8. If I Were You: The Next 90 Days
Date: 30 Sept 2026
The single most important thing
Get one church network to introduce you, and file 5 real Gift Aid claims by hand by day 45, before you build anything.
- Segment: one network of 30+ independent, Pentecostal, or African- or Caribbean-majority churches in the UK, with no central Gift Aid service.
- Job: "Find and claim the Gift Aid our churches are owed, and keep us audit-ready."
- How: a concierge bureau. Churches send bank CSVs and photos of envelopes and declarations. You match them in a spreadsheet with a small script, file with HMRC's free spreadsheet upload as their authorised agent, and invoice 5% after HMRC repays. Automate only what you've done by hand at least 20 times.
Week-by-week
| Weeks | Goal | Exit criteria |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Find the network. List 3 networks you can reach. Meet the leader or finance lead of each. Ask: does the network have any Gift Aid arrangement? How many churches claim? Who does it? Interview 10 treasurers or Gift Aid secretaries: last claim date, amount, time taken, backlog. Book a paid review with a charity-tax adviser. | One leader agrees to introduce you, in writing. You have real Gift Aid figures from ≥5 churches. |
| 3–4 | Concierge pilot. Offer 8–10 introduced churches a free Gift Aid health check (last year's bank statement → likely missed Gift Aid). Convert to a filed claim. Set up agent authorisation with HMRC for each. | 5 claims filed by day 45 (3 at ~15 hrs/week). If fewer than 2 churches will let you file, the channel isn't real. Change network, not pitch. |
| 5–8 | Build the thin v1 (web only): bank-CSV import, envelope and declaration photo intake with AI extraction, matching engine, exception queue, HMRC spreadsheet export, audit file, Direct Debit fee collection. Start HMRC's Charities Online software recognition. | Pilot churches upload by themselves. ≥75% of lines match automatically. |
| 9–10 | Backlog and declarations drive. Run the 4-year backlog check for every church. Give each a QR declaration link and a Sunday announcement script. | ≥1 backlog claim filed. +10% declared givers in pilot churches. |
| 11–12 | Measure and decide. First quarterly network report (Gift Aid recovered, backlog found). Ask the leader for a slot at the next network gathering. | 10–15 churches paying, first fees collected, zero HMRC queries, median Gift Aid per church ≥£3,000 a year. Hit it: keep going and approach network 2. Miss it: see the kill criteria. |
Kill criteria (write these down now)
- By day 45, no network leader has agreed to introduce you, after trying 2 networks: stop.
- By day 90, fewer than 5 churches have paid a fee: stop, or reduce this to a one-off backlog service.
- Median Gift Aid per church below £3,000 a year: the fee doesn't cover the review time. Change network type.
Don't respond to a miss by adding features. Respond by changing the network.
The one thing to stop doing
Stop thinking of this as church software.
Directories, rotas, groups, apps and giving pages are what Planning Center, ChurchSuite, AltarDesk and Tithe.ly already sell, some of it for free. Every week spent there is a week not spent finding the network that makes this business possible. A close second: don't build the HMRC API integration first. HMRC's free spreadsheet upload handles your first 15 churches.
What stays on the long-term roadmap (only after proof)
- HMRC Charities Online API filing as a recognised agent (month 3–6).
- Open-banking bank feeds to remove the monthly upload (month 9+).
- Network dashboard and bulk onboarding (month 12).
- A white-label engine for a denominational Gift Aid bureau (if one asks).
- Then, after $3k MRR: Pay by Bank giving with a 1% platform fee through GoCardless. That's the catalog's "revenue from payments" step.