Volunteer scheduling for churches
& nonprofits — answered

GraceSquad is an all-in-one volunteer scheduling and member management platform built for churches and nonprofits. It combines an auto-fill scheduling engine, a member CRM, donation tracking, SMS and email reminders, and a child-safety check-in module — replacing tools like Planning Center, SignUpGenius, GroupMe, and a stack of spreadsheets.

Planning Center charges per module, which adds up fast: People, Services, Giving, Groups, and Registrations are each billed separately. GraceSquad bundles everything into a single plan that starts free and includes unlimited members on paid tiers. The scheduling engine also respects skills, certifications, and fairness across a 4-week rotation window — not just first-come, first-scheduled. See our full comparison at /compare.

Yes. The Starter plan is free forever with no credit card required. It includes manual volunteer scheduling, up to 100 members, a basic member CRM, email reminders, and volunteer profiles. No trial countdown and no per-volunteer fees. Auto-fill scheduling is available on the Community plan and above.

GraceSquad Community is $39/month for up to 500 members with auto-fill scheduling, SMS reminders, and the volunteer portal. Growth at $79/month adds child safety, donation tracking, forms, and the full report library. The Ministry plan at $119/month adds multi-campus support, API access, and priority support. All paid plans come with a 14-day free trial.

Yes. We support CSV imports for members, volunteer profiles, service templates, and upcoming schedules. Most churches finish the migration in under an hour. If you have a Planning Center export and need help mapping fields, our team will walk you through it at no cost on any plan.

Yes. GraceSquad includes built-in background check status tracking on the Growth plan and above. Coordinators can record check status (pending, cleared, expired) directly on a volunteer profile, track expiration dates, and block volunteers from auto-fill until their check is current. This integrates with your existing background check provider — just update the status in GraceSquad as results come in.

Yes. Volunteers can request a swap from the portal — either picking a specific replacement or leaving it open for a coordinator to fill. Coordinators get notified immediately, approve or reject with one tap, and the reassignment happens automatically. All swap history is audited so you can see patterns over time.

The auto-fill engine scores every eligible volunteer for each open role slot based on required skills, required certifications (e.g., background check, CPR), availability windows and blackout dates, rotation fairness over the last 4 weeks, and a below-median-hours bonus so load spreads evenly. It then drafts assignments for a coordinator to review and publish — never silently. Everything a coordinator would consider in a good rota, scored in under a second.

GraceSquad runs on hardened VPS infrastructure in the US with TLS 1.3 everywhere, encrypted database backups, and role-based access inside every org. We never share or sell member data, and any data we process is owned by your organization — you can export or delete it at any time from the admin panel.

Yes, SMS reminders are included on the Community plan and above (Starter is email-only). Reminders fire automatically 48 hours and 24 hours before each shift, and volunteers can confirm or decline from a single link. SMS uses Twilio under the hood and deliverability is billed at-cost.

Absolutely. The same platform works for food banks, youth programs, community outreach organizations, disaster-response teams, and any nonprofit that coordinates volunteers around scheduled events. Church-specific features (like ministries and child-safety check-in) can be hidden from the admin panel if they are not relevant to your organization.

Sign up for the free Starter plan — no credit card — invite your team, import your members (CSV or manually), set up your first service template, and run auto-fill. Most coordinators have their first real schedule live in under thirty minutes.