This guide provides a list of preliminary items and essential tasks to help you get your CRM up and running. Remember that each organization has a unique set of priorities, so please focus on tasks that are most relevant for your organization and your goals. Please also explore the Neon One Academy catalog for other courses and modules not outlined in this document.
If your organization requires more in-depth training, please reach out to clientsuccess@neonone.com to review your options.
Initial Tasks and Goals
| Action Item | Function | Support Resources | Neon One Academy Course |
| Set Up Payment Processing | In order to process credit cards, your organization will need to connect NeonCRM to a payment processor. This is what allows your online NeonCRM transaction pages to accept payments and ensure that transactions are handled securely. NeonPay is fully integrated with your CRM! | ||
| Update your Organization Profile | The Organization Profile page contains the Primary and Billing contacts for your organization as well as your contract, billing, and payment history. Data entered is used in your system email communications and several settings by default. | Organization Profile | |
| Add System Users | System Users are able to log into the back end of your database and view constituent’s information. Administrators have full access to NeonCRM while Users have limited permissions. You can also create custom user groups for more defined permissions. | Communicating with System Users (15 min). | |
| Import Data | NeonCRM's Import Manager allows you to import data into your system using .CSV files so that all of your historical and new data is in one place. The following types of data are available for import: account, donation, event registration, and membership. | Bulk Entry of New Data (30 min) | |
| Manage and Categorize Accounts | Accounts are the foundation of NeonCRM - find and categorize your accounts and track custom information for enhanced reporting. |
Launchpad (30 minutes) Managing Accounts Video (supplemental - 9 min) via Support Center |
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| Configure and Publish Online Forms | NeonCRM generates forms for you out of the box, such as a Standard Donation Form, New Member Registration Form, and more. You can customize these forms to add or remove fields as well as require certain fields. Once your forms are ready to go, you can link them to your website and all data submitted is automatically stored. |
Creating Account and Donation Forms Fundraising Setup and Reporting |
Accepting Online Donations (60 min) |
| Create Fundraising Campaigns | Fundraising Campaigns are used to track how donations came into your organization. Each campaign in NeonCRM has its own unique donation form and campaigns can be organized with a tiered structure, meaning you can designate a parent campaign and assign various sub-campaigns to the parent group. | Fundraising Campaigns (2 min) Via Support Center | |
| Enable Automatic Communications | Neon offers two types of Transaction Acknowledgments to save you time: System Emails and System Letters. System emails are automatically generated messages that you can send to your constituents after they perform some sort of interaction with NeonCRM. System letters function much the same way, but instead of sending automatically they will be added to your mail merge queue. | Acknowledgments (60 min) | |
| Set Up Memberships | Membership is a status you apply to a constituent record for a set period of time; constituents pay dues to receive some sort of benefit or access to the organization. Memberships in Neon should be treated differently than recurring donations. | Creating Memberships (60 min) | |
| Create an Event | You can use NeonCRM to create a page on your website for an event which can also include an online registration form and accept online credit card payments for registration fees. You can create complex event configurations, like creating breakout sessions within your event or providing multiple ticket prices. When a constituent attends an event, a record of their attendance shows up on their record. | Event Creation (60 min) | |
| Configure Additional Modules |
Allow donors to access, track, and edit their account information and transaction history through the Constituent Portal. Accept and manage volunteers and keep track of time sheets through the Volunteer Module.
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Constituent Portal (30 min) Volunteer Management (30 min) |
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| Analyze Data with Reports | Reporting in NeonCRM is a simple process with a lot of choices to help you gain valuable insight on how your organization is performing. You can retrieve the specific data you want by narrowing down the criteria, search operators, and output columns. |
Saving Reports and Making Them Public |
Reporting (30 min) |
Additional Resources and Support
| Resource | Description | How to Access |
| Technical Support | Your main point of contact if you encounter errors or have questions about Neon functionality. You have unlimited ticket support! |
If you're inside NeonCRM, you can navigate to the "Help" widget in the bottom right corner and select "Contact Us" to submit a ticket. |
| Knowledge Base | An extensive archive of helpful how-to guides grouped by subject and function. |
Type inquires into the search bar to view support guides for each topic. |
| Neon One Academy | Our training and certification program. There are various learning paths based on how different staff may be utilizing Neon. For example, “Mission: Nebula” is intended for Development Coordinators or Advancement Directors and covers system setup, online donations, and donor communication. | How do I train & certify in NeonCRM? |
| Training and Consultation with NeonCRM’s Professional Services Team |
Meet one-on-one with a Professional Services Consultant for personalized, in-depth support via a screen-sharing audio conference call. These sessions can cover basic training, plus high-level strategic priorities. Topics can include but are not limited to:
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Training and Consulting is $150/hr. Please contact clientsuccess@neonone.com for additional information or to set up a call to review your training and support options. |