7. What's Missing: The Gap Between Built and Paid, Renewed, Referred

Date: 30 Sept 2026

Assumption: nothing is built yet. So these are gaps between the plan and a business.

7.1 Gaps to pay

Gap	Why it blocks payment	Fix
No channel	Single churches are slow, scattered and served by free tools	One network with a named introducer. See WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md condition 1.
Pricing against "free"	AltarDesk says "0%", HMRC is free, Swiftaid is free to £6,000	Charge only on money recovered: 5% +VAT on regular claims, 10% on backlog (minimum £100), £60 a year minimum, capped at £1,000 a year per church. Churches usually can't reclaim VAT, so quote the VAT-inclusive figure.
No quantified value promise	"We do your Gift Aid" is a chore offer	"We found £X of Gift Aid you were missing, and you pay nothing unless HMRC pays." Lead every conversation with the backlog check.
Church not recognised by HMRC	Some small churches have never registered for Gift Aid	Offer HMRC recognition as a fixed-fee add-on (£150, judgment). Many excepted churches can register with HMRC directly.
Trust	Volunteers hand over member and giving data	Network endorsement, a UK-hosted data promise, a named adviser, insurance, and a sample audit file.

Gap	Fix
Low frequency (some churches claim once a year)	Default to monthly claims. Automated reminders to upload the bank CSV on the 1st of each month. Cash flow for the church, even revenue for you.
No switching cost	The audit file: every declaration image, match and claim for 6 years. Leaving means rebuilding it.
Volunteer turnover	Make the service the continuity: when the Gift Aid secretary changes, the new one inherits a working system and a checklist.
Fee resentment on big claims	The annual cap. A tithing church with £40k of Gift Aid pays £1,000, not £2,000.
Declining declared givers	The yearly declarations drive and reconfirmation prompt keep the base growing.

Gap	Fix
Nothing visible to other churches	A quarterly network report showing Gift Aid recovered across the network. Leaders share numbers at their gatherings.
No free hook	A free Gift Aid health check: upload last year's bank statement, see how much you likely missed. It's the sales tool for every new church.
No referral economics	One month's fee waived for each referred church that files a claim. For networks: the dashboard free while ≥20 churches are active.
No presence where treasurers meet	Speak at network finance training days and annual conferences. Offer a 30-minute Gift Aid workshop for free.

The network is the plan. Target a network leader, a finance lead, or an association of churches (for example, a Pentecostal fellowship or an association of African-led churches). Which networks lack a Gift Aid service is unverified, and finding out is week 1's job.
Search is secondary: "how to claim Gift Aid for a church", "Gift Aid backlog", "GASDS church". Useful, but slow and contested.
Channels that burn cash: paid ads, cold email to single churches, trade shows.

Current (catalog): "UK Gift Aid claim automation for small churches and charities". Accurate, and already sold for free.
Better: "Your network's Gift Aid office. We find and claim what your churches are owed, and you only pay when HMRC pays."
One sentence, one buyer (a network), one outcome (money recovered).

Network: founder-led. One meeting with the leader, one with the finance lead, one presentation at a gathering.
Churches: self-serve upload after the network introduction, with a 20-minute onboarding call for the first 30.

Area	Requirement
HMRC	Each church must be recognised by HMRC as a charity for tax purposes. To file for a church, it must tell HMRC you're its authorised agent or nominee (form ChV1 route, per secondary sources). Your software must pass HMRC's Charities Online service recognition before using the API.
Gift Aid rules	Valid declarations (name, home address, postcode, taxpayer statement, date), the 4-year claim window, aggregated-donation limits, GASDS limits (£30 a donation, £8,000 a year, 10× rule, community buildings, connected charities), and 6-year record keeping.
Data protection	UK GDPR. A church's member list reveals religious belief, which is special-category data. You're a processor: sign a data-processing agreement, host in the UK, register with the ICO, keep an access log.
Money	Never hold charity funds or donations in v1. HMRC repays the church. Collect your fee by Direct Debit afterwards. Any future giving product goes through a regulated partner (GoCardless).
Advice	Label rulings as "HMRC guidance says…" with a link. Trustees decide. Carry professional indemnity insurance.
VAT	Your fee carries VAT once you're registered. Charities usually can't recover it, so quote prices including VAT.

Not provided. At minimum: one founder who can build data-matching software and is trusted in a church network. Without that second part, the plan stalls at step one.
A paid charity-tax adviser, a few hours a quarter.
From ~150 churches, a part-time exception reviewer (a retired church treasurer is ideal).

Minimum set:

Network conversion: introduced churches → first claim filed within 60 days.
Money: Gift Aid recovered per church per year, backlog found per new church.
Operations: automatic match rate, review minutes per church per month.
Quality: HMRC queries and claw-backs (target zero).
Revenue: MRR (fees from this month's claims), share of MRR per network, church churn.