to accomplish nearly everything we need, but doing so can take a few more steps than it should if there were better integrations and more options for the application of custom fields.

NEON could also use some help in the automation and workflow management elements of a CRM. While the bones are there to get many things systemized, having different staff roles engage with NEON to assist with their workflow can be challenging based on their needs. Prioritizing activities, linking staff actions to accounts and events and other integrated tasks can take a few extra clicks than it should. The value of an integrated membership database make it worthwhile, but staff who may not be tech savvy or patient might struggle.

Summary: Overall I think Neon is a great customer relations platform, because it keeps track of quite literally everything anyone could ever want to track. My organization receives donations through an outside platform but I explored the forms for donations and it seems extremely easy to set up.

Positive: Neon can do anything you want it to do, and can even serve as a replacement for other services that may be paid for such as a volunteer portal and donation page. I like how email campaigns can be sent from Neon to specific audiences that can be made using reports.

Negative: Since it can do everything, it takes some time to learn how to do everything. There are a lot of different functions and most companies/nonprofits won't use every function which can get confusing sometimes in the global settings cog.

Summary: My overall experience has been great. The Neon CRM staff member we work directly with has been more than willing to help us navigate any issues, walk me through any system confusion, etc.. I feel pretty confident when I use it. My favorite part of it is being able to go into the Global Settings and set up the CRM manually to match the layout of our events. That has been an awesome part of this system that was unexpected!

Positive: Neon CRM is a dream of a system to work with for a nonprofit who needs better ways to track, communicate, and balance events, donors, and just overall efficiency of your organization. I am so thankful everyday to have access to this system.

Negative: I wish reports were a little more interesting looking. They basically just export to a .xls spreadsheet which is boring.

Summary: Excellent program, and a great value for the cost. Neon also has excellent service. The forms are pretty easy to set up and NeonPay is really easy to use.

Positive: I use the grant management tracking, accounts, NeonPay, and other reporting. Neon is very easy to use and to customize for your needs. The help center information is also easy to use and helpful.

Negative: The event management function was harder to use. I need to do more training.

Summary: Stepped into Executive Director role of nonprofit with 0 knowledge and/or training in using Neon CRM. Taught myself how to use platform and now it has become a necessity in my everyday work life. Easy to use and helps keep me organized.

Positive: It's extremely easy to use. It allows me to keep a very organized database of all of our nonprofit donors, sponsors, clients and volunteers. The online platform makes it very easy to make any necessary changes and/or updates. It is also a great resource for accurate record-keeping in terms of financial records, budgeting, client relations, etc.

Negative: Hard to connect our Neon CRM account and Neon Pay account.

Summary: Great systems to control and manage fundraising and engagement statistics in real time to monitor clicks and opens.

Positive: The ability to create and manage events simultaneously in addition to sending registration links to event managers.

Negative: That I have to login in to the website each time on my phone.