How to Help Low-Tech Volunteers Use Care Software

To help low-tech volunteers use care software, start with one task, not the whole app. Set up the app on their phone with them, in person, and log one practice visit together. Give them a printed one-page guide, pair them with a tech buddy, and check in after a week. Choose software your least confident volunteer can use.

Many care teams buy a good tool and then find that half the team never logs in. Leaders feel frustrated. Volunteers feel left behind and, sometimes, not wanted. Both feelings are real, and both can be fixed. This guide shows how to bring every volunteer along, at their own pace.

Why Some Volunteers Struggle With Technology

Why don't they get it? It is easy to feel frustrated when you know a tool can help your team, if only everyone would use it. Start with patience. Think about the experience of your low-tech volunteers first.

The reasons are as different as their life stories. Some people did not use computers at work. Some once knew the technology well, but it changed faster than they did. Some simply prefer a phone call or a visit to a screen. Most teams have a mix of all three.

The device is usually not the problem. The Pew Research Center found in 2025 that 78% of U.S. adults ages 65 and older own a smartphone. Confidence is the bigger gap. In an earlier Pew study, 48% of adults 65 and older said that "When I get a new electronic device, I usually need someone else to set it up or show me how to use it" describes them very well.

That tells you what to do. Most of your volunteers have the phone. They need a patient person to sit with them and show them how.

How to Find Out Each Volunteer's Comfort With Technology

Before you train anyone, learn where each person starts. Use one or more of these methods:

Have a conversation. Ask about the technology they use every day, without judgment. Some good questions:

• "Do you text with your family? Do you send photos?"
• "Do you use email? On your phone or on a computer?"
• "Have you ever used an app for your bank or your doctor?"
• "Is there anything about phones that frustrates you?"

Watch them try. Open your care software together and ask them to find one person. You will learn more in two minutes of watching than in twenty minutes of talking.

Use a short questionnaire. If you have a large team, a one-page form saves time. Ask what devices they own, how comfortable they feel with email, texting, and apps, and how they prefer to learn: in person, on paper, or by video.

Sort your volunteers into three simple groups: ready now, ready with help, and needs another way. Each group gets a different plan.

Choose Software Your Least Technical Volunteer Can Use

The best software in the world does not help if half your team cannot use it. When you choose a care tool, test it with your least technical volunteer in mind. We wrote more about this in A Simple Framework for Finding the Right Technology for Religious Product News.

Ask these questions:

• Is the screen clear and calm, or crowded and busy?
• Is the text large enough for someone with weak eyes?
• How many taps does it take to log a visit?
• Does it work on the phone the volunteer already owns?
• Can you limit what each volunteer sees, so they see only the people they serve?
• Does it connect to your church management software, so nobody types the same name twice? (Notebird, for example, syncs with Planning Center and Breeze.)
• Does it have short training videos and real people to help when someone is stuck?

A volunteer who sees only their own five people, on their own phone, with large text, learns much faster than one who sees the whole church.

A Simple Training Plan for Low-Tech Volunteers

Step 1: Set Up Their Phone With Them, in Person

Do not send a link and hope. Sit together for 30 minutes, ideally at church after a service. Bring the volunteer's own phone, not yours. In that time:

1. Open the invitation email together and create the password.
2. Write the password down and help them put it in a safe place at home.
3. Add the app to the phone's home screen. For Notebird, our mobile page has a setup guide.
4. Find one person they care for.
5. Log one practice visit together. Then let them log a second one alone while you watch.

Stop there. Do not show them every feature. One task, done twice, is a good first day.

Step 2: Give Them Something to Hold

Many low-tech volunteers like paper. Print a one-page guide with large type and pictures of the screens they use. Show only the steps their role needs: how to sign in, how to find a person, and how to log a visit.

Videos help some people too. If your team uses Notebird, Flight School has short training videos matched to each person's role.

Step 3: Assign a Tech Buddy

Pair each low-tech volunteer with a patient, tech-comfortable teammate. The buddy is the first call when something goes wrong. This builds friendship on the team and takes pressure off church staff. Tell your buddies what their role is, and ask them never to grab the phone and "just do it." The goal is for the volunteer to learn.

Step 4: Check In After a Week and After a Month

After the first week, call and ask: "How did it go? What was hard?" Common problems are a forgotten password, a missing home-screen icon, or fear of "breaking something." Fix each one together.

After a month, ask again. This is a good time to add one new skill, such as setting a follow-up for the next call.

Step 5: Make Logging a Habit

The hardest part is often not the technology. It is remembering. One pastor told us in a survey, "I think the hardest thing as a pastor is remembering to go in and make updates." Volunteers feel this too.

Teach one simple habit: log the visit in the car, before you drive away. Two sentences are enough. Write who you saw, how they are, and what comes next.

What If a Volunteer Will Never Use the App?

Some volunteers will never be comfortable with an app, and that is okay. A faithful card writer or a caller with a warm voice is a gift to your church, with or without a login.

Give these volunteers another way:

• They call or text the team lead after each visit, and the team lead writes the note.
• They keep a paper log, and someone enters it once a week.
• They get only the parts they need by email. In Notebird, for example, the morning Early Bird email shows each person today's tasks and milestones without logging in.

Never let the tool become a reason for a good volunteer to quit. For more on why care volunteers leave, read our guide to church volunteer retention.

Checklist: Getting a Low-Tech Volunteer Started

• Ask about their comfort with technology before training.
• Pick one task their role needs.
• Set up the app on their own phone, in person.
• Write the password down and keep it somewhere safe.
• Log one practice visit together, then one alone.
• Give them a printed one-page guide.
• Pair them with a tech buddy.
• Check in after one week and after one month.
• Teach the habit: log it in the car before you drive away.
• Give a non-app option to anyone who needs one.
• Thank them for learning something new.

Learning new technology later in life takes courage. When a volunteer logs their first visit, celebrate it. To set up the rest of your team, see how to build a pastoral care team.