What a Website Calendar Can Do

Over the past several months, we at Jvillage have been talking with many synagogues about their website needs and wants. We have asked synagogues to tell us what is working and what is not working as well as what is on their dream list for their website. And the number one issue that comes up is the community calendar. Synagogues believe that most of their member website activity is focused on their calendar. And at best this is an intuitive response, when it could be an analytical response. But that’s a conversation for another time.

At Jvillage, we have worked diligently to create calendar capability for your website that can help you with membership engagement, retention and fundraising.  Here are several key tools that the Jvillage calendar can provide your synagogue:

• Easy calendar administration. If you can type, you can update your calendar. You can create several calendars including shared calendars (public and private). We heard loud and clear that this was a priority for synagogues, and we have developed one of the easiest to use and update calendars possible.
  
  
• Promote your upcoming events. Use your homepage to promote an event. Our website administration tools enable you to check off a box that allows you to create a  promotional message for your homepage or any page (sisterhood, day camp, services, etc). And like a slide show, you can have different promotional messages appear one after another.  
  
  
• RSVP directly from your calendar & make payments. An event on your calendar can provide an RSVP email address or printable sign-up form for registration or response. And the email response can go to as many people as necessary to be informed of your member’s interest, such as the event organizer, other event participants, and your executive director. You can also gather all the info you need at once, including requests for volunteers to set up, a tally of vegetarian or fish dinners and payment -- all in one fell swoop.
  
  
• Social bar. With the use of a “social bar” (the option to share with others) a user can forward an event/item in an email to someone else or just as a self reminder.
  
  
• Event content. An event may contain links to internal or external content.  An easy click and you can provide all the information your congregants will need to make a decision on an event.  Whether it’s supporting an event with photographs, sending viewers to a YouTube video or providing an external website for further learning, you calendar can become much more engaging for current and prospective members.
  
  
• Multiple calendar display. An event calendar can be displayed in calendar format or list format. Or it can be displayed differently on different sections of your website.
  
  
• Full Hebrew calendar. You will be provided with the Hebrew dates for all holidays, as well as the Western calendar dates.
  
  

Find out more about how a Jvillage Network calendar can work for your synagogue. Go to our website and sign up for a demo.