create and launch a free course. for free.
We’re building the home for free, online, Catholic courses for the world.
Everything you need to create and build a free course. Launch to a Catholic audience, with zero fees. Help your students interact with you, and each other! (Currently in Beta)
It's your content
Launch the course you want. Repurpose your posts, or create content on any topic.
Grow your impact
No audience? No problem. We bring a growing audience of Catholics worldwide.
Completely free!
Zero costs for your free course, forever. Build and launch in a day.
“I loved not having to start from scratch.
It was simply repackaging it in a way that I’ll be able to interact directly with my students and fans. This way I’ll see what connects and what doesn’t so that I can keep honing my work.”
Marek Rudak, Author, speaker, veteran
“I really enjoyed the process of building this course.
“I found everything very easy to navigate and figure out intuitively. The tutorial video was extremely helpful, and I came away feeling confident about creating a strong end-product.“
Jonna Schuster
“I set up this course in my spare time.
“Before, these notes were an ebook. With a few extra lessons, and free photos from Unsplash, now it’s a beautiful, enjoyable course that can inspire authors anywhere.”
Dominic de Souza
join a network of course creators
Apply today to start building your course
Welcome letter from Dominic, SmartCatholics’ founder
We’re imagining the future of free, Catholic education.
- Catholic catechists can share your course with their class.
- Catholic parents can instantly start making progress.
- Catholic students can start a journey to get smarter.
Imagine creators just like you, building free, beautiful, on-demand courses for Catholics everywhere. Now, imagine the impact we can have by working together…
SmartCatholics is the platform for busy, non-techy Catholic speakers and impact makers to share free courses on any topic
Create your course to turn your followers from passive listeners to active and focused, grow your impact, and reach our list of 10,000+ Catholics worldwide!
To grow your ministry, you need to help people make changes in their lives. But does this sound like you?
You don’t know how to start
It’s going to take too long
You don’t have any support
You don’t have an audience
You’re tired of giving away free stuff
You can’t decide on a software
When you have a system to easily create enjoyable courses, a plan to grow your impact, and a ready-made Catholic audience, you’re unstoppable. Deliver even more value for Catholics, and grow your ministry.
Get started with simple templates
Repurpose your content fast
Get professional support
Launch to a growing audience
Upsell your premium content
Stop searching, get building
how Catholic learning should be
Building with SmartCatholics helps launch to growing audiences, build the future of Catholic online learning, and bring more meaningful content to life!
Branding & Details
Beautiful, intuitive layout ready for photos, rich text, embedded video, and PDF downloads.
Control Lesson Options
Set each lesson to be unlocked, or make each student manually unlock access with a button or day delay.
Easy to setup and edit
Drag-and-drop your lessons, sections, and make updates whenever you want!
Promote anything
At the end of your course, promote anything you want: the rest of your course, consulting, or ask for donations.
Manage your Members
Message everyone in your course. See the top members. Welcome newcomers. See and sort by completion rates.
Connect with Students
Nurture your community and create lasting relationships with a social-first experience. Meet your students!
Professional support
Our growing team of Catholic marketers are a DM or email away, and can chat with you every step of the way.
Vetted Content
All courses resonate with the SmartCatholics vision and guidelines.
Notifications & Messages
Get notified when members leave comments, or upvote your responses. Manage moderation easily. See each member profile.
Live Chat
Add a live chat area to the course for members to engage with each other, and answer questions live.
Vibrant support
Get answers, offer support, and share with our private community of fellow entrepreneurs, experts and speakers!
Take the next step
Boost your credibility, and improve how students learn from you!
distraction free
Bring your fans a beautiful, ad-free course. SmartCatholics is free of trolls and toxicity, so your students can learn and grow.
build community
Encourage meaningful conversations inspired by your content. Help the students who love what you do stay connected with you, and each other.
early access
Showcase and celebrate your every release! Launch your course exclusively to your most dedicated fans before sharing it with the rest of the world.
Need next-level support?
done-for-you course creation
Got plenty of potential courses, but no time? Prefer to hire a pro instead of doing it yourself?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SmartCatholics right for you? Get answers to the most frequently asked questions so you can make the best decision for you.
Overview
Quick answers to common questions
Who it's for
Is SmartCatholics right for you?
Fees & Refunds
How fees and membership works.
Extra Details
All the little extra questions.
Course Overview
Quick answers to common questions
What is SmartCatholics?
SmartCatholics is one of the fastest-growing communities to support Pope Francis, help Catholics regroup, and create resources to renew our hope. We’re building a home for millennials, creators, and learners unafraid of doubts and questions.
Where do courses live?
All courses are built inside the SmartCatholics community. The software we’re using is Mighty Networks, which has courses built in.
As more courses are added, we will add ways for people to search, sift, and browse for more courses, and connect with your profile.
What will I learn or get from starting a course?
You will get help from professional marketers to get your course launched and live. Most importantly, you can launch to a Catholic audience. As we grow, your impact grows!
What is expected of me?
After launching your course, check in once a week, or a few times a month, to follow up on questions and comments. Use those as prompts to improve your course material, or set up a new one.
When your course is live, share the news about it on your blog, social media, and email list.
How is SmartCatholics different to any other course site?
There are many course websites out there – most of them will be far better than the simple course tools that we have to offer.
What they don’t have is a Catholic audience. Your course gets ‘lost in the shuffle’ of hundreds of other unrelated courses. And you’re doing it on your own.
With SmartCatholics, you launch with an audience. Our active community is already here. Your courses are related to the other courses, so it’s easier for students to keep learning, and discovering.
And you’re not alone; you have a Catholic community, and our growing peer group.
What's not available in the free course?
Setting up a free courses is completely free.
You aren’t able to sell access to the course. Ask us today about selling a course in SmartCatholics.
Where else can I learn about SmartCatholics?
Visit our About page for more details on the vision and mission.
Who it's for
Find out if SmartCatholics is right for you.
Who's right for creating a course?
Any Catholic speaker or catechist on fire with the Faith is welcome. Everyone who can demonstrate an expertise in their field, and adherence to the Catechism and Magisterium, guided by Pope Francis.
Degrees are welcome, but you can be a seminarian, or studying toward your degree. You have to be comfortable with chatting online, and building a community through content and connection.
All speakers and creators must be open to Pope Francis and his vision. Even though we may not all agree, we act and speak in respect.
Who's not right for SmartCatholics?
If you don’t like or agree with our vision at SmartCatholics, have little to no experience teaching yourself to use online tools, or are trying to promote a message at odds with the Magisterium as guided by Pope Francis, then this is not for you.
Is SmartCatholics just for 'smart' Catholics?
Everyone is welcome, from any background. We have non-Catholics within our community as well. This is a home for Catholics of all walks of life who celebrate kindness and learning as the baseline for how we are.
Will creating a course work for me even if I'm not around?
Yes. You can launch a course and check in on it occasionally. Obviously, being more responsive to your students is extremely helpful to everyone all around, especially to the students.
My situation in the Faith is unique - will this work for me?
It probably will! As long as we are all actively united around the same goals, we are open to tolerate many viewpoints and backgrounds. We believe in unity in essentials, openness in details, and kindness in everything.
Will my course work anywhere in the world?
Yes! Anyone with internet access will be able to use your course, leave comments, and connect with you.
If English isn't my native language, can I create a course?
We have Catholic members from all over the world. Since this platform was launched in English, we start with mostly English courses. But if you can connect us with someone fluent in your language and English who can verify your content, then we’d love to have you!
How tech-savvy do I need to be to make a course?
If you can use Facebook, you’ll take to our community easily. If you can use a Word document, then building a course is that easy.
Can I share my course with my network?
Yes! Your course is not only public, but you can add it to your profile in our public directory. It’s a 2 for 1 value to get Google and SEO to pick up your work. Share it with friends, fans, and fellows.
Fees & Guarantees
How fees and membership works.
How much does SmartCatholics cost?
Launching a free course is free. We plan to keep it that way forever.
Setting up a paid course requires that you’re a member of our free Catholic Impact Accelerator group, and paying a monthly fee.
If you want more help with your course, or even have someone else handle all the details, just ask about one of our SmartCatholics course assistants.
Do you offer a guarantee?
Satisfaction is guaranteed. If you are not happy with your course, you can take it all down and set it up anywhere else you like.
What types of payment do you accept?
Payment for any membership is all online, through Stripe, or Paypal. We don’t accept offline transactions.
Can I cancel my course?
Yes, any time. Just send us an email with your reason why, and we can remove everything from our platform. You can also create your course on any other platform you like at the same time. It’s your content.
Can I cancel my membership?
Yes, any time. Just email us to remove you from the Accelerator group, or you can remove yourself. The membership automatically renews each month on the monthly plan, and annually on the annual plan.
Extra Details
All the little extra questions to help you make your decision.
How is SmartCatholics different from free Facebook groups?
SmartCatholics is especially focused on a space for Catholics, a space that is free of toxicity, trolls, and ads. Our culture focuses on kindness and learning, and union with the Holy Father.
There are plenty of Catholics Facebook groups, many are much, much larger. But conversation in those proves to be hard to manage, since they don’t have a culture.
And, Facebook is designed to harvest your attention for ads, and keep you scatterbrained. Our community creates a space that is much more focused.
How do you support Catholic speakers?
Everything we do at SmartCatholics is building the kingdom – for the Faithful People of God, and for their servants, the speakers and creators like you.
Our community brings us all together. The Academy provides training and education. Our videos are hosted on YouTube so that everyone can access them.
Our Catholic Impact Accelerator is a private peer group for networking and support.
Will I speak with or get feedback directly from Dominic?
Yes, you can email Dominic any time, or schedule a call. We also host multiple live sessions each month in different groups as a way to bring the community together. You can join and brainstorm, or ask questions and network.
How can I give a certificate for my course?
Since there are no official ways to provide certification for free courses, we can be creative about how to make it work.
One option is to invite students to submit to you a written paper, for a fee. You could then provide a signed paper that states they completed your course and have demonstrated mastery of the subject.
Reach out to Dominic today to discuss what’s possible.
What if I have another question not listed here?
Email Dominic any time, or send him a direct message (DM) through the community.