HelloGrowthCRM helps a welcome team follow up with visitors and newcomers in one shared place. It is not a church management system. It does not handle giving, membership records or volunteer scheduling.
Quick answer
First-time guest follow-up in the week after a visit
Connection cards collected online and on paper
Newcomers lunch invitations tracked to attendance
Handing a visitor to the person running groups
Welcome team volunteers sharing one follow-up list
Seasonal review of how newcomers found the church
Why this page exists
Most churches already have a church management system. Planning Center, Breeze and Tithe.ly do the work of holding membership records, giving history, groups, check-ins and service scheduling, and they do it well. What often goes missing is smaller and more human: the person who filled in a connection card three Sundays ago and never heard from anyone. HelloGrowthCRM is a shared place to hold that follow-up. Connection cards from your website form, texts to the guest line and calls all land in the same list. Stages match how a newcomer actually connects: first visit, personal contact made, invited to something, attending regularly. Gentle reminder sequences make sure the welcome team follows through in the week after a visit rather than the month after. There is a free forever plan, and setup takes about 15 minutes.
We want to be straight with you about the limits. HelloGrowthCRM is not a church management system. It holds no giving or tithing records, it is not your membership database of record, and it does not schedule volunteers, run check-ins, plan services or manage groups. If you need those things, Planning Center or Breeze is very likely the better primary tool for your church, and for many congregations it may be the only tool you need. HelloGrowthCRM covers one narrow job well: following up with visitors and newcomers between their first visit and the point where they are genuinely connected. If your ChMS already handles that follow-up to your satisfaction, you do not need this. If connection cards sit in a drawer until Wednesday, a shared follow-up list may help.
Common search intent
Connection cards from Sunday sit in a folder until midweek. By the time someone reads them, the moment when a guest expected to hear from a person has passed.
Three people welcome the same family and nobody is certain who followed up, so the family gets two texts saying the same thing, or none at all.
The welcome team runs on volunteers who serve one Sunday in four. Whatever one person remembers about a visitor is lost by the time they serve again.
A newcomer says they would like to join a group, but the note never reaches the person who runs groups, and the conversation quietly ends there.
Follow-up depends on one staff member's phone. When they are on vacation or step down, the whole history of who was contacted disappears with them.
Nobody can say how many first-time guests actually connected this year, so the welcome ministry is reviewed on impressions rather than on anything you can look at.
A young family will read a text on Sunday evening and answer it. An older visitor would much rather receive a short handwritten note and a phone call on a weekday. Someone who moved from overseas may use WhatsApp for everything. HelloGrowthCRM handles email, SMS, WhatsApp and calls from the same record, so your welcome team can choose what suits the person rather than sending everyone the same thing. Nothing is sent automatically that you have not written and approved. The point is not volume of messages. It is that the one message you do send actually arrives, and that somebody knows it was sent.
Best next step
See how email, SMS, tasks, and billing fit your workflow in one demo.
Point your online connection card at HelloGrowthCRM and add paper cards after the service. Texts to a guest number and calls to the church office land in the same list, so nothing depends on a single volunteer's memory.
Name the steps your church actually uses. First visit, personal contact made, coffee or newcomers lunch, invited to a group, attending regularly. Everyone on the welcome team can see where a person is without asking around.
Assign each new card to a person and let reminder sequences prompt them. Add a short welcome email you have written yourself, and a text if that suits the person better. Personal contact stays personal.
When someone joins a group or becomes a member, that record belongs in your church management system. Mark the follow-up complete here and let Planning Center or Breeze hold the long-term relationship as it was designed to.
Pricing
There is a free forever plan, which is where most churches should start and where many will stay. Paid plans are $12 per user per month on monthly billing, or $10 per user per month billed annually. You only need seats for the people doing follow-up, which is usually a connections pastor and a few welcome team volunteers rather than the whole staff. Setup takes about 15 minutes. The optional managed RevOps service, Growth Engine, exists but very few churches will need it.
CRM for nonprofits
How the same follow-up approach is used by other mission-driven organizations.
ExploreFree CRM for nonprofits
Details of the free forever plan and what it covers.
ExploreFollow-up sequences
How email, SMS and WhatsApp sequences are written and scheduled.
ExploreManaging new contacts
How records, stages and ownership work for a shared follow-up list.
ExploreHelloGrowthCRM in the USA
Overview of how US organizations set up and run HelloGrowthCRM.
ExploreUS pricing
Plan details, the free forever tier and annual billing.
ExploreIf connection cards keep going unanswered, the free forever plan is a low-risk way to try a shared follow-up list for a season. Setup takes about 15 minutes. Keep Planning Center or Breeze as your main system. Paid plans are $12 per user per month, or $10 billed annually.
HelloGrowthCRM ships 12 AI agents across 3 autonomy levels — from fully autonomous voice calling to assistive smart compose. Every AI action is logged and reversible.
Voice Agent for Follow-Up
AI calls Churches & Faith Organizations prospects a day after the first conversation, answers the obvious questions, and books the next step so nobody has to chase manually.
Smart Compose for Client Messages
AI writing assist for inquiry replies, proposal covering notes, and follow-up messages — consistent wording, sent faster.
Automated Follow-Up Sequences
Trigger SMS, WhatsApp, and email reminders on a schedule you set once, so every open opportunity gets worked until it is won or closed out.
AI Lead Scoring
Rank incoming churches & faith organizations inquiries by value, source, and response speed so the team works the best ones first.
All AI features included on every paid plan. No add-ons.