This isn’t what you signed up for – endless spreadsheets, paper files, and calendars can make even the most organized person feel stressed out. But here’s the good news: CRMs (customer relationship management) are here to make your life a whole lot easier. With the right church CRM, you can automate those tasks and get back to what really matters – building relationships and serving your church family.
Let’s dive into how CRM software can benefit your church and explore some of the best options out there!
Why You Need a Church CRM
As a busy church leader, you’ve probably been there – juggling six different apps to keep up with everything! From tracking attendance and online giving to communicating with small groups, it can feel overwhelming.
That’s when you might start thinking about a CRM. Now, CRM typically stands for customer relationship management, but in our world, it can also stand for church relationship management. Originally designed for businesses and nonprofits to manage interactions with customers, CRMs are now tailored for churches too.
Churches use CRMs to strengthen connections with their congregations all in one place, and here are four ways this software can help your church.
An All-in-one Solution
With a CRM, you can engage with your church members without the hassle of logging into multiple websites. You can track member involvement, update contact information, send personalized messages, and even access online giving reports—all from one convenient platform! It’s a great way to simplify your workflow and stay connected with your congregation.
Stay Organized and Informed
CRMs keep all of your data organized for easy access. But they do more than just store information – a good CRM also uses that data to generate insightful reports, like giving trends and engagement analytics. This way, you can make informed decisions about how to best support and grow your congregation.
Improved Internal Communication
Since a CRM tracks every interaction between church members and your ministries, it keeps your team on the same page. For example, when church staff look at a member’s profile, they all see the same up-to-date info—like the last time the member attended a small group, the most recent church message they received, and any events they signed up for. Now leaders easily understand the best next step for each member, whether it’s following up after an event or reaching out to someone less involved.
Personalized Outreach
A CRM gives you a clear picture of each member’s unique needs and interests, allowing you to share more relevant information. Some CRMs let you segment your church members based on specific traits, making your communication even more targeted. We’ve all felt it—the more personalized the message, the more it makes you feel truly seen and valued. It’s that extra touch that shows someone really understands and cares about you.
The Best CRMs for Churches in 2024
With over 200 church CRMs on the market, choosing the right software for your church is a big decision. We’ve done the leg work and are ready to share the current top CRMs for churches.
The Best CRM for Churches: Donorbox CRM
Donorbox CRM is tailored to meet the unique needs of nonprofits, making it the perfect fit for churches. This AI-driven CRM pairs your go-to fundraising tools with easy-to-use communication and outreach features. So, you can manage and collect for your church all in one place, while also keeping track of members.
Key features:
- Personalized Communication: Send customized messages to your members directly through the platform.
- Member Segmentation: Organize your members into groups for more targeted outreach.
- Task Assignment: Assign tasks to church staff to ensure everyone is on the same page.
- Time-Saving Reports: Use ready-made templates, like tracking first-time donors and communication history.
- Offline Donation Management: Easily add donations made by cash or checks into your records.
- Recurring Donations: Manage, track, and cultivate recurring donations—the lifeblood of online giving for your church.
Donorbox CRM gives you the tools to truly know and connect with your church members. And the better you understand them, the stronger relationships you can build.
Best CRM for Small Churches: ChurchTrac
Even small churches have a lot of operational tasks to manage. ChurchTrac offers an affordable and simple interface for managing and communicating with your church members, so no one slips through the cracks.
Key features:
- Membership Management: Keep detailed records of members, including contact information, family relationships, donation history, and church involvement.
- Attendance Tracking: Easily record and track attendance for services and events.
- Communication Tools: Communicate with your members through email, text, and announcements.
- Event Management: Organize events for your church community with simple registration tools.
- Donation Management: Quickly track and record all tithes and donations.
- Church Accounting and Reporting: Access easy-to-use accounting reports to keep your finances in order.
As your church grows, ChurchTrac will keep supporting your ministry. When the time comes, you can add more features to your plan to match your needs.
Best CRM for Large Churches: Rock RMS
Rock RMS is a great CRM option for large congregations, including multi-site churches. They focus on helping you better manage members and resources through tools like groups, check-in, and automation.
Key features:
- Relationship Management: Manage your church members and their relationships, adding an unlimited amount of attributes to each record.
- Mobile App: Access Rock RMS features on the go with a fully customizable app for your smartphone.
- Finance: Handle financial transactions, track giving, manage donor information, and generate reports.
- Content Management: Create and manage your church’s website content with ease.
- Data & Automation: Save time by automating tasks and setting up workflows to streamline processes.
- Events and Check-in: Track attendance and publish upcoming events for your church community.
Best CRM for Church Member Tracking: Planning Center
Planning Center is all about people, making it a great choice for tracking your congregation. Their People tool, which comes free with the platform, lets you easily keep track of church members’ activities—like the groups they’re part of, event attendance, and giving history. Each member’s profile includes a full record of all church communication, background check statuses, and internal notes left by other church leaders, giving you a complete picture in one place.
Key features:
- Customized lists: Generate reports based on specific criteria, like creating a list of members who haven’t attended a small group in the past month.
- Track Goals: Set up workflows to monitor progress toward goals, such as becoming a church member.
- Custom Fields: Add custom fields to member profiles to track important details like spiritual gifts, baptism dates, or discipleship progress.
- Communication: Easily send texts, emails, or announcements to the entire congregation or targeted lists.
- Follow-up: Automate follow-up workflows for guests or event registrants to ensure timely and consistent communication.
Planning Center’s people tools make it easy to keep track of your members’ needs, ensuring that everyone gets the care and attention they require.
Best All-in-One CRM: Gracely
Gracely is an all-in-one CRM to help you stay organized with member data, attendance, events, engagement, and everything in between!
Key features:
- Members Management: Manage member profiles, track attendance, and send personalized emails to your congregation.
- Group Management: Keep track of group attendance, send group-specific emails, and share important files with participants.
- Collect & Track Donations: Collect all online and in-person donations in one place, generate detailed financial reports, send automated statements, and track giving history.
- Online Giving: Accept donations through online, mobile, and text giving options with ease.
- Event & Attendance Tracking: Create event registration forms, record attendance, and set reminders about upcoming events.
- Online Portal: Build an online portal for your church family to view upcoming events, fundraising campaigns, open groups, sermon videos, and more.
Gracely partners with churches like yours to offer a one-stop solution for all your administrative needs, allowing you to focus more on caring for your congregation.
Donorbox CRM – The Best CRM for Churches
Overall, Donorbox CRM is the best choice for churches of all sizes. Built with nonprofits in mind, it strikes the perfect balance between powerful fundraising tools to help grow your congregation and member engagement features to keep your church family connected.
Donorbox stays ahead of the curve with the latest technology, including an AI-powered assistant that provides detailed insights about your congregation. This allows you to serve your members more strategically and with greater care.
With features like personalized communication, member segmentation, and task assignment, managing outreach and administration becomes easier than ever. If you’re looking for a CRM that goes beyond just tracking finances, Donorbox helps you build deeper, more meaningful relationships with your church community.
Conclusion
We hope our list of top CRMs for churches helps you find the perfect fit for your church. If you’re ready to level up your church’s giving and member engagement, sign up for Donorbox MinistryMomentum and see how their powerful tools can help you connect with your congregation.
For more helpful church management tips, head over to our Church Giving Blog—a great resource made just for church leaders like you. You’ll find expert advice on everything from fundraising strategies to growing your church community.
