I manage a hotline for a nonprofit, and we're looking for a better way to handle our call forwarding. Currently, we use an iPhone as our hotline phone, which only forwards calls to the staff on call. The hassle is that we have to manually change the forwarding number every day at 4 PM when our schedule updates. Since our on-call schedule changes monthly and isn't consistent, it's easy to forget this task. Plus, we're a remote organization, so when the manager goes on vacation, the hotline phone needs to be given to someone else, which complicates things.
We want a system that allows us to:
- Keep the same hotline number
- Automatically forward calls based on an editable monthly schedule
- Route calls to staff cell phones (iPhones)
- Manage everything remotely without needing access to the hotline phone
- Optionally, support nonprofit pricing or simple admin management
We use Google Workspace but are open to other solutions like VoIP or cloud-based call routing software. I'd love to hear from anyone who has set up similar systems, especially with options like RingCentral, 8x8, OpenPhone, or Twilio!
5 Answers
This takes me back! I used to work in IT for a church where we ran FreePBX. One of the pastors had a crisis phone, and they would pass it around weekly. It’s been a while since I’ve used FreePBX, so I'm not sure about its current status, but it did require a SIP trunk to function.
You might want to check out 3cx. It's quite affordable and really easy to manage. We've actually trained our clients to handle most of the user management themselves. Plus, you can either find companies that host it or set it up yourself quite cheaply on platforms like Lightsail.
Honestly, if you just port your number to a VoIP provider, this whole process doesn’t have to be complicated at all.
You should consider VoIPstudio; it’s pretty easy to set up and cheaper than many others. They also offer a free trial to test it out.
RingCentral might do what you need with their incoming call rules combined with schedules. It's definitely worth looking into, though it does come with its own quirks.
As someone who also manages a hotline through RingCentral, I’d advise staying away. We're in the process of transitioning away from it due to several issues.
It does work, but honestly, I've found RingCentral to be lacking. Dialpad offers a more reliable solution for handling call management.