HelpYouSponsor vs Neon CRM
Mid-market mission. Real CRM. Sponsorship-grade.
Neon One is a strong general-purpose nonprofit platform with a deep product family — Neon CRM, Neon Fundraise, Neon Pay, Neon Membership, Neon Web, and more. Neon CRM lists at $99/mo (Essentials), $209/mo (Impact), and $409/mo (Empower) with revenue-based billing, plus add-ons of +10% for Memberships, +10% for Volunteers, and +20% for Events on top of the base subscription. HelpYouSponsor is a full donor CRM with everything Neon CRM Impact ships — and adds three categories Neon does not: purpose-built sponsorship programs, sponsor-to-recipient messaging with AI translation, and mission trip management. Every feature on every plan. Published pricing. 2.2% on Stripe.
Feature comparison
| Feature | HelpYouSponsor | Neon CRM |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Free up to 10 commitments/mo. Pro $50/mo. Published. | $99/mo Essentials. $209/mo Impact. $409/mo Empower. Revenue-based billing. |
| Pricing transparency | Published pay-per-commitment pricing with no contract required. | Published tier prices. Annual contracts standard. |
| Pricing model | Pay per active commitment. Free up to 10/mo. Pro $50/mo flat. Growth $0.80/commitment. Enterprise for high volume. | Revenue-based. Tier price scales with the organization's annual fundraising revenue. |
| Every feature on every plan | Full feature set on every plan. Sponsorship, fundraising, journeys, mailings, P2P, text-to-give, mobile, API — all included. | Tier-gated. Open API, advanced integrations, automated operations, and event/volunteer management require Impact ($209+). Live chat, phone support, unlimited workflows, NCOA, and biannual roadmap previews require Empower ($409). |
| Add-on modules | All modules included. No add-on percentages. | Memberships +10%, Volunteers +10%, Events +20% on top of the CRM subscription. Total can exceed 140% of the base CRM cost. |
| Stripe processing for nonprofits | 2.2% on cards. Full stop. | Neon Pay processing rates. Bundled with the CRM; rates not always publicly disclosed and typically run 3%+. |
| Sponsorship programs (1:1, community, pooled, hybrid) | Purpose-built. Matching, transfers, lifecycle, multi-program, hybrid models. | Not available. Requires custom fields and manual workflows. |
| Sponsor-recipient messaging with AI translation | Moderated 1:1 messaging with automatic translation in 50+ languages. | Not available. |
| Mission trip management | HYS Trips. Registration, individual fundraising, Checkr background checks, e-signatures. | Not available. Trip registration possible via Events add-on (+20%); no background checks or trip-specific fundraising pages. |
| AI donor intelligence (wealth capacity, ask calculator) | HYS Insights. AI wealth capacity scoring, optimal-ask calculators, major-gift prospecting. Built in. | Reporting and prospecting tools. No native AI wealth capacity scoring or optimal-ask calculators. |
| Full donor CRM (records, households, giving history) | Full CRM on every plan. Households, giving history, custom fields, activity log. | Full CRM. 360-degree constituent management, unlimited records, donation pages and forms, moves management, prospecting, PCI compliance. |
| Major gifts and moves management | Major-donor tracking with moves management on every plan. | Moves and task management included on Essentials. |
| Workflow & automation | Journeys. Multi-step automations across email, SMS, tasks, and portal events. Unlimited workflows on every plan. | 3 active workflows on Essentials. Unlimited workflows is Empower tier ($409) only. |
| Fundraising campaigns (targets, match pools, recurring conversion) | HYS Fundraising. Campaign pages with donation targets, match pools, honor gifts, one-click recurring conversion on checkout. | Donation pages and forms. Neon Fundraise (separately priced) for campaign and P2P depth. |
| Peer-to-peer fundraising | First-class program type. Sponsors, participants, and ambassadors each get a branded fundraising page tied to the donor record. | Neon Fundraise — separately priced product for P2P, crowdfunding, and event campaigns. |
| Email, newsletters, and print mailings | Appeals, newsletters, auto emails, and print mailings (tax summaries, year-end letters, labels) from one composer. | Email and direct-mail tools included. Marketing automations broaden on Impact tier and above. |
| Text-to-Give | Available on every plan via the Sendblue integration. | SMS / text-to-give available. |
| Events and registrations | Integrated in HYS Fundraising (registration, peer-to-peer pages). Dedicated HYS Events arriving 2026. | Events module +20% add-on or Neon CRM Impact tier and above. Strong event registration and management. |
| Membership management | Not in scope today. | Memberships add-on (+10%). Strong membership and renewal management. |
| Auctions | On the roadmap. HYS Events arriving in 2026. | Auctions via Neon Fundraise. |
| Native mobile app | Included mobile app for donors and sponsors on every plan. | Mobile-responsive web. No native donor mobile app. |
| Embeddable donor experiences | Smart Embed. Six embed types with auto-resizing, brand matching, three lines of code. | Embeddable donation forms. |
| API, webhooks, MCP server for AI agents | Full REST API, webhooks, Zapier, and an MCP server. Every plan. | Open API access available on Impact tier ($209+). No native MCP server. |
| Payment recovery | Built in. Smart retry on failed recurring gifts, abandoned-checkout recovery, automatic card updates via Stripe's Account Updater. | Recurring gift retries. |
| Time to go-live | Self-service setup. Most organizations live in 1–2 weeks. | Onboarding-led implementation. Typically 4–8 weeks before full deployment. |
Why switch to HelpYouSponsor
Sponsorship, trips, and sponsor-recipient messaging are categories Neon does not ship
Neon CRM has real fundraising depth — moves management, donation pages, prospecting, the Neon One product family. It does not ship 1:1 child or family sponsorship, sponsor-to-recipient messaging across languages, or mission trip programs with background checks. If you run any of those, HYS is built for it on the same donor record.
Every feature, every plan — no module add-on math
Neon CRM tiers feature access across Essentials ($99), Impact ($209), and Empower ($409), and charges +10% for Memberships, +10% for Volunteers, and +20% for Events on top. Open API requires Impact. Unlimited workflows require Empower. HYS ships the full product on every plan — sponsorship, P2P, journeys, mailings, mobile, API, MCP server — at one published rate.
AI donor intelligence built in
HYS Insights ships AI wealth capacity scoring, optimal-ask calculators, and major-gift prospecting. Neon CRM has prospecting and reporting tools but no native AI wealth capacity. For mid-market organizations cultivating major gifts, the difference is operational — modeled, not manual.
Stripe nonprofit pricing on cards
HYS uses the Stripe nonprofit rate at 2.2% on cards. Neon Pay rates run higher and are bundled with the CRM. Across a year of giving volume, the delta is real money returned to program.
Frequently asked questions
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