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How Preservation Houston Increased Donations by 300% With Neon One

How Preservation Houston Serves their Community of 4,000+ 

Since 1978, Preservation Houston has voiced strong support for better public policy and protection of Houston’s irreplaceable architectural and cultural historic resources through advocacy, education, and committed action. 

Their members, volunteers, and staff have been instrumental in the adoption of citywide preservation ordinances, the designation of local landmarks and historic districts, and the development of preservation ethics in Bayou City.

All of a sudden, managing spreadsheets got unattainable and stopped working altogether. Their capacity to track contributions and manage events and memberships hit a wall due to tracking everything in spreadsheets. They needed a cloud-based system that could manage and track their events, fundraising, and memberships. 

Jim Parsons

Director of Special Projects

“Events lists, membership, mailing lists…it was all tracked in spreadsheets. We bumped up against the max number of Excel columns. We needed something to deal with all these spreadsheets.”

Finding a Solution

Preservation Houston was maxing out available columns in their Excel spreadsheets.  Neon One software met all of their goals along with each and every one of their functional needs.

Goals

  • Track Contributions
  • Manage Events
  • Manage Memberships

Functional Needs

  • Membership Management
  • Membership Tracking
  • Membership Renewals
  • Events


300% Increase in Total General Donations

Neon One equipped them with automated tools to keep better track of their 1,000+ members and so much more! 

More Efficient

  • Quick creation of member-only event invitations
  • Better work delegation
  • Simplified paper membership mailing
  • Better online form setup

Favorite Features

  • Membership management
  • Analytics and reports on membership and event attendance
  • Automatic membership renewal emails
  • Donation management
  • Event tracking
  • Online forms

300%
Increase in Total General Donations

32%
Increase in Memberships

Improved Membership Management

Preservation Houston attributes the membership increase they saw in the past year to the ease of managing memberships online with Neon and the system’s automated membership renewal reminders.

They see results every time their system sends reminder emails for membership renewals. Now more than ever their members are joining and renewing online. 

“Everything has been super easy, and everyone has been really responsive and nice.”

Jim Parsons, Director of Special Projects.

Implementation & Ongoing Support

Preservation Houston invested in the Data Import + Configuration consultation with Neon One.

Data Migration

Neon migrated 2,000 individual and company records from Excel to the Neon CRM database. The migration removed many duplicate bad records, creating a much cleaner system moving forward.

Ongoing Support & Use

Preservation Houston was paired with a Neon Client Success Manager for on-going support. Their staff can now log in to their database quickly to update memberships and check event confirmation information on the go. 

“Neon takes so much less time. Before, the ordeal of membership mailings meant we avoided and delayed them. Now emails go out, and it’s night and day.”

David Bush, Acting Executive Director


Advice for Nonprofits Looking for a New Software Solution from Preservation Houston’s Staff

  • Find the system that does what you need it to do from the start.
  • Not all software solutions will be cost-effective. When considering a solution, look for something that best serves the number of transactions you process on a daily basis. 
  • If you need something that focuses on membership, choose one that fits your specific needs. Just because it is a nonprofit focused software doesn’t mean that it serves all your needs. 

Jim Parsons

Director of Special Projects

“Our constituents have appreciated being able to easily make donations and purchase tickets to events through Neon One — all of that makes life a lot easier for our stakeholders and our staff.”

Does your membership organization need a database solution? Let Neon One help.

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