Is keeping track of emails, texts, phone calls, and more ruining your church team communication? All you need is the right tool to simplify communication.
To work well as a team, you need a way for everyone to communicate the same way. Otherwise, some people might get accidentally left out.
Both free and premium team communication tools give you everything you need to collaborate, communicate and be a more efficient team.
Table of contents
1. Google Workspace
Millions of brands already use Google Workspace, formerly known as G Suite, for communication and collaboration. What many churches might not realize is they’re eligible to get these same tools for free or at a significant discount. This is what makes Google Workspace one of the best church team communication tools.
Workspace is one of the many benefits included as part of Google Nonprofit grants, which also include $10,000 in free ad credits every month. Everything from email to marketing are included to help better manage and grow your church without hurting your church’s budget.
In addition to Docs, Sheets and Slides, your church also gets Meet, Chat, Gmail, Calendar and more. All of these tools help your team stay in contact, keep track of tasks and be more efficient. Plus, all of this is free with a few limitations, such as 100 participant meetings and 30 GB/user storage space. Premium plans start at $3/month/user, which is still 75% off the normal price.
2. Slack
Many teams turn to Slack for communication. You can set up individual groups, have a general channel for church-wide communications and more. One-on-one chats along with video and voice calls make Slack one of the top choices for team communication. All conversations are neatly organized, including both group/channel communications and direct messages. You can even share files with each other.
Plus, Slack integrates with numerous other tools, including Google Drive, social media and Outlook calendar. Integrations are included with all plans, though the number of integrations at a time are limited based on your plan.
The free version limits you to 10 integrations and only the last 10,000 messages are searchable. Premium starts at $6.67/month. However, there is a Slack for Nonprofits discount that offers a free upgrade for churches up to 250 team members and an 85% discount for larger teams.
3. ProofHub
ProofHub is more of a project planning platform, but it’s communication features make it well worth considering for your church’s team communications. When it comes to project planning, there are multiple tools to make this easier, including tables, tasks, Gantt charts, Kanban boards and workflows. You can even assign tasks to team members.
To keep communicating as a team, ProofHub includes a chat feature, discussions, announcements and even the option to email messages directly in (no matter what email your team uses). Your team can quickly see messages, tasks, progress and important dates on their calendar all in a single app.
Unlike most premium options, you don’t have to pay per user, which does help save money for larger teams. While there is a free trial, there isn’t a free plan available. Plans start at $45/month or if you need to manage a large number of projects, you can get all available features for $89/month. If you contact them with proof that you’re a nonprofit, you can get the $89 plan for $53.40.
4. Bitrix24
While designed for small businesses, Bitrix24 is one of the best church team communication tools around. It’s actually an entire management system for projects, marketing and even outside contacts. Chat, video calls, calendar, announcements, general church feed and task/project management combine for an all-in-one communication platform for your team.
You can also create and collaborate on documents. While customer management is included, churches can use this for managing registrations, member contacts and donations.
The great part is Bitrix24 offers basic features to unlimited users for free. For smaller church teams, you probably won’t need anything more than this. For more features, the five user plan is $39/month. For unlimited users and all features, it’s $159/month. There’s also Bitrix24 CRM for nonprofits, which helps aid in managing donations, fundraising projects, grants and more.
5. Evernote Teams
Your church might already use Evernote to help with sermon creation and research. Or, you may use it to gather ideas for social media, blog posts and volunteer management. While it’s not made to be a communication tool, Evernote Teams is ideal for collaborating on projects together. This is especially useful for volunteers and ministry leaders. They can create notes, add documents, assign and manage tasks, collect information and much more.
For best results, your church might want to use this alongside another communication tool. For instance, Evernote Teams integrates with Slack, multiple Google tools and Microsoft Teams. Think of it as an extra collaboration tool to boost communication and teamwork even more.
It is one of the more expensive options at $14.99/user/month. However, a nonprofit discount is available, but you have to contact Evernote to find out what the discount price is.
6. Chanty
Chanty stands out among church team communication tools thanks to unlimited free secure messaging. Of course, the free plan is only for up to 10 users, so it’s definitely best for small church teams. However, you can communicate with each other via text, voice calls or video chats. Easy search through communications and shared files to quickly find anything you need.
Your team can also share files, share their screens and set tasks to better manage projects. Everything’s organized by type of communication along with user name. Notifications ensure your team doesn’t miss anything important.
If your church needs support for more than 10 users, pricing is just $3/user/month. However, if you contact Chanty, nonprofits get a 50% discount, which makes this a surprisingly affordable option for medium and larger teams.
7. Fleep
Easily organize team communications by small groups, projects, topics or any other method you want using Fleep. Take advantage of the Pinboard feature to post important ideas, notes and announcements. You can also add contact information, meeting notes (if someone missed a meeting) or requests for volunteers. Of course, your team can continue talking about items on the Pinboard through Fleep’s chat and audio/video calls.
Like many other communication tools, Fleep includes project management features, such as assigning tasks and sharing files. Integrations with other popular apps means Fleep will likely work with tools you’re already using, such as Google Drive.
The free plan includes unlimited one on one chats and one overall group conversation. You’ll need to upgrade to the $6.92/user/month plan for team communications and management. Sadly, there isn’t a free trial for premium plans and no obvious discount for nonprofits, but you should still contact them if you’re interested to see if a discount is available.
8. Trello
Trello works a little differently than most of the other church team communication tools on this list. Instead of chat features, you organize everything with cards to help your team collaborate. Team members are assigned tasks or projects and they can discuss everything on individual cards. This helps keep conversations more organized.
If you’re looking for a more traditional communication approach, Trello integrates with other communication tools, such as Slack, Google and Microsoft Teams. You can use free plans with other apps to combine with Trello for the ultimate communication and project management solution for your church.
You can have up to 10 boards with unlimited cards and members for free. This works well for most small to medium churches. Premium plans start at $5/user/month. Nonprofits can get a 75% discount on all premium plans.
9. Flock
Flock makes communication easy with organized chat, voice and video calls. Team members can share their screens to better collaborate on projects or help each other out. Members can even create voice notes and reminders to keep them on track, such as remembering an upcoming church meeting. File sharing, task management and team notes ensure your team’s able to collaborate no matter where they might be.
Of course, Flock integrates well with many popular apps. For instance, if you already use Google Drive for files, you can share files directly from Drive to Flock. Or, if you like task management better in Trello, connect it to Flock.
Flock is completely free for teams up to 20 members. Pricing then starts at $4.50/user/month. While a nonprofit discount is available, the discount varies and you’ll need to contact Flock through a live chat to discuss.
10. Zoho Workplace
Zoho Workplace might sound similar to Google Workspace, which it should since Zoho is a direct competitor. Your church gets email (Zoho Mail), storage space (Zoho Drive), an office suite (Zoho Office), chat (Zoho Cliq) and meeting tools (Zoho Meeting). As you can tell, you get most of the same types of tools as Google Workspace.
While a free version is available for up to five users, pricing starts at $3/user/month. Currently, nonprofit discounts aren’t available for Workplace. However, you can use Zoho Creator for free for managing fundraising and donations, communicating with volunteers and managing events.
For most churches, it’s better to opt for Google Workspace since registered nonprofits can get it for free.
11. Asana
If you want communication mixed with project management, it’s hard to beat Asana. Lay out and track any type of church project or event with detailed cards, graphs, charts, lists and more. Assign team members so they can stay on track and discuss the project with each other.
One-on-one messaging keeps all members in contact at any time. You can also set up team chats for the entire team or just portions of the team. Calendars and timelines help your team envision the current schedule so no one gets overloaded at the last minute. There’s also a board feature similar to Trello’s cards.
Numerous integrations, including with many other tools on this list, are available to add more features for your team. The free plan gives you unlimited messages, tasks and projects for up to 15 team members. If you need more than that, plans start at $10.99/user/month. However, Asana offers a 50% discount for nonprofits.
12. Facebook Workplace
If your church already uses Facebook for creating an online community, why not use it for your church team? Facebook Workplace is one of the most overlooked church team communication tools. You create special groups that work similarly to standard Facebook groups, which your church can also use. You can post messages and your team can comment to discuss. Plus, you can also use a dedicated chat just for your team.
The good news is your can create as many Workplace groups as you want based on your team’s needs. This is also a great way to manage projects and events. Live video also lets you hold quick meetings without your team needing to learn yet another tool. Integrations with Google Workspace and Office 365 let you combine church tools to do more.
While standard groups are free (you can always set it to private), Workplace groups cost $4/user/month. However, through the Workplace For Good program, you church can use the platform for free.
13. Skype
Skype is a simple to use communication tool that may be all your church needs to stay in contact. Audio and HD video calling, along with feature-rich messaging allow your entire team to talk whenever they need to. You can even have encrypted private conversations.
Keep track of meetings and video conversations with call recordings. For the hearing-impaired, live subtitles are available. Plus, you can share your screen with team members during any call.
Skype is free to use. You can have up to 100 participants per call. It does cost extra if you’re calling people who don’t use Skype, so make sure your entire team uses Skype.
14. Microsoft Teams
It’s all in the name. Microsoft Teams is one of the top church team communication tools and is designed to bring your team closer together. Text chats, video calls and audio calls let everyone stay in contact. There is even cloud-based voicemail so no one misses an important message. Naturally, Microsoft apps integrate well with Teams. Easily add files and collaborate on projects using Microsoft Office apps.
Meetings let you invite up to 10,000 participants, which makes it a good option for virtual church events. Or, just have a few people at a time.
The free version of Teams doesn’t include any other Microsoft apps (basic web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are included), but does provide chat and call features. Meetings are capped at 100 participants and 60 minutes. Premium plans start at $5/user/month. However, Microsoft 365 nonprofit grants may give your church completely free access to premium options or at least discounted pricing.
While you have a variety of church team communication tools to choose from, remember that Google Nonprofit Grants give you communication, collaboration and marketing tools for free. Learn how we can help you make the most of your grant.
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Comments 2
Maybe this is a new policy since this article was posted, but the Slack nonprofit discount specifically EXCLUDES “A church, association of churches, or other religious organization.”
It’s a fantastic tool, but unfortunately churches pay full price just like everyone else.
Author
Yes, this was a recent change. Thanks for the heads up.