Introducing Email-to-CareNote: Turn Any Email Into a Care Request
At CareNote, we're continuing to find ways to meet you in the ministry moment and assist ministry leaders with innovative solutions that ensure care doesn't slip through the cracks. This new feature was born from a very real pastoral failure on my part.
Recently, I realized a care request had died in my email inbox. A congregant—let's call her Sarah—emailed me late at night about a care need for another member, Tom. Tom had just gotten home from surgery and needed a few meals for the upcoming week. I read the message, logged the request mentally, and then promptly forgot about it.
That's a miss on my part. We have everything set up at our church too—Sarah could have used our Care Request form on our website or Church Center app, but she emailed me directly. Looking back, I really wished I had the ability to forward that email to CareNote and, in a sense, forget about it. Not actually forget, but let CareNote handle creating the care request, distributing it to the team, and allowing someone with capacity to respond.
So that's what I set out to build. This new Email-to-CareNote feature does just that, and I'm excited to bring it to you so you can start using it.
Today we're announcing the first step toward making this capability available across CareNote teams: Email-to-CareNote, an experimental feature that allows teams to enable inbound email processing at the team level.
This is a soft release, intentionally slow and carefully monitored. We're looking for teams who want to try it early, provide feedback, and help us refine this powerful new workflow before it becomes widely available.
If your team wants early access, simply reach out—we'd love to onboard you.
Why This Feature Matters
In many ministries, care begins when an email arrives: a congregant asking for prayer, an elder forwarding a hospitalization update, a staff member raising a pastoral need.
But when those emails remain "just emails," they are easy to lose, hard to track, and nearly impossible to manage across multiple leaders and volunteers. When care needs stay as emails, they're easy to lose, hard to track, and nearly impossible to manage across a team.
Email-to-CareNote solves this by turning those emails into actionable care requests automatically.
This release does not introduce the parsing system itself (that already exists)—instead, it introduces per-team activation controls so teams can opt in to using the feature as we continue to refine and monitor it.
How It Works (Once Activated)
Forwarding an email triggers three simple steps:
1. Forward the email
Send any care need to your team's unique CareNote address—for example: requests@care-inbox.com or requests+urgent@care-inbox.com.
2. CareNote parses the message
- Subject → care request title
- Email body → description
- Sender → matched to a CareNote person when possible
- Tags → applied via mailbox hash (e.g., +urgent)
3. A new care request is created
CareNote routes it to the correct team and notifies the care team via email, mobile, and dashboard.
In other words: you forward an email, CareNote does the rest.
Why This Release Is Experimental
Because Email-to-CareNote touches external mail routing, parsing, sender validation, and error handling, we're rolling it out slowly to ensure:
- Processing is accurate
- Email routing is reliable
- Parsing edge cases are correctly handled
- Feedback loops are strong before public rollout
- Error notifications are clear and helpful
Teams who opt in now get early access—with the understanding that:
- There may be parsing anomalies
- Tagging behavior may expand or change
- Error messages may evolve
- Some emails may require manual cleanup
- We are actively gathering feedback for refinement
The activation email explicitly communicates this status so teams know exactly what to expect.
Security & Safeguards
To ensure privacy and prevent unauthorized use:
- Only emails forwarded by recognized team members are processed
- Unknown senders receive rejection emails
- Team-level activation ensures no team receives email content they didn't agree to
- Every activation and deactivation is logged with team ID, team name, user, timestamp, and owner email
This opt-in model is crucial while the feature remains experimental.
Want Early Access?
We're offering Email-to-CareNote on a rolling basis. If your team wants to test it early—or if you already rely heavily on your inbox for care intake—reach out and we'll enable it for you.
This is an exciting new direction for CareNote, and your feedback will directly shape its full release.
From your inbox to real care—no details lost, no requests forgotten.
CareNote is Built for Real Ministry
I built this feature because I needed it. If you've ever read a care email late at night and then completely forgotten about it by morning, you know exactly why Email-to-CareNote exists.
We're rolling out early access now. If you're already using CareNote and want to try Email-to-CareNote, just reach out—we'll get you set up and would love your feedback.
Not using CareNote yet? This is just one of many features designed to help you spend less time organizing and more time caring. CareNote is the leading pastoral care app for churches—built for leaders, pastors, and volunteers to care for congregants with confidence and clarity.