Automated crisis response notifications

Purpose

1.1 Ensure rapid, consistent notifications to congregation, staff, and key stakeholders upon detection or report of crisis events (e.g. deaths, natural disasters, pastoral emergencies, facility issues, threats).
1.2 Minimize confusion and panic by distributing clear, pre-approved messaging to targeted groups.
1.3 Enable traceability and accountability by logging sent notifications and recipient acknowledgment or response.
1.4 Support coordinated pastoral care, outreach assistance, and facilities management responses.

Trigger Conditions

2.1 Form submissions via church website crisis report forms.
2.2 Designated email account receives alerts flagged as “URGENT/CRISIS”.
2.3 Incoming SMS or WhatsApp message to crisis hotline keyword trigger.
2.4 Report from IoT devices (e.g., environmental sensors, door alarms).
2.5 Manual trigger by authorized church staff in emergency dashboard.
2.6 Integration with police, fire department, or community warning feeds.

Platform Variants

3.1 Twilio SMS
• Feature/Setting: Automated mass messaging ("Messaging Services" API) — configure message templates & recipient lists (JSON example: "to": ["+1234567890","…"], "body": "Crisis update: ...").

3.2 SendGrid
• Feature/Setting: Transactional Email API; configure crisis email templates and dynamic groups ("personalizations" field, scenario-specific email subject).

3.3 Slack
• Feature/Setting: Incoming Webhooks & Channels; map notification payload to #crisis-response channel ("text": "Crisis response needed at St. Mary's: ...").

3.4 Microsoft Teams
• Feature/Setting: Webhook connector; send message cards with "potentialAction" for acknowledgment buttons.

3.5 WhatsApp Business API
• Feature/Setting: Use "message templates"; send crisis alert to church community group chats.

3.6 PagerDuty
• Feature/Setting: Create incident using REST API with "urgency": "high", direct to on-call rota.

3.7 Pushover
• Feature/Setting: "messages.json" endpoint, group key for all staff phones.

3.8 Zoom Chat
• Feature/Setting: SendChatMessage endpoint, direct alert to specific ministry group thread.

3.9 Firebase Cloud Messaging
• Feature/Setting: "send" method to push notification to congregation app users.

3.10 One Call Now
• Feature/Setting: API "SendBroadcastCall" for robocalls to predefined phone trees.

3.11 Mailgun
• Feature/Setting: "messages" endpoint, custom crisis subject line.

3.12 Zapier
• Feature/Setting: Triggered Zap with “Webhooks” & “SMS by Zapier”, link report form to multi-channel distribution.

3.13 Discord
• Feature/Setting: Webhook to #emergency-announcements; JSON: "content": "Crisis alert for volunteers."

3.14 Mattermost
• Feature/Setting: Incoming webhook integration, format alert as rich message.

3.15 Telegram Bot API
• Feature/Setting: sendMessage method, tag group chat with crisis keyword.

3.16 Amazon SNS
• Feature/Setting: Publish API, “TopicArn” for church leadership crisis list.

3.17 Google Chat
• Feature/Setting: Webhook push to designated crisis room.

3.18 ClickSend
• Feature/Setting: SMS API, send to all mobile numbers imported from parish database.

3.19 Signal Messenger
• Feature/Setting: Signal-cli sendGroupMessage command, alert core volunteers.

3.20 Freshservice
• Feature/Setting: Create "major incident" via REST API, assign to Pastoral Care team.

3.21 RingCentral
• Feature/Setting: SMS API, send alert with “priority”: “high”, request staff acknowledgment.

3.22 Webex Teams
• Feature/Setting: Create message API, tag relevant space for incident type.

3.23 Salesforce
• Feature/Setting: Send email via Messaging API, auto-log event under “Crisis Management” object.

Benefits

4.1 Rapid multi-channel notification with audit trail.
4.2 Ensures all relevant groups reached, reducing information gaps.
4.3 Clear, standardized communication decreases anxiety.
4.4 Satisfies legal/safety requirements for crisis protocols.
4.5 Logs responses for follow-up actions and governance.