Religious communities are some of the closest knit groups of people. After all, it’s their faith that brings people together to worship, to celebrate, to support and comfort.

As a regular practice, Congregation Ohab Zedek, a Manhattan Synagogue founded in 1873, informs its members of Baruch Dayan Ha’Emet - an announcement in the Jewish religion notifying its congregation of the death of a member.

A telephone call is typically placed by a temple director or administrator to each and every household that belongs to the synagogue to inform of a person’s passing, including how to get in contact with the family, how to make a donation to help with funeral expenses and the dates and times of Shiva - the week-long mourning period observed by close relatives.

However, with temple membership that exceeds 500 people, Congregation OZ was having trouble efficiently reaching each member. Executive Director Ilene Curtach tells us that prior to CallFire it was a matter of playing “phone tag” in order to make these very important announcements. Repeated attempts to reach the same people, manually dialing each phone number and the time spent delivering each message made this responsibility trying and time consuming.

They needed a better solution to be sure each and every person was properly informed in a timely manner freeing up resources to focus on other aspects of Congregation OZ, such as its learning center and social programs.

During the summer of 2007, this tradition was melded with the 21st century when CallFire was trusted with delivering these sacred messages via its Voice Broadcast solution.

“We wanted a phone broadcast system with new technology [that was] more cost effective,” says Curtach.

With CallFire’s Voice Broadcast, just one person, a computer and phone line is needed to disseminate these messages. Simply upload a list of contacts, create a voice message or use the text to speech option, and simultaneously send out hundreds and thousands of messages within minutes.

Since coming to CallFire nearly six years ago, Congregation OZ has sent out more than 100 announcements - that’s more than 6000 individual calls. At just pennies per call, organizations such as synagogues and churches that need to watch their expenses, can feel confident that they are providing an important service to its community without wasting money.

With CallFire’s smart software design, administrators can easily keep track of who has and has not received a message, how many messages went to voice mail, and which ones were busy. In fact, the system is so easy to use OZ’s Ilene Curtach says that there was only a slight training process necessary.

Additionally, CallFire’s Voice Broadcast messages can be scheduled for an automatic call blast and if the line is busy, the system will keep trying until it gets through. It’s a convenient, affordable and efficient solution to keep a community close together and informed.