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Clearstream

Trigger a Clearstream text message from any B1 event — new person, new gift, form submission, calendar update — and pull replies back as B1 records. Clearstream's Zapier app exposes both directions, so the whole wiring is a recipe and not custom code.

Before You Begin

  • A Clearstream account with at least one list and an SMS allowance
  • A Zapier account
  • A B1Admin user with Edit Settings permission

What You Can Wire Up​

DirectionTriggerAction
B1 → ClearstreamB1 person.createdClearstream: Create/Update Subscriber + Send Text to Number
B1 → ClearstreamB1 donation.createdClearstream: Send Text to List (e.g. notify the finance team)
B1 → ClearstreamB1 form.submission.createdClearstream: Send Text to a routing list (e.g. prayer request team)
Clearstream → B1New Incoming TextB1: Create Person; tag with the keyword they texted

Clearstream's Zapier actions: Send Text to Number, Send Text to List, Create/Update Subscriber, Add Subscriber to Automated Workflow, Add Tag to Subscriber, Remove Subscriber From List.

Setup​

1. Mint a B1 API key​

Settings → Developer → API Keys → New API Key:

  • settings:write — required for B1 to register the trigger webhook
  • people:read — needed to look up the person from the event (personId → name/phone/email)
  • (Optional) people:write if Clearstream replies should create B1 contacts

2. Build the "text on new gift" Zap​

  1. Trigger — B1.church: New Donation
  2. Action — B1.church: Find Person (the donation's personId)
  3. Action — Clearstream: Send Text to Number. Use the person's phone from step 2 as the recipient, compose the message ("Thanks for your gift, {first}! …").

Turn the Zap on. B1 registers the donation webhook on activation; you'll see Zapier — donation.created appear in Settings → Developer → Webhooks.

3. (Optional) Pull replies back as B1 records​

  1. Trigger — Clearstream: New Incoming Text
  2. Action — Filter by Zapier on the keyword — e.g. only continue if the text body starts with PRAY
  3. Action — B1.church: Find Person (by phone)
  4. Action — Filter / Path — if not found, create them; either way, file the text body somewhere (Slack, Google Sheet, or a B1 form submission via Webhooks by Zapier).

Common Recipes​

Volunteer team paging​

  • Trigger — B1.church: New Form Submission (filtered on the prayer-request form id)
  • Action — Clearstream: Send Text to List, where the list is your on-call pastoral team. Compose the body as New prayer request: {data.questions.0.answer}.

First-time visitor follow-up sequence​

  • Trigger — B1.church: New Person, filtered on a B1 person tag of "First-time visitor"
  • Action — Clearstream: Add Subscriber to Automated Workflow. Map the workflow id to a pre-built 7-day text drip.

Keyword-driven group join​

  • Trigger — Clearstream: New Incoming Text (filter to keyword MENS)
  • Action — B1.church: Find Person (by phone); fork on not-found → Create Person
  • Action — B1.church: Add Group Member to the Men's Ministry group

Limits & Notes​

  • Clearstream meters SMS by message. Every Send Text action consumes one or more credits depending on length and number of recipients — check your plan's allowance.
  • Phone must be in E.164 format (e.g. +15555550199) for Send Text to Number. B1's person record stores whatever was entered; use a Formatter by Zapier — Numbers → Format Phone Number step if you can't guarantee the format.
  • No header is required from B1's side — Clearstream's auth lives entirely inside its Zapier connection.

Troubleshooting​

  • Trigger never fires — Settings → Developer → Webhooks should show a Zapier — <event> row after the Zap is turned on. If not, the B1 API key is missing settings:write. Re-mint and re-connect.
  • Clearstream returns "Invalid phone number" — the recipient field isn't in E.164. Add a Format Phone Number step.
  • Send Text to List fails with 403 — the Clearstream API user lacks permission for that list, or the list id is wrong. List ids are visible on the Clearstream list detail page.

See Also​