Automated Reminders

Automated email reminders for yahrzeits and Hebrew birthdays

Prerequisites

Install the latest versions of the following extensions:

• https://civicrm.org/extensions/scheduled-communication

• https://civicrm.org/extensions/e-mail-api

• https://civicrm.org/extensions/pdf-creation-api

Verify CiviCRM CRON is set up properly

• Details at: https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Managing+Scheduled+Jobs

• Check your CRON status at: http://example.org/civicrm/a/#/status

Verify Smart Group refresh

Make sure the CRM scheduled job that forces the smart group cache to refresh is running frequently. (I suggest hourly).

To do this:

1. Click "Administer ... System Settings ... Scheduled Jobs"

2. Scroll down until you see the job named "Rebuild Smart Group Cache"

3. Verify that job matches this screen print:

If the smart group "Mourners observing a yahrzeit in exactly X days" is stale, then the reminders will not be what you expect. For more smart group details, see https://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC/Smart+group+testing

Create your reminder rules

1. Make sure you have a smart group. Examples:

• Mourners observing a yahrzeit in exactly X days. (Use the custom yahrzeit search from this extension to create the smart group)

• Individuals celebrating a Hebrew birthday in exactly Y days. (Use the Advanced search to search on the custom field "Next Hebrew Birthday", and create the smart group on those results.)

2. Make sure you have a CiviCRM message template. Some examples:

• Your yahrzeit message template should use the tokens from this extension for X days. (X needs to match the number you used in the previous step.)

• Your birthday message template should use the token "Next Hebrew Birthday"

3. Go into the CiviCRM back-office and click "Administer ... System Settings ... Scheduled Jobs"

4. Look for the one "Call Email2Each.Sendemails API (Daily) Sends an email to each contact "

5. Make sure that scheduled job is enabled and matches the screen print below: (use the smart group and template from steps 1 and 2 above)

6. Create additional scheduled jobs (as described in steps 4 and 5) for each type of reminder you want to send.

Automated reminders via snail mail

Some people prefer getting snail mail (ie hard copy mail via the postal service). This could be because they do not have an email address, or simply they prefer hard copy. Yet you still want to automate as much as this process as possible. ( you still have to pick up the reminders from your printer, and put them into envelopes. This extension is not a miracle worker.

You will still need to follow steps 1-2 above (ie make sure you have an appropriate smart group and message template)

1. Make sure you have a smart group.

2. Make sure you have a message template

3. Go into the CiviCRM back-office and click "Administer ... System Settings ... Scheduled Jobs"

4. Look for the one "Create 1 bundled PDF for entire group, email to staff/volunteer contact (Daily)"

5. Make sure that scheduled job is enabled and matches the screen print below: (use the smart group and template from steps 1 and 2 above, and the CiviCRM contact ID of the person who is responsible for printing the PDF) params: 4 parameters are expected: group, message_template, staff_contact, to_email

6. Create additional scheduled jobs (as described in steps 4 and 5) for each type of reminder you want to send.

Such as:

Now each time the scheduled job runs, the person from step 5 will get an email with a PDF attachment. This attachment will contain all the reminders generated by the scheduled job.

7. Review the PDF.

8. Print the PDF and mail the reminders via snail mail.

For example: Let's say the scheduled job is set to use a smart group for yahrzeits in exactly 15 days.

If there are 25 people observing a yahrzeit in exactly 15 days, then "[email protected]" will get an email with 1 PDF. That 1 PDF attachment will contain the reminder letters for all 25 mourners. In a larger organization, "[email protected]" will likely get an email daily, each with one PDF attached. They could print and mail the reminders immediately upon receiving the email, or they could wait a few days and print and mail a bunch. In a smaller organization, "[email protected]" would get an email with a PDF attachment infrequently, as many days there are no yahrzeits at all.