What this helps you do
The Hub has three ways in and out, plus CSV import on Connections. A webhook that adds people: post a new person from your website form, CRM or Zapier and they are invited the consent-first way. Events sent to your systems: signed JSON POSTs when someone connects, opts out or leaves, when a reply arrives, and when a Blast goes out. Named connectors per vertical: today, Planning Center People for churches. A Zapier app wraps the first two for people who would rather not write code. Point the Hub at your public calendar and upcoming events appear on Home with one-click announcing.
When to use it
Use the inbound webhook when your enrollment form already knows who is new. Use outbound events when a spreadsheet should know who connected or replied. Use Zapier when both ends are apps rather than code. None of this is required: a contact CSV works on day one.
How to do it
- Open Integrations.
- Data in: copy the webhook URL. Post JSON or form fields; email is required, and name, phone, address, department, team, manager email, birthday, household and interests are recognized. Send a test first.
- Events out: enter your HTTPS endpoint and copy the signing secret. Each delivery carries X-Hub-Event and X-Hub-Signature (sha256 HMAC of the raw body). Deliveries are retried for about 15 hours, then marked failed.
- Zapier: Blasts Hub is a private app, available on request. Once invited, add it in a Zap and connect with your host and token. Triggers: New Connection, Person Opted Out, New Reply, Blast Sent. Actions: Add or Invite a Person, Send a Blast.
- Planning Center (churches): connect with a Personal Access Token. Active people with an email enter the invitation funnel nightly, and a Blasts field is written back on each person so staff see reach inside Planning Center.
- Calendar: paste a public ICS link in Settings. Upcoming events appear on Home with an Announce button.
Example
A school points its online enrollment confirmation step at the inbound webhook, so every new family is invited the day they enroll. Its public school calendar feeds Home, so announcing back-to-school night is one click.
Good to know
- There is no connector to a student information system, a learning platform or a parent portal, and the Hub is not one of those: it does not hold enrollment, attendance, grades, assignments or any student record. Your SIS keeps the record and the grades; the Hub reaches the families. The doors in are CSV import, the inbound webhook and Zapier.
- Planning Center is a church-only connector; it does nothing for a school Hub.
- Everyone arriving through an integration is invited, never added: they still choose their audiences and can leave anytime.
- Paste your public school calendar link in Settings and upcoming dates appear on Home with an Announce button.
- Rotate the inbound webhook token from Integrations if it ever leaks; everything posting to the old URL stops until the new token is pasted in.
- Send only what the channel needs: parent and guardian contact details and the audiences they belong to. Student records belong in the systems built to hold them.