Text Families Instantly: SMS for Schools, PTAs & Boosters

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 are the paid plan.

Causly does two jobs for a school office, a PTA board, or a booster club.

The first is free and needs no card: volunteer sign-up sheets. Post the shifts for the fall festival, the book fair, picture day or conference night, and share one link. A parent opens the page, picks 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 folding table.

The second is the paid plan: text alerts and reminders, sent as real text messages, so there is nothing for a family to install.

What this looks like during a school year

Sheets all year. Room-parent shifts, the jog-a-thon, book fair hours, conference times, spirit-night helpers. Unlimited sheets, unlimited slots.
A slot can have its own text list. A sign-up on a slot joins that slot's list, so the Friday crew and the Saturday crew stay separate.
Early closures and schedule changes. Write the message and send it, or queue it in your organization's own timezone for 6 a.m.
Permission slips and forms. Text the field-trip link the day it goes out and again the night before it's due, and watch the tap count.
Fundraisers. Spirit-wear sales, the fall gala, the jog-a-thon. Collect payments straight from the text, with the money landing in your own account.
Volunteer and carpool calls. Need three more chaperones by Friday? Keep one list per grade and send to that one.

How joining a text list works

A parent 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 to download, 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. You can run one keyword for the whole school and separate ones per grade, per team, or per club. 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.

Fundraising that goes straight to your account

When the booster club runs a fundraiser, supporters can give or pay right from the message. Funds go directly to your organization's own Stripe account — Causly doesn't take a cut of what you raise. Every link is shortened and click-tracked, so your treasurer can see how many taps each link got, and the payment ledger records every payment by name, amount and item.

Built for the way school teams actually work

Schedule sends in your timezone. Write the early-dismissal text tonight and queue it for 6 a.m.; it goes out in your organization's own timezone — no one wakes up at 5:55 to hit send.
Invite your whole team by email. The principal, the office manager, the PTA secretary, the booster treasurer — add them all. Members work under the organization's plan, so there's no juggling logins.

Causly works for schools and parent groups 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, pick a keyword and share it on flyers, the marquee, and back-to-school forms.
Families text it in and reply YES to confirm.
Build lists by grade, team, or club.
Schedule the message, attach a payment link if you're fundraising, and send.

Ready for the next time it matters? Get started with Causly.