Neon CRM vs. Nimble AMS by Community Brands

If you are looking for a quick and easy database option, which integrates breezily with email clients like MailChimp and Constant Contact, and has built-in credit/debit card processing capabilities, NeonCRM is a very good option. An affordable alternative to Salesforce or Raiser's Edge, it does lack some of their "bells and whistles" but gets the job done. On the one hand, Neon features a shallow learning curve and solid user interface, and is web based and mobile friendly. On the other hand, Neon might not be totally appropriate for large or national level organizations because some of the reporting seems less "robust" than pricier alternatives...

Incentivized

It seems Events/Products/Exhibitors and Programs seem to work fairly well in this system. They are very functional out of the box and I appreciate the ability to customize without having to do it with code. I'd like to see more attention focused on Donation functionality, i.e. pairing a donation with a merchandise purchase, ability to match a guest donation with a current person account, ability to have multiple entities and use recurring donations. I'd also be interested in seeing the Community Hub Management tool be expanded to allow for more flexibility and customization of pages and their underlying fields and data sources.

Incentivized

• NeonCRM allows you to build events, take registrations, and customize those events. Customizations include different ticketing options, add-ons, promotions, etc.
• NeonCRM does a good job helping you track donors' activities/engagements.
• It also provides a variety of reporting mechanisms - from dashboard snapshots to graphical reports - that allow you to review programs at a glance or in-depth.

Incentivized

• Responsiveness
• Knowledgeable employees.
• Thoughtful solutions.

Incentivized

• Learning the ropes is largely accomplished by reading manuals and watching videos. I don't learn that way. I'd much prefer to be shown. I guess I'm old school.
• They can be stingy with the customer support. We bought the big package and I still wind up going back to my salesperson to help me cut through any red tape to get what I need.

Incentivized

• More thorough and updated online help documentation.
• Larger focus on building out Donation module and making it more seamless with the Accounting module.
• More modular on-demand training, focusing on specific parts of Nimble AMS that are used most or are most challenging.

Incentivized

Neon CRM was difficult and frustrating to use without IT experience, and way to costly for the a small to mid-sized nonprofit. We believe that we lost donors due to the inaccurate report system in Neon CRM

The Neon CRM system is confusing (we had to watch video tutorials and html code to understand many of the features, many of which we did not need). Around 2022, Neon started to go downhill. Bells and whistles were added that were of no benefit (to our nonprofit) and the system became even harder to use

As stated before, they push you to read the manual or watch the video when what I want is a human being to walk/talk me through it. Like I said, maybe I am old school but that's how I learn. It's been a challenge.

Incentivized

We had to hire someone to implement our donors into Neon CRM

It works. It's easy to customize for nonprofit and industry-specific categories. It does what it does well, and integrates with platforms that specialize in those areas rather than trying to be everything to all users.

Incentivized

Nimble AMS was much further developed while other groups were just beginning. Their continued growth and moving forward over the years have lent them a degree of expertise I have not yet seen in comparable groups.

Incentivized

• Positive: Neon allows us to track, analyze, and optimize our fundraising efforts and outcomes. It is critical to our success.
• Positive: Neon works easily with our website, making donations easy for the donor.
• Positive: Neon is affordable in comparison with similar products.
• Negative: Neon is not well known (yet) so each new employees will probably need to learn it from scratch.

Incentivized

• It's made a significant impact on the way we approach strategic decisions due to the data we're able to collect and analyze.
• It's allowing us to automate processes that we never thought of automating in the past, freeing up staff resources to focus on other tasks
• Our initial implementation was a bit messy, but working with the Nimble AMS team to analyze and rethink our strategy with a clearer vision has been very positive

Incentivized