3. Feature-by-Feature Scrutiny (The Idea as Described)
Date: 30 Sept 2026
The catalog described this idea as "church and faith-organisation management plus giving, where most revenue comes from payments", with a Gift Aid wedge. No feature list was given, so this doc scores the standard modules of church-management-plus-giving products (Planning Center, ChurchSuite, Tithe.ly, Pushpay, AltarDesk) and the catalog's Gift Aid wedge.
Categories:
- Table stakes (TS): customers expect it. It earns nothing, but its absence costs you.
- Differentiator (D): a real reason to choose you over the alternatives.
- Distraction (X): built but unlikely to move revenue or retention.
- Liability (L): creates support, compliance, legal or trust risk.
3.1 Classification table
| # | Module | Category | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Member and contact directory | TS / X | Every church tool has it, from free (AltarDesk up to 15 members) to £9 (ChurchSuite). For the bureau you need a donor list, not a church directory. |
| 2 | Rotas, volunteers, small groups, events, check-in | X | Planning Center and ChurchSuite have years of polish. Building these is months of work with no pricing power. |
| 3 | Church mobile app | X | Tithe.ly, Pushpay and ChurchSuite all ship apps. It's an expensive way to look like everyone else. |
| 4 | Online giving (card, Direct Debit, Pay by Bank) | TS now, D later | Expected in any church suite. ChurchSuite takes 1% capped at £2 on GoCardless giving. As a later add-on to the bureau, giving with declarations captured at the moment of the gift is valuable. It's not a first product. |
| 5 | "Revenue mostly from payments" (a margin on giving) | D later / L now | The proven route to a large exit (Pushpay, Tithe.ly). For a solo founder it means payment-provider onboarding, disputes, refunds and trust. Revisit after $3k MRR through a partner (GoCardless), never by holding funds. |
| 6 | Gift Aid declarations | TS | Every UK tool captures declarations (links, QR codes, kiosks). |
| 7 | Gift Aid claim filing to HMRC | TS | ChurchSuite, AltarDesk, Beacon, Donorfy, infoodle, Giftaider and Swiftaid all file or prepare claims. HMRC's own service is free and was simplified in Sept 2026. There's an open-source library for the XML. Filing is not a reason to buy. |
| 8 | Bank-statement matching to declarations | TS / D | AltarDesk (CSV) and infoodle (Xero) already do it. It's a differentiator only when combined with paper envelope and plate-cash intake and a human-checked result. |
| 9 | GASDS (small cash and contactless donations) | TS | AltarDesk flags it, ChurchSuite supports it. You need it, but it won't win a sale. The rules are fiddly: £30 per donation, £8,000 of donations (£2,000 top-up) a year, a claim no more than 10 times the Gift Aid claim, and community-building rules. |
| 10 | Done-for-you claims on a success fee | D | The only version not already sold as cheap software, apart from Swiftaid's 5% service and GoodtoGive. It matches how Methodist churches already pay their bureau. |
| 11 | 4-year backlog recovery | D | Swiftaid (10%, £100 minimum) and GoodtoGive offer it. For a network with no bureau, it's the fastest proof of value. |
| 12 | Church accounting / fund accounting | X | Xero, QuickBooks, ExpensePlus and specialist church-finance tools exist. Integrate or import, don't build. |
| 13 | Livestream, sermon media, websites | X | Commodity, and off-strategy. |
| 14 | Multi-faith (mosques, gurdwaras, temples) | X now | MasjidManager, GiftAidManager, MosquePay and GoodtoGive already target these. It's a second network and a second trust problem. |
| 15 | US version | L | No Gift Aid, so no edge. Crowded, funded rivals. |
3.2 Scoreboard
| Category | Count | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Table stakes | 5 | Declarations, claim filing, GASDS, online giving (now), bank matching (on its own) |
| Differentiator | 3 | Done-for-you success-fee claims, backlog recovery, envelope and plate-cash intake with matching |
| Distraction | 6 | Directory, rotas and groups, app, accounting, media, other faiths (for now) |
| Liability | 2 | A payments margin built in-house now, a US version |
About 20% of what the idea as described implies is a reason to buy. About 80% is table stakes, distraction or risk.
3.3 Feature bloat and "building to avoid selling": explicit call-outs
- A church management suite. It feels like "the real product", and it's the category with the most money already in it.
- An app. It demos well, and churches already have three to choose from.
- HMRC API integration before the first church. It feels like progress. HMRC's free spreadsheet upload does the same job for the first 10–15 churches.
- A payments platform. The catalog's revenue model, but a second business. It comes after the bureau works, through a partner.
3.4 What a disciplined v1 looks like
Keep: intake (bank CSV, envelope photos, declaration photos) → automatic matching → exception review → claim file → HMRC submission → fee invoice → audit file, plus a backlog check and a declarations-drive kit. Defer: HMRC API recognition (month 3–6), open-banking feeds (month 9+), network dashboard (month 12), Pay by Bank giving (after $3k MRR). Cut: directory, rotas, groups, events, check-in, app, accounting, media, US.