GiveSmart vs. Neon CRM

GiveSmart definitely works for large in-person ticketed events which also involve auctions, paddle raises, and more. The workflow is relatively easy for guests, and especially for volunteers. We especially like how quickly you can add paddle raise donations to specific people's paddle numbers because it allows us to track in real time. The seating functionality has some odd quirks, but overall it works. We opted not to use it for our main donation capture organization-wide because it doesn't look as professional, nor is it as customizable, as some other options on the market.

Incentivized

If you are looking for a CRM to track your donations and store all donor information, this is a great product. There are tabs under each entry (individual and corporate/foundation donors) to store notes, donation information, and more. Donations entered automatically integrate into the donation campaign section so you can easily track total donation amounts. It is very user friendly and does not require extreme tech knowledge to use effectively. I feel confident storing our information in this CRM. It is very useful to go back to look at past donor information when soliciting new grants and donations.

Incentivized

• GiveSmart is a very easy-to-use platform that provides robust instruction on use but is so user-friendly that the instructions are mostly not necessary. I find it easy to update, change, and create all aspects of our page. For example, I first used GiveSmart without any instruction from a manager. She instructed me to look around and see what was going on. I was able to navigate the site effectively, and only found a few pieces for which I needed more instruction.
• GiveSmart offers a well-made item section. Our gala has a silent auction made up of more than 170 items, and GiveSmart makes it easy to upload those items in bulk or add them individually. It offers every field I would want to have for an item and provides a comprehensive and adjustable front-facing-view for donors that is easy to manipulate.
• GiveSmart's main page creator is easy to navigate and create the site you want. They provide helpful details like sizing for images and the ability to create buttons and links and different sections as our needs dictate. It's easy to adjust the colors and design to reflect our branding.

Incentivized

• The setup and import process was very effective. The team looked at our account import data and recommended ways to format it and explain how it would best be translated into the NEON system.
• The deduplicate tool is effective and easy to use. The step-by-step system allows a record with multiple addresses to be combined into one account, or added to a household or left as is.
• It works! We've used other systems that are nightmarish. This system is easy to use and the detailed training videos get into more of the nitty-gritty in a clear and extremely helpful way.
• Customising form fields was extremely important and easy to do. MailChimp integration using reports from this customization is clutch.

Incentivized

• The distribution reports do not separate what campaign the transactions were for.
• Revenue reports do not clearly state the CC fees for each transaction, which requires manual calculations.
• We could not change the item a transaction was billed to if it was wrong. For example, if a donor made a restricted donation but was labeled unrestricted, we were told there was no way to correct it, so we had to keep track of those changes on the side.

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

For the most part, we are very satisfied with GiveSmart. There are some additional functions we'd like to see it have and GiveSmart has been responsive in the past to add new features that nonprofits are looking for. Their support teams and account representatives are very friendly and helpful. The ease of their system allows a competent person to enter the data and create campaigns without having to have much technical knowledge.

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

For the most part, GiveSmart serves our organization's needs for creating fundraising forms. It is especially useful for our peer-to-peer fundraising and event planning and registration efforts. The dashboard is relatively intuitive, and there have been improvements in creating forms and managing campaigns since shifting from Mobile Cause to GiveSmart Fundraise.

Incentivized

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

We never experienced any issues with outages, the system being down, etc. It's extremely reliable. That's very important when you're dealing with financial and personal information! We want to make it easy for people to give, and it's great that we've never had to worry about service issues making that more challenging/

Incentivized

We haven't had any issue regarding performance or reliability with GiveSmart. We don't integrate it with any other software so that issue isn't relevant. The pages load quickly and reports are completed almost as soon as you hit the "run" button. Overall, the system works as designed and is pretty quick when people use it.

Incentivized

When I did have to reach out for support it was not always easy to get ahold of anyone to help. There were also times when I did get help where I struggled to understand and be understood. Not a language barrier, but more of a not understanding what my problem was. I am not sure if it was a problem on my end or on theirs, maybe both, lol

Incentivized

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

GiveSmart provides great training videos on their system. Not everything is covered with their videos but their support staff are very friendly and knowledgeable. I would have given them a ten but not everything is covered in their videos and sometimes you have to find the right word to search for in able to find the right training video.

Incentivized

We just made the change using the band-aid approach. In other words, we just went for it and taught the users how to do it at our first event and went from there. 90-95% of people haven't used a mobile bidding software so most everyone was on the same stage of knowledge so implementing it was easy as people didn't have to re-learn anything.

Incentivized

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

We used DonorPerfect and Handbid in the past and they lacked all the features we needed and their customer support was insufficient. The user experience on these platforms was always a challenge. GiveSmart is more streamlined and we have had better customer support when we run into issues.

Incentivized

Neon vs. The Raiser's Edge Raiser's Edge is the gold standard for fundraising-focused CRM applications. However, it is so complicated that there are higher ed courses and certificate programs you can take to learn it all. The printed manual is hundreds of pages long. You can do TONS with it, of course, but on the other hand you could spend months mastering just one of its many functions. It is based on architecture from long ago, so it's not slick or user friendly -despite attempts to modernize with a couple of coats of paint (see RE:NXT). Not to mention it is very pricey indeed. If that's not what you need or want, you can turn to Neon CRM as an alternative. Neon has both feet firmly planted in user experience and it will get the job done for basic reporting, email integration, donation processing, easy to read dashboards, it's portable to any device (nothing to download, no servers to host locally or otherwise) and pretty easy to learn. That is why I would recommend it for most users

Incentivized

For what GiveSmart is designed to do, the software works excellently. We haven't found something GiveSmart cannot do when it is used as designed. However, when GiveSmart is tried to be used as a total CRM, it doesn't do that but that is okay as it wasn't designed to be a total CRM but rather a mobile bidding software.

Incentivized

• Our donors always want an easy method to donate before, during, and after our event—GiveSmart definitely gives them that flexibility.
• Retaining the information that GiveSmart allows us is important, especially when we compile statistics and reports based on what was processed through our GiveSmart event site.

Incentivized

• NeonCRM helped our organization during a growth phase to get organized and get almost all of the data into one place.
• Because the tool doesn't have a simple way to invoice clients, some of the ways we are taking payments from them create a lot more work to reorganize each month.

Incentivized