Sunday, at the door: “Mom starts hospice this week.”
It’s Thursday. Did anyone call?
Retire the spreadsheet.
You’re the one keeping your church’s care from falling through the cracks — in a color-coded spreadsheet, a pastor’s inbox, and your own memory. CareNote is the platform for tracking pastoral care, with a built-in care request workflow: every need received, assigned, accepted, chased, and reported back. The software does the follow-up. You do the ministry.
Need your pastor’s yes? We wrote the case for you →
Trusted by 800+ care teams in 18+ countries, caring for over 681,000 people — from a solo pastor serving two 25-member congregations to a 20,000-member church across 12 campuses. Built by a pastor, 25 years in the same congregation — as heard on the Care Ministry Podcast.
| Name | Need | Who | Called | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Margaret H. | Hospital — St. Joe’s | Pastor? | — | who has this?? |
| Okafor family | New baby — meals | Diane? | 6/28 | need 3 dinners |
| Walter B. | (not seen in weeks) | 5/24 | FOLLOW UP!! | |
| R. & D. Marsh | Grief follow-up | P. Dan | 6/12 | week 3? or 6? |
becomes, in one afternoon of setup…
✓ Due dates chased automatically. Reports flow back to the whole team. Nothing lives in one person’s memory.
Sound familiar?
Everyone cares. The care system is what’s missing.
Most churches don’t have a pastoral care system — they have good intentions distributed across prayer cards, inboxes, and one heroic administrator. Here’s where that breaks.
“The prayer cards get passed around at staff meeting… and that’s where it ends.”
Assignment happens in the room. Follow-up doesn’t. Months of faithful collecting, no way to know if anyone ever made the call — or what they learned when they did.
“Care lives in the pastor’s inbox — so only the pastor can care.”
When email is the system, the circle of people who can help stays tiny. The deacon, the elder, the plumber who’d gladly serve — they never even hear about the need.
“The call gets made… and nothing comes back.”
The black box. What the pastor learned on that call is locked in the pastor’s mind. The next person starts from scratch, and the family tells their story all over again.
Receive · Respond · Report · Follow Up
The built-in care request workflow.
No other pastoral care tool has one.
This is CareNote’s spine — an opinionated workflow, built over a year with a hospital case manager who ran care for a 15,000-member parish. It carries every need from the door to done, and it never depends on anyone’s memory.
Received
A prayer card, a forwarded email, a Planning Center form, a note from the door — every need lands in one stream, not five inboxes.
Assigned
To one person, or to a team where the first volunteer to text YES takes it. Smart matching suggests who’s built for this need.
Accepted — or rerouted
Volunteers can decline with a note, and the need reroutes instead of stalling. Life happens; the care doesn’t stop for it.
“Out of town — assign my wife. She’ll rock this.”
Chased — by the software
Due date passing? CareNote nudges the volunteer and flags you only if it stalls. You never have to be the nag again.
Reported back
The visit report flows into the stream — visible to the team, attached to the person’s care history, synced to Planning Center if that’s your world.
Today, care disappears into a black box.
The call gets made, the visit happens — and what was learned stays locked in one person’s memory or one pastor’s inbox. Birthdays pass unnoticed. Quiet people slip away. The next volunteer starts from scratch. With CareNote, every report comes back into the stream, and the hidden things surface.
Every morning, CareNote puts it all in the light of day.
Birthdays, quiet risks, prayer needs, hidden gifts — surfaced automatically, where your team can act on them.
Birthdays & milestones
Every morning, CareNote tells you whose day it is — birthdays, anniversaries, the end of chemo, the knee-surgery rehab that just finished.
One text — “I’m glad you were born” — and she showed the whole usher team on Sunday.
Quiet risks
The Risk Radar surfaces the people quietly living in the middle of your congregation — no contact in weeks, slipping without a sound — before they become a goodbye.
Prayer, delivered
One click turns the week’s care requests into a prayer list for your intercessors. Track requests until they’re answered — because prayer is never one-and-done.
The plumber’s gift
There’s a plumber in your church who’ll gladly fix a widow’s sink but will never log into anything. CareNote daylights his skill and assigns him by email — no login, ever.
One report, every team
Build a report once, filter it four ways — prayer team, deacons, elders, pastors — and send each team exactly their slice without ever leaving CareNote.
The Daily Beacon
A morning email with what arrived overnight, what’s overdue, and who needs you today. You don’t check a dashboard — CareNote comes to you.
For the one who keeps the care
Walk into your pastor’s office with this.
You already run the care ministry — you just run it on willpower. Here’s the case, ready to make. Or skip the meeting: send the email and let us do the talking.
🎧 Pastors listen. Send yours the founder’s interview on the Care Ministry Podcast — the story behind CareNote, told pastor to pastor.
The case, in five lines
- We already receive care needs — we just can’t prove the follow-up. CareNote closes the loop with a workflow, not willpower.
- It frees the pastors — deacons and volunteers accept by text or email, no logins, so care stops bottlenecking in one inbox.
- It works with what we have — Planning Center, Breeze, and 7 more. Notes even sync back automatically.
- It costs less than one lost family — $10/user/month. Structured care retains the people who’d otherwise slip away unnoticed.
- We can try it free — 14 days, no credit card, set up in an afternoon.
From 25 to 20,000
Whatever size your church is, care works the same way here.
Sixty volunteers. Average age 64.
Cornerstone Church Long Beach runs an all-volunteer visitation ministry on CareNote. They don’t just make the visits — they capture the report for every single one, so the next coordinator inherits a ministry, not a mystery.
Validated at 20,000. Chosen at 100 users.
A 12-campus church in the Netherlands ran a proof of concept, validated it, and is onboarding now — headed to 40 users. Valley Church, one of North America’s largest, is bringing its care team on and scaling toward 100. Why? The built-in care request workflow. No one else has it.
Built by a pastor who coordinates care every week
Only CareNote does this.
The care request workflow
Received, assigned, accepted or rerouted, chased, reported back. The opinionated spine no other church tool ships.
This is the moat — everything else builds on it
Care Action Center
Unassigned requests, overdue follow-ups, quiet risks, care delivered — exactly what needs action right now.
Others show what happened. We show what’s next.
SMS accept & first-to-respond
Send a need to a team; the first volunteer to text YES takes it. No apps, no logins, no phone tree.
Volunteers never need to log in
Email-to-care-request
Forward any email and it becomes a care request instantly — prayer needs, hospital calls, benevolence, all captured.
No manual data entry required
AI congregant briefings
A Care Story before every visit — past interactions, prayers, milestones, family connections. Walk in already knowing.
AI-powered visit preparation
Care Table meal coordination
Meal trains inside the care request — private invitations, no-login sign-up, and a gift-card option for the non-cooks.
Built-in meal & support coordination
Automations for prayer & benevolence
Prayer requests flow to daily prayer lists automatically. Benevolence runs with documents, expenses, and accountability built in.
Ministry workflows, not generic to-dos
Free volunteers
Three free volunteers with every paid user — they accept assignments and file reports by email, no account needed.
Volunteers don’t cost extra
S.H.A.P.E. matching
Match needs to the congregants built to meet them — spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, experiences.
So serving reaches beyond the same few names
And underneath, a complete platform
Everything a care ministry runs on.
People & profiles
Comprehensive profiles with contact details, birthdays, relationships, and photos · households and family connections · profile timeline and activity feed · tags, categories, and custom types · profile merge · CSV import with intelligent header mapping
Care intake & requests
Intake from web forms, Planning Center forms, forwarded email, or manual entry · categories, priorities, and due dates · full status workflow from entered to closed · reassignment and resend · referrals and triage
Communication
Email and SMS messaging · one-on-one text conversations · delivery and read tracking · searchable communication history · interactive SMS commands for volunteers in the field
Prayer ministry
Prayer request tracking · prayer cards for your team · automatic Daily Prayer List email every morning · answered-prayer follow-up
Tasks, workflows & automation
Tasks linked to people or requests · reusable workflow templates for grief care, newcomer welcome, and more · triggers and condition-based automations · smart on-call assignment
Groups & volunteers
Care groups with activity feeds and member availability · group email and SMS · first-to-accept assignments · volunteer email system with no login required · team member directory access
Visits & milestones
Hospital, home, and nursing-home visit logging · visit scheduling and check-ins · follow-up flags and reminders · milestones for birthdays, anniversaries, and life events
Reports & AI
Every table is a report with customizable filters — and prints as one · 26 built-in reports for activity, volunteers, and overdue care · AI Report Builder — ask questions in plain English · AI Care Story before every visit · Daily Beacon morning summary · CSV export for board reports
Privacy & security
Role, group, and user-level privacy controls · restricted notes and documents · encrypted data storage · secure action tokens · full audit trail of every change
Platform
Installable as an app with web push notifications · multi-campus filtering and views · Spanish and Dutch localization · real-time updates across your team · documents on profiles and groups
Works with the systems you already use — and respects them.
The Planning Center loop: intake through PCO Forms, assignment and reports in CareNote, and the notes sync back into Planning Center automatically — with privacy controls so nothing leaks through Church Center. One administrator told us retyping those reports was her whole job. It isn’t anymore.
“I feel like my job is to care for people — not to manage spreadsheets or track assignments. An app can do that. And because CareNote does it so well, I can thank you only from the bottom of my heart.”
“You hit a sweet spot with CareNote. There’s the thing meant for mental health counseling that is just so heavy and cumbersome, and then there’s something that’s kind of a step above the Google sheet — and you hit the sweet spot in the middle.”
“Instead of relying on scattered text messages, we now have a clear system for managing hospital visits and follow-ups. It’s straightforward, not overwhelming, and gives us the confidence that no one falls through the cracks.”
“CareNote has been instrumental in managing over 198 congregants and handling more than 2,000 care requests, along with generating over 1,500 care reports for our Visitation Ministry. We couldn’t have managed without it!”
“I’ve never worked with a software product where the developer is like ‘call me if you have a problem.’ That alone is gonna make my job easier.”
The best product welcomes comparison.
Shopping around? You should be. We keep honest, current comparison pages against every tool churches consider alongside CareNote.
Priced for ministry, not enterprise
One plan for your care team.
CareNote Core is everything you need. Add Plus when you’re ready for advanced coordination tools.
Everything you need to track pastoral care faithfully.
per user / month, billed annually — or $15 billed monthly
Start free trial- The care request workflow — received to reported
- Care Action Center — see who needs you today
- Risk Radar — spot people slipping through the cracks
- Notes, visits, updates, and prayer requests
- Care groups, tasks, and smart provider matching
- Milestones — birthdays and anniversaries
- 3 free email-only volunteers per paid user
- Robust privacy — role, group, and user-level controls
- 9 ChMS integrations (people sync)
- Live US-based phone and email support
- 14-day free trial — no credit card required
Adds team coordination tools to Core — a flat annual fee based on total team size.
- Email-to-CareNote intake
- First-to-Accept group assignments
- SMS acceptance, response & volunteer alerts
- AI Congregant Briefings before visits
- Documents, benevolence & expense tracking
- Multi-campus filtering and views
- Automated workflows and triggers
Start with Core — it’s the only plan you need. If your team grows and you want advanced coordination tools, you can add Plus anytime. Every account includes a 14-day free trial with full access.
Questions, answered
Frequently asked questions
What is CareNote?
CareNote is a modern platform for tracking pastoral care. It helps churches receive needs, route them to care teams, track visits and follow-ups, communicate through SMS and email, and maintain a full care history — all in one place.
We track care in a spreadsheet today. How hard is the switch?
An afternoon, honestly. Import your people from a CSV (CareNote maps your columns intelligently) or sync them from your church management system, invite your team, and your open care needs become care requests. Most churches are running before the trial’s first week is out.
Does CareNote help with follow-ups?
Absolutely. CareNote ensures no one falls through the cracks with automatic follow-up reminders, overdue task alerts, and a Care Action Center that shows exactly who needs attention. You’ll always know what’s next.
Can I use CareNote with volunteers?
Yes. CareNote includes free email-only volunteers who can accept assignments, receive SMS or email notifications, and submit reports — without needing a login or dashboard access. Perfect for deacons, elders, and care team members.
How do I assign visits to my team?
You can assign care requests directly to a person, or send them to a group where the first volunteer to accept gets the assignment automatically. Volunteers can accept and report back via SMS or email — no app needed.
Does CareNote integrate with Planning Center?
Yes. CareNote syncs People, Lists, and Notes with Planning Center, can automatically convert Planning Center Forms into care requests, and pushes visit notes back into Planning Center with privacy controls. This keeps both systems aligned and saves significant admin time.
Is CareNote secure?
Yes. CareNote uses encrypted data storage, secure action tokens, group-based permissions, and audit logs. Sensitive notes and documents can be restricted by group, role, or team to protect pastoral confidentiality.
What reports can I run?
Every table in CareNote is a report with customizable filters — slice the data however you need, then print it as a report. Ask questions in plain English with the AI Report Builder, and lean on 26 built-in reports for care activity summaries, volunteer performance, overdue follow-ups, and ministry pulse metrics.
How much does CareNote cost?
CareNote is $10/user/month when billed annually, or $15/user/month billed monthly. Each paid user includes 3 free email-only volunteers. Start with a 14-day free trial — no credit card required.
“I share it, you retain it, you follow up — and I feel seen. And because I feel seen, I know that I am loved.”
That’s the exchange at the door every Sunday. CareNote keeps your side of it. 14 days free, no credit card required.