Connect Your Congregation: SMS for Churches & Ministries

Coming from Remind or GroupMe? GroupMe began retiring SMS mode in August 2026, one recipient at a time on a seven-day countdown, and Remind's help centre says sending SMS through Remind Chat requires a verified member of a verified K-12 educational institution in the United States. Either way, the families who were reading the group as plain text messages stop receiving it that way. Switching from GroupMe · Switching from Remind

Sign-up sheets are free. Text alerts and giving are the paid plan.

Causly does two jobs for a church, a synagogue, a mosque, a ministry, or a faith group.

The first is free and needs no card: volunteer sign-up sheets. Post the meal train, the nursery rotation, the greeter schedule or the volunteer day, and share one link. A member opens the page, takes a slot, and leaves a name, email and mobile number — no account, nothing to install. Each sign-up gets an email confirmation with a cancel link, up to a daily limit. You get a coordinator hub with live counts, the full roster, a CSV export and a print-out for the welcome table.

The second is the paid plan: text alerts, reminders, and giving straight from a message.

Ways congregations use it

Sheets for the rota. Meal trains, the nursery rotation, greeters, the holiday volunteer day, the retreat carpool. Unlimited sheets, unlimited slots.
A slot can have its own text list. A sign-up on a slot joins that slot's list, so this morning's team and next week's stay separate.
Service and gathering updates. A schedule change, a weather closure, a moved location.
Prayer and care requests. Send a prayer need to a list, or invite members to share their own.
Event and holiday reminders. Holy-day services, the youth retreat, the potluck, the volunteer day.
Small groups and ministries. Keep the choir, the youth group, and the women's ministry on separate lists.

How joining a text list works

A member texts a word like JOIN to the Causly number, and we text back once asking them to reply YES. That reply is what subscribes them — no app, no login. A number that signs up on a sheet works the same way: it gets that one text and nothing else until it replies. Run separate keywords for the whole congregation, the youth ministry, and the volunteer team. Any message can be stopped with a reply, and a stop is not limited to one keyword or even to one organization: we record it against every entry that number has anywhere on Causly.

Giving that goes straight to your community

When you invite members to give from a Causly text, the funds go directly to your congregation's own Stripe account. Causly does not take a cut of what you receive. Every link is shortened and click-tracked, so your administrator can see how many taps each link got, and the giving ledger records every gift by name and amount.

Built for ministry teams and volunteers

Schedule sends in your timezone. Write Sunday's reminder on Saturday and queue it; it goes out in your organization's own timezone, so no one is sending texts before dawn.
Invite your leaders by email. Your administrator, your ministry leads, your volunteer coordinators — add them all. Members work under the organization's plan, so the work isn't stuck behind one login.

Causly works for faith communities anywhere in the United States. See the towns we have already written local pages for on our locations page.

How it works

Create a sign-up sheet, publish it, and share the link. That part is free.
On the paid plan, choose a keyword and share it from the pulpit, in the bulletin, and on your website.
Members text it in and reply YES to confirm.
Build lists for the whole congregation and for each ministry or group.
Schedule the message, attach a giving link if you're collecting an offering, and send.

Ready to stay close to your congregation all week? Get started with Causly.