Purpose
1. Automate the recurring sending of stewardship or pledge reminders to parishioners to increase engagement, encourage timely contributions, and support ongoing Greek Orthodox church operations and philanthropy.
2. Maintain consistent communication and strengthen member relationships by automating personalized reminders based on members’ giving history and preferences.
3. Ensure no pledge or stewardship opportunity is missed through automating scheduled and conditional outreach, reducing manual admin work.
4. Provide detailed tracking of responses and automate follow-ups to further improve pledge fulfillment rates.
Trigger Conditions
1. Automate triggers based on scheduled calendar dates or payment due cycles (monthly, quarterly, annually).
2. Automate triggers when a scheduled payment is missed or overdue by a predefined time period.
3. Automate based on member life events (anniversaries, namedays) stored in the church’s CRM.
4. Automating based on milestones, e.g. X days since last contribution, automates further outreach.
Platform Variants
1. Twilio SMS
• Feature/Setting: Automate SMS reminders using programmable SMS API; configure sender, scheduling, and personalization fields.
2. SendGrid
• Feature/Setting: Automate transactional email APIs; configure email templates, recipient mapping, and automated schedule.
3. Mailchimp
• Feature/Setting: Use automation journeys; configure triggers on list segment updates, schedule, and merge tags for personalization.
4. Microsoft Outlook 365
• Feature/Setting: Automate recurring emails via Office 365 API; configure recurrence options and mail merge fields.
5. Google Workspace (Gmail)
• Feature/Setting: Automate sending via Gmail API; set triggers using time-based scripts, templates, and dynamic content.
6. Slack
• Feature/Setting: Automate direct messages or channel reminders using Slack API; configure scheduled messaging and recipient logic.
7. WhatsApp Business API
• Feature/Setting: Automate recurring WhatsApp reminders; configure message templates, scheduling, and contact groups.
8. Constant Contact
• Feature/Setting: Use automated email series; schedule recurring sends and automate follow-ups based on non-responses.
9. Salesforce
• Feature/Setting: Automate scheduled email tasks and workflows; leverage Process Builder or Flow for recurring actions.
10. HubSpot
• Feature/Setting: Automate workflow automation tool; configure sequences and list triggers for pledge/outreach cycles.
11. Zoho CRM
• Feature/Setting: Automate workflow rules and email templates; set conditional triggers for overdue or scheduled pledges.
12. ActiveCampaign
• Feature/Setting: Automate campaigns for stewardship reminders; configure automation conditions and personalization.
13. Microsoft Teams
• Feature/Setting: Schedule recurring reminders using Teams API or bots; configure target user/group and timeframe.
14. Telegram Bot API
• Feature/Setting: Automate scheduled stewardship updates using bot messaging; configure user groups, recurrence, and variables.
15. Facebook Messenger API
• Feature/Setting: Automate stewardship reminders to Messenger contacts; set scheduling rules and personalize content.
16. PledgeTrack
• Feature/Setting: Automate pledge follow-up reminders using scheduled automation feature; configure targeting and send windows.
17. Planning Center
• Feature/Setting: Automate contribution reminders using workflow automation; set timing and conditional follow-up rules.
18. Outreach.io
• Feature/Setting: Automate communication sequences; schedule follow-ups and automate branching based on responses.
19. Intercom
• Feature/Setting: Automate stewardship or pledge nudges using Intercom campaigns; configure triggers and audience rules.
20. Aircall
• Feature/Setting: Automate outbound call reminders via call automation; configure when to initiate automated call workflows.
21. Mandrill
• Feature/Setting: Automate transactional pledge emails; configure merge tags, triggers, and scheduled sends via API.
22. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
• Feature/Setting: Automate email and SMS using workflow automation; schedule, personalize, and send to filtered lists.
23. ClickSend
• Feature/Setting: Automate SMS and email reminders via API; set up automated scheduling and custom message content.
Benefits
1. Automates regular, timely stewardship or pledge reminders to maximize pledge fulfillment and improve financial planning.
2. Reduces manual work and potential for missed communications by leveraging automation platforms and automators.
3. Enables personalized, dynamic automated messaging at scale, increasing relevance and engagement among congregants.
4. Automates follow-up sequences and reporting, allowing staff to focus on higher-value pastoral and community engagement tasks.
5. Ensures automatable stewardship processes with full traceability, compliance, and auditability for church leadership.
Member Engagement & Communication