Chi Psi Fraternity Pursues Communication Excellence With RealResponse
Photos courtesy of Chi Psi Fraternity.
Since 1841, Chi Psi Fraternity has committed to building better men, enhancing the college experience, and creating lifelong friendships. The organization prioritizes substance over sheer size, with 34 chapters nationwide, including a presence at Clemson, Purdue, the University of Michigan, Yale, and more.
Jesus Diaz was initiated into Chi Psi while a student at Ole Miss, and currently serves as Director of Health & Safety for their Central Office. Tasked with overseeing risk management, insurance processes, and proactive educational programs across the fraternity, Diaz constantly looks for the best way to communicate with students and alumni (and simplify workflows for his own team).
“There's so much information that we need to share with our students,” says Diaz. “Long, information-heavy emails may go fully unread, making it difficult to ensure students receive important updates.”
Through one-on-one conversations with students, it was clear texting would be the best way to get important, timely details to members. Those affirmations inspired Diaz to pilot RealResponse’s Messaging Board functionality for proactive undergraduate outreach.
How Messaging Board Works:
RealResponse Messaging Board offers organizations a flexible way to proactively text important updates to students, alumni, or staff at scale.
The tool makes it possible to:
Upload custom recipient lists
Preschedule messages
Send ad-hoc updates
As the first organization to take advantage of Messaging Board, Chi Psi’s pilot and ongoing feedback are helping shape future enhancements to the product.
A new way to manage major event logistics
Diaz put Messaging Board to the test during Chi Psi’s annual flagship event, the 2026 national Convention. Held almost every year since 1845, Convention involves dozens of events, tight schedules, and over 150 undergraduate participants.
Organizers historically sent dense schedule graphics via email or placed printed PDFs inside attendee folders, but students rarely carried paperwork with them. With Messaging Board, Chi Psi moved entirely to direct, prescheduled SMS updates.
Diaz set up three automated daily messages while retaining the ability to send instant, real-time updates whenever schedules shifted. "There are a lot of moving parts, so our biggest need was to quickly, effectively distribute logistic information," Diaz explains. "We were able to create a schedule of outbound messages that would directly tell guys, ‘Hey, you wrapped up at this building, everybody needs to transition to another facility.’"
As the first organization to take advantage of RealResponse Messaging Board, Chi Psi saw immediate benefits:
Branding that builds trust: Each prescheduled message was a Central Office-branded communication (rather than a one-off text from staff members’ personal phones). This alleviates the administrative burden on individual employees, while lending credibility to Chi Psi’s outreach.
Time-saving bulk outreach: “It would have been impossible to put all 150 attendees in small group messages from various staff members’ personal devices,” Diaz admits, which is why email was previously the default channel for Convention communications. Messaging Board enabled group messaging at scale, and accommodated quick, ad hoc sends as the event unfolded.
A smoother attendee experience: One of the strongest votes of confidence in the new system came from Chi Psi members. Diaz actively gathered feedback from on-site attendees, who appreciated the day-of reminders about transitioning from point A to point B. "Everybody gave the nod of acknowledgement. I heard a lot of ‘This is helpful. It lets me know where I have to be next,’" he recalls.
Making efficient outreach the standard for day-to-day operations
Diaz is already looking ahead to phase two of Chi Psi’s Messaging Board adoption. Beyond using the tool across all Chi Psi national events going forward, he plans to integrate it across the Central Office for:
Chapter-specific outreach: Junior staff members are responsible for managing a portfolio of around 10 universities each. Rather than spend hours manually reaching out to individual chapter leaders, they can use Messaging Board to send bulk updates for roster information and other requests. The platform’s robust admin controls ensure staff members only access what they need for outreach, protecting any sensitive or private inbound messages that come through.
Emergency communications: “I see Messaging Board as a very important tool when an incident arises,” shares Diaz, particularly for urgent or reactive communications around campus safety, injuries, or extreme weather. Rather than send blanket messages to Chi Psi members, the Central Office can personalize outreach based on the events impacting a specific school or region of the country in real time.
More personalized event notifications: Diaz sees even more potential for Messaging Board to support targeted event attendee outreach—ideas that the RealResponse product team is actively exploring. For example, rather than set up an overarching Messaging Board for Convention, users could create subgroups for undergraduates and alumni, or subgroups based on the event tracks attendees signed up for.
Meeting Chi Psi Brothers where they are
Chi Psi’s Central Office exists to take on the administrative work needed to power a thriving community of undergraduates and alumni. Using RealResponse for both two-way anonymous reporting and proactive messaging makes it easier for Diaz and his team to deliver on that purpose, keep students safe, and create valuable connections with members nationwide.
"RealResponse is a great platform with many use cases, whether it's reacting to emergency situations or proactively communicating updates.”
Learn more about how RealResponse can amplify your organization’s member experience and engagement through structured, scalable communication.