How to Contribute

ChurchCRM is a community project. Every church that uses it does so because someone — a volunteer, a developer, a designer, a pastor’s assistant — gave a little of their time to make it better.

You don’t need to write code to make a meaningful contribution. Churches need to find ChurchCRM, understand it, and feel confident choosing it. That takes writers, designers, testers, social media managers, translators, and developers working together.

Every Skill Matters

No Code Required

Write Content

ChurchCRM’s story needs to be told. Blog posts, tutorials, how-to guides, and church testimonials help other congregations understand what ChurchCRM can do and feel confident choosing it.

What’s needed:

• Blog posts about ChurchCRM features and use cases
• Church testimonials (“how we use ChurchCRM at our church”)
• Tutorial articles for common workflows
• Comparison guides for churches evaluating software

Where to contribute: Open an issue on GitHub with the documentation label, or share your draft on Discord.

Improve Documentation

The official documentation site covers every feature but always needs clearer explanations, better examples, and updated screenshots. The docs are Markdown files in the docs.churchcrm.io repository.

What’s needed:

• Clearer how-to steps for existing guides
• New guides for features that lack documentation
• Correcting outdated information after releases
• Adding screenshots showing the current Tabler UI (7.1+)

No GitHub experience required — you can edit pages directly in the browser on GitHub.

Translate

ChurchCRM is used in 46 languages. Every new translation opens ChurchCRM to thousands of churches that couldn’t use it before.

Translate via POEditor (no Git required):

1. Join the ChurchCRM POEditor project
2. Select your language (or request a new one)
3. Translate strings directly in the browser
4. Translations are automatically pulled into the next release

See: Localization for Translators

Test the Application

You don’t need to be a developer to test ChurchCRM. Browser testing, accessibility checks, and feature validation catch real bugs before they reach churches.

What’s needed:

• Test new releases on different browsers and devices
• Try common workflows (adding families, recording attendance, generating reports)
• Report anything confusing or broken on GitHub Issues
• Test the live demo and report issues

Use the Bug Reporting Guide to include useful information when filing issues.

Design & Create Images

ChurchCRM’s marketing site, documentation, and social presence all need visual assets — screenshots, promotional graphics, social media images, and UI design feedback.

What’s needed:

• Updated screenshots showing the current ChurchCRM interface (Tabler UI)
• Social media graphics for feature announcements
• Promotional images for blog posts
• UI/UX feedback on the application — what feels confusing, what could be clearer
• Logo usage and brand asset improvements

Share your work on Discord in the #design channel or open a GitHub issue with the design label.

Social Media & Marketing

ChurchCRM has thousands of users but most churches have never heard of it. Spreading the word is one of the highest-leverage ways to help — every church that switches from a paid subscription to ChurchCRM saves money they can redirect to ministry.

What’s needed:

• Share ChurchCRM on social media (Facebook church groups, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Instagram)
• Write reviews on software directories (Capterra, G2, SourceForge, AlternativeTo)
• Tell other churches in your denomination or network about ChurchCRM
• Help with ChurchCRM’s own social media presence by suggesting content or post ideas

Connect: Share what you’re doing on Discord so the team knows.

Answer Questions in the Community

People get stuck. A quick, helpful answer to a question on Discord or GitHub Discussions saves a church administrator hours of frustration and keeps them using ChurchCRM.

Where to help:

• Discord server — real-time questions from users
• GitHub Discussions — in-depth questions

No expertise required for most questions — if you’ve used ChurchCRM for a while, your experience is valuable.

Developer Contributions

Contribute to the Core Application

Fix bugs, add features, improve performance, and expand test coverage in the main ChurchCRM codebase.

Quick start:

1. Make sure you have a GitHub account
2. Join Discord and introduce yourself
3. Find a good first issue to start with
4. Set up your development environment
5. Open a pull request

All PRs must be linked to an open issue. If the issue doesn’t exist yet, open it first.

Build a Community Plugin

Add a feature ChurchCRM doesn’t include yet — a third-party API integration, a custom workflow, a specialized report — without modifying core code. Plugins survive upgrades and can be shared in the community registry.

Best for: Service integrations (MailChimp, SMS, OpenLP, etc.), church-specific workflows, optional features not every installation needs.

Start here: Creating Community Plugins

Upgrade safety: Direct modifications to ChurchCRM source files are overwritten when you upgrade. All custom features must live in plugins to survive releases.

Setting Up Your Development Environment

Quick Start (Recommended)

GitHub Codespaces (Easiest):

1. Go to the ChurchCRM GitHub repository
2. Click “Code” → “Codespaces” → “Create codespace on master”
3. Wait 2–3 minutes for automatic setup
4. Run npm run docker:dev:start then open http://localhost with admin/changeme

VS Code Dev Containers:

1. Install the “Dev Containers” extension in VS Code
2. Clone the repo and open it in VS Code
3. Click “Reopen in Container” when prompted

DDEV (Local Docker):

git clone https://github.com/ChurchCRM/CRM.git churchcrm
cd churchcrm
ddev start
ddev setup-churchcrm
ddev launch

Login: admin / changeme

Coding Standards

• Database: Propel ORM only — no raw SQL
• UI: Bootstrap 5 / Tabler CSS classes (not Bootstrap 4)
• PHP: 8.4+, PSR-12 style, explicit nullable types
• i18n: Wrap all UI text with gettext() (PHP) or i18n helpers (JS)
• Business logic: Service classes in src/ChurchCRM/Service/

Full standards: .github/copilot-instructions.md in the repo

Testing

All pull requests require Cypress tests:

npm run test          # Run all tests (headless)
npm run test:ui       # Interactive browser testing

First Steps for Any Contributor

1. Join Discord — discord.gg/tuWyFzj3Nj — introduce yourself and tell us what you’d like to help with
2. Browse open issues — github.com/ChurchCRM/CRM/issues — filter by label to find work that matches your skill
3. Try the demo — churchcrm.io/demo.html — use ChurchCRM so you understand what you’re helping with

Code of Conduct

All contributors are expected to follow our Code of Conduct. We are a welcoming, respectful community.

Thank you — every contribution, no matter how small, helps a church somewhere run a little better.