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VBS Messaging

Send personalized email or SMS to VBS families and volunteers — from the platform, your own email app, or your phone — with filters, search, CSV import, and template variables.

The Messaging page lets you reach VBS families and volunteers in bulk. You can send email directly from Hubl (using your verified domain when configured), or hand off to your own email or phone's SMS app — whichever fits your workflow. Recipient lists, filters, and template variables make it easy to personalize a single compose into one message per family.

Compose, filter recipients, and pick how to send — all from one screen

Open the page

1

Navigate to Messaging

From the VBS admin for your event, select Messaging. Recipients are pulled from the event's registrations automatically — no list to build.

Pick a channel: Email or SMS

Use the toggle at the top of the compose card to switch between Email and SMS. Each channel keeps its own draft, so you can prep both at once.

  • Email shows a subject line and a longer body.
  • SMS shows a single message body. Recipients without a phone number on file are filtered out automatically.

Note

When email is selected and your org has a verified send domain, you'll see Sending as you@yourchurch.org just under the toggle. Without a verified domain, messages are sent from Hubl's default address.

Compose your message

1

Write the subject (email only) and body

Click into the subject or body and type your message. SMS is a single body field; email gets both subject and body.
2

Personalize with variables

The Insert row above the editor shows variable chips. Click any chip to drop a placeholder at your cursor. Each recipient gets the message rendered with their own values.
  • {{parentFirstName}} — the guardian's first name
  • {{childName}} — the registered child's name (or names, joined with &, if the family has more than one child registered)

Tip

Drafts auto-save per event. If you close the tab mid-message, your subject, body, and any imported contacts will still be there when you come back.

Choose your recipients

The recipient panel lists every guardian on a non-cancelled registration, plus any volunteers who signed up to help. Each row shows the guardian's name, contact info, the children they registered, and a volunteer badge when applicable.

1

Filter the list

Two filter groups appear above the recipient list:
  • Registration Status — Confirmed, Pending, Waitlisted, etc. Each option shows a count.
  • Volunteer Status — Pending, Approved, etc. Use this to message just the volunteers you've approved (or just the ones you still need to follow up with).
2

Search by name, email, phone, or child

The search box narrows the visible list to anyone matching the term — including the children listed under each guardian.
3

Select recipients

Click the checkbox next to a row to add a single recipient. Use Select all at the top to add everyone currently visible — handy after you've filtered down. Toggling it again removes only the visible rows from your selection, so prior picks in other filters stay intact.

Note

Click anywhere on a recipient row (outside the checkbox) to open a details dialog with full family and child info. Useful for sanity- checking a contact before you press send.

Add extra recipients via CSV

Need to message someone who isn't in the registration list — a community partner, a volunteer who hasn't signed up yet, last-minute walk-ins? Use Import CSV to add them to this compose session.

1

Prepare a CSV file

Include columns named firstName, lastName, email, and/or phone. At least one of email or phone is required per row. Common header variations (first_name, mobile, cell, etc.) are accepted.
2

Import

Click Import CSV, choose your file, and the contacts join your recipient list under an Imported filter. You can mix imported contacts and registered families in the same send.

Tip

Imports are saved per event — they persist across page reloads. Click Clear imports to remove them when you're done.

Send the message

Once recipients are selected and the message is composed, you've got three ways to deliver it. The right choice depends on the channel and how much control you want over the send.

Send from platform (email)

For email, the primary Send button delivers the message through Hubl. Each recipient gets their own personalized email with variables resolved — there's no BCC blast and no leak of who else got the message. If your org has a verified email domain, the from-address matches it; otherwise it falls back to Hubl's default sender.

Warning

On free plans, sent emails won't carry your church's logo and branding. The compose page shows an upgrade banner with a link to your subscription settings if you want custom branding.

Open in your email or SMS app

Prefer to send from Gmail, Outlook, or your phone's Messages app? Use the Open In menu. It builds a mailto: or sms: link with your selected contacts pre-filled and the (un-personalized) message in the body. Your email or SMS app opens with the draft ready to review and send.

Note

Hand-off mode is the only path for SMS today unless your org has the SMS Messaging add-on. Without the add-on, the Open In → SMS App option (or your phone's Messages app via Copy → Phones) is how texts go out.

Copy

The Copy menu drops three options on your clipboard, one at a time:

  • Emails — comma-separated list of selected addresses.
  • Phones — comma-separated list of selected phone numbers (normalized).
  • Message — your message text with template variables replaced by readable placeholders like [ParentFirstName] so it's easy to swap into another tool.

Permissions

Sending messages from this page requires the events.manage . To send from a verified domain, an admin first needs to set up the org's email domain in organization settings.

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