Make custom rules and conditions
Set the specific criteria to pull people into a list. Use rules to show people who meet all, any, or none of your list conditions.
Keep people from falling through the cracks
People is the free membership database of the Planning Center platform—where you can centralize information from across your ministries.
- Use for free
People is free for every church.
- Use for free
People is free for every church.
Trusted by over 85,000 churches
Church membership database
All your member activity from every ministry in a single place.
Collect and store information about all your members and how they’re involved at your church.
Ministry activity
View a person’s activity feed to see how they’re engaging with your church, like their donation history or small group attendance.
Communication history
Track every email sent and received through People for up to three months.
Notes
Leave a note on someone’s profile about anything you need to remember about them, like prayer requests or a health condition.
Background checks
Perform background checks right from People, and monitor their completion and expiration dates.
I want to make sure no one falls through the cracks, and Planning Center's ease of use and seamless connectivity ensures no one does! The entire collection of products are integrated seamlessly and provide a platform I can use to connect people and look up information at the drop of a hat.
Laura
Connections Director at Shelter Cove Community Church
CUSTOMIZABLE PROFILES
Customize the information you want to collect.
Create the fields you want to get the data you need.
Use custom fields in profiles to gather details you want to know about the people in your church, like communication preferences, baptism dates, or spiritual gifts.
Gather the information through a public form, or edit field information manually on a person’s profile.
Make informed decisions with your data.
Act on your data now to keep people engaged with your church.
REAL-TIME REPORTING
Create lists to reach the right people.
Make custom rules and conditions
Set the specific criteria to pull people into a list. Use rules to show people who meet all, any, or none of your list conditions.
Refresh info automatically
Refresh your list results automatically so your information is always current and the right people are added.
Organize lists
Find lists by name, campus, category, or starred to quickly find what you’re looking for.
Contact people
Send a text message, email, or Church Center announcement to the people of your list of choice.
Refresh info automatically
Refresh your list results automatically so your information is always current and the right people are added.
Organize lists
Find lists by name, campus, category, or starred to quickly find what you’re looking for.
Contact people
Send a text message, email, or Church Center announcement to the people of your list of choice.
FOLLOW-UP WORKFLOWS
Keep up with congregant activity and stay in touch.
Track participation
Make multi-step workflows to track peoples’ progress toward specific goals like becoming a member or serving in a ministry, or to keep tabs on your communication history with them.
Capture form responses
Build a form that automatically adds people to a workflow based on their responses in the form.
Follow up automatically
Add someone to a workflow through an automation, and follow-up with them right away after they sign up for an event, complete a baptism class, or request to serve.
Create lists
Group people into lists that automatically adds them to workflows based on shared information like birthdays, new attendees within the past six months, or if they haven’t served in a while.
Track participation
Make multi-step workflows to track peoples’ progress toward specific goals like becoming a member or serving in a ministry, or to keep tabs on your communication history with them.
Capture form responses
Build a form that automatically adds people to a workflow based on their responses in the form.
Follow up automatically
Add someone to a workflow through an automation, and follow-up with them right away after they sign up for an event, complete a baptism class, or request to serve.
Create lists
Group people into lists that automatically adds them to workflows based on shared information like birthdays, new attendees within the past six months, or if they haven’t served in a while.
AUTOMATION TOOLS
Automate your admin tasks and send simple messages.
Profile updates
Automatically update profile details like age, membership status, or primary campus based on changes to people’s profiles.
Welcome emails
Send an email automatically to welcome visitors to your church after they fill out a connection card.
Add tasks
Create and automate your tasks, like ordering a background check for someone after they sign up to volunteer, or assigning specific jobs to people after they accept a request to serve.
Profile updates
Automatically update profile details like age, membership status, or primary campus based on changes to people’s profiles.
Welcome emails
Send an email automatically to welcome visitors to your church after they fill out a connection card.
Add tasks
Create and automate your tasks, like ordering a background check for someone after they sign up to volunteer, or assigning specific jobs to people after they accept a request to serve.
"I've helped implement Planning Center at two other churches where I've worked. The people at Planning Center, the layout and design, and the whole program—I can't say enough good things."
Zach G
Director of Liturgy and Music, St. Matthews Catholic Parish
CHURCH-WIDE ACTIVITY REPORTING
See church-wide engagement at a glance.
Customize your metrics dashboards to see things like attendance trends and monitor overall giving. You can also track who’s on Church Center, when new profiles are created, and much more.
Then identify patterns of behavior to pivot and make any changes!
A MOBILE APP AND WEB EXPERIENCE
Connect your congregation with each other through your custom mobile app—Church Center.
Invite people to your church-wide directory where they update their profile, view other members, and make connections.
You can even share event signups and easily record people’s responses, all through the app.
ALL-IN-ONE CHURCH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Get even more insights with the entire Planning Center system.
With every Planning Center product you use to organize your ministries, you can automatically centralize all the data into People and quickly take action in your messaging, event planning, and ministry management.
As you draw new insights from your data, never forget your next steps by creating a task from anywhere in Planning Center and invite team members to collaborate with you.
More you can do with People
Text congregants
Send texts to your church from your own toll-free numbers, for $5/month and no setup fees.
Share forms
Use forms to collect information from the people in your community—like a prayer request, a team someone is interested in volunteering on, or the contact information from a first-time visitor.
Import CSV files
Switch to Planning Center by importing all of the data from your current system into People using a CSV file.
Remove duplicate profiles
Merge duplicate profiles and keep your data clean.
Automate routine tasks
Set up automations to send emails or add people to workflows anytime they complete an action.
Send emails
Use templates to craft and send emails to your congregation.
Frequently asked questions about People
For additional questions, contact support.
How do I transfer our existing member database to Planning Center?
Export your data from your current database or spreadsheet as a CSV file. Then upload your CSV file into People to import your data and begin organizing your account. For more detailed steps to start the process, see this guide.
How can I protect people’s data and privacy?
Ensure that anyone with access to your Planning Center account has two-step verification enabled, and assign the appropriate permission level to each user.
Does People have a mobile app?
What customization options are available in People?
You can customize the dashboards in your account to see exactly what you want to at a glance, like giving or attendance trends in smal groups. You can also add custom fields to your forms to collect the exact information you need from people, like a baptism date or food allergies you want to be aware of.
How is People different from other church management systems like F1, Tithe.ly, Breeze, CCB/PushPay, and Shelby?
People is completely free. You can use it all on it’s own, or combine it with other Planning Center products for a more powerful experience of organizing your ministries and engaging with your church. There are no contracts, and you can cancel anytime.
Free for every church.
People is free for every church, regardless of church size and whether or not you use any of our other products.
Unlimited people and access
Free
Start nowWatch a People demo
See an overview of how you can use People in your ministry with a video walk-through from a product expert.
Talk to support
Access to support is free, even if you’re not a customer yet. We’ll get back to you in ~1 business hour.
Learn moreSee the latest update
We are constantly improving our products. Check out the most recent update to see what’s new!