Modernizing Synagogue Operations with Salesforce
Located in the heart of Montgomery County, Congregation Beth El is a vibrant, inclusive Jewish community dedicated to spiritual growth, lifelong learning, and social justice. Managing a diverse range of activities from a bustling preschool and religious school to cemetery management and traditional worship, the congregation requires a highly organized operational structure to support its hundreds of member households and ensure every individual feels seen and supported.
The Challenge
Before partnering with Prolocity, Congregation Beth El relied on manual processes and limited system coordination to manage member engagement and ritual observances. As its programs expanded, the organization faced several operational challenges:
- A legacy NPSP configuration that lacked the flexibility to adapt to modern synagogue operations
- Disjointed religious school and preschool registration processes that did not sync with member financial records
- Invoicing bottlenecks caused by the lack of a flexible, professional bulk/batch invoicing solution
- The need to recreate and refine successful custom tools, such as Yahrzeit tracking, within a more modern and supported framework
- Difficulty gaining a 360-degree view of a member’s journey from application to program participant
Congregation Beth El needed a more structured Salesforce solution that could streamline program coordination, organize participant data, and provide better reporting and visibility across its initiatives while allowing them to continue to grow and innovate with the latest Salesforce tools.
The Solution
Nonprofit Cloud
Apsona
FormAssembly
Reports & Dashboards
Prolocity transitioned Congregation Beth El to Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (NPC), reimagining the digital ecosystem to better support member management, enrollment, and financial operations.
Key components of the solution included:
- Discovery & Requirements Definition: Conducted discovery sessions with Beth El stakeholders to review synagogue operations, membership management, and financial reporting needs.
- Salesforce Configuration: Implemented Salesforce NPC using the Person Account model and Party Relationship Groups to manage individual member status, interests, and complex household dynamics.
- Automated Ritual Management: Modernized and optimized the existing Yahrzeit conversion process using the Hebrew Dates package to automatically calculate "Next Yahrzeit" dates and manage cemetery plot assignments, ensuring traditions were honored with technical precision.
- Integrated Enrollment Flows: Leveraged FormAssembly to create intuitive, multi-student registration forms for the Religious School and Preschool that directly populate NPC Program Enrollments.
- Professional Batch Invoicing: Implemented Apsona for Document Generation, enabling the team to issue batch PDF invoices via email for membership and event fees.
- Advanced Financial Architecture: Configured NPC’s Gift Commitments and Gift Transactions to handle complex financial scenarios, including "On Account" payments and automated naming conventions.
- Reporting & Dashboards: Developed reports to help staff monitor donor activity and operational outcomes, including "Last Registered" and "Last Attended" metrics.
- User Acceptance Testing & Training: Supported UAT to validate configured processes and delivered tailored training for administrators and end-users on the new NPC environment.
The Impact
Coordinated Community Services
Greater Visibility
Automated Renewal
Time Savings
With Salesforce optimized for its unique needs, Congregation Beth El gained a centralized platform for coordinating member services and tracking participation across its programs. Staff were able to more easily manage ritual observances, capture multi-student registrations, and generate reports that provided greater visibility into community engagement and financial health. The shift to Nonprofit Cloud has specifically delivered massive time savings in core administrative areas. Automated membership renewals now occur with the click of a button; staff noted that this process previously took "what feels like years" to complete annually, and the new system is expected to save "gobs of hours" every year. Additionally, automated thank-you emails for donors and tributes are now handled directly within the system, saving staff hours each week that were previously spent downloading reports and running manual email merges.
Following the implementation, Prolocity has provided ongoing support to further refine internal processes, ensuring the platform effectively supports the organization’s mission of fostering a vibrant and inclusive community.
Contact Us
