Legal compliance, out of the box.
The day your church starts on ChurchPlan, the laws of the land are already built into the software — privacy statutes, charity and tax rules, and the protections around children, youth and families. The compliance work volunteers used to carry is done by the system.
Receipts, consents, retention and visibility — enforced by the software, not left to a policy binder.
The laws and standards, built in.
Every ChurchPlan account enforces the system side of these frameworks automatically — no configuration, no add-ons, no compliance module to buy.
Tax & charity laws
IRS — 501(c)(3) substantiation
IRS — 501(c)(3) substantiationWritten acknowledgments that meet the IRS $250 substantiation rule, including the intangible religious benefits statement, issued before filing season opens.
CRA — Income Tax Act
CRA — Income Tax ActOfficial donation receipts in the format the Canada Revenue Agency prescribes, with serial numbering, versioned reissues and seven-year retention.
ATO — Australian receipting
ATO — Australian receiptingReceipts meeting Australian Taxation Office requirements for deductible gift recipients — your DGR name, ABN and gift statement on every one.
IRD — New Zealand receipting
IRD — New Zealand receiptingOfficial donation receipts meeting Inland Revenue requirements — donee IRD number, authorised signature and unique numbering, issued automatically.
United Kingdom — Gift Aid records
United Kingdom — Gift Aid recordsUK relief is claimed by the charity through Gift Aid, not by the donor. ChurchPlan produces HMRC-ready contribution statements and data exports to support your claims.
Ireland — Charitable Donation Scheme
Ireland — Charitable Donation SchemeRelief is claimed by the approved body, not the donor. With 31% grossing up, a €1,000 donation becomes €1,449, so the body claims €449.
Germany — BMF donation confirmations
Germany — BMF donation confirmationsGerman donation confirmations use the BMF template made binding by § 50 EStDV. ChurchPlan provides the itemized giving records your treasurer needs to complete it.
France — Cerfa n° 11580
France — Cerfa n° 11580A reçu fiscal follows Form 2041-RD. ChurchPlan provides the itemized giving records, including the cumulative figure the Cerfa asks for.
Privacy & data protection
PIPEDA
Consent-based collection, use and retention of personal information for Canadian congregations, with every member able to see and correct their own record.
GDPR
GDPRData-subject rights, lawful processing and deletion for members in the EU and UK, with consent recorded per member rather than assumed for the parish.
CCPA / CPRA
Disclosure and deletion rights for California-based donors and members, handled from the member’s own profile rather than by request to an administrator.
COPPA — children under 13
US children’s online-privacy rules honoured by design — guardian-managed profiles, verifiable parental consent, and minimal data collection for minors.
Privacy Act (APPs)
Australian Privacy Principles–aligned handling, retention and access for Australian parishes, applied to member and donor records alike.
Privacy Act 2020 (NZ)
New Zealand’s information privacy principles — consent, retention and access — respected by design across every module.
💳 PCI DSS Level 1
Card data never touches ChurchPlan — every payment is tokenized by Stripe, certified at PCI’s highest level.
ChurchPlan enforces the system side of these frameworks — formats, consents, retention, and access controls. Your church remains responsible for its own conduct and governance.
The rules are complex. Following them isn't.
Receipts that satisfy the regulator
Every donation is receipted automatically in the format the tax authority requires — CRA, IRS, ATO and New Zealand IRD, and in Switzerland, Czechia, Poland, Croatia and Italy. Everywhere else, including Germany, France, the UK and Ireland, churches receive a complete Giving Summary.
- Charity Registration Number verified before donations activate
- Receipts issued by the charity that receives the gift, in its name
- Year-end summaries your treasurer doesn't have to assemble
Privacy regimes, built in
Consent-based handling, retention, and deletion mapped to the five regimes your congregation may live under.
- PIPEDA, GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, AU Privacy Act and NZ Privacy Act 2020 aligned
- Members control their own profile and consents
- Two kinds of information, kept apart on purpose
Safeguarding by default
Child-safety isn't a setting an admin can forget — the system prevents the error before it happens.
- Supervisor-only attendance for children's services
- Locked unsubscribes and hidden capacity where it matters
- Roles scoped to the ministry, not the whole database
Right roles, right eyes
Personal information is protected by strict roles and permissions — only the clergy and staff your church authorizes can view congregation details, and only where members have given consent.
- Granular permissions per module and per ministry
- Consent-based visibility of member information
- Every admin action attributable — nothing anonymous
Compliant with the law first — configurable second
Churches carry real legal obligations — most run them on volunteers and good intentions. ChurchPlan builds the rules in across three fronts — privacy statutes, tax and charity law, and the protections around children, youth and families — so your church is covered from day one, not after a compliance project. Less to manage, less to get wrong, far less to be exposed to.
One privacy default, five regimes.
The strictest reading wins. Member data is handled to the standard of PIPEDA (Canada), GDPR (UK & EU), CCPA/CPRA (California), the Australian Privacy Act with its Australian Privacy Principles, and the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 — wherever your parish operates.
Receipts a regulator would sign off on.
Giving only counts if the paperwork holds up. ChurchPlan issues official donation receipts in nine countries — built to the rules of the CRA (Canada), IRS (United States), ATO (Australia) and IRD (New Zealand), and to the local requirements of Switzerland, Czechia, Poland, Croatia and Italy — with complete Giving Summaries everywhere else.
Official tax receipts in nine countries. Complete giving records everywhere else.
Official tax receipts are supported in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Switzerland, Czechia, Poland, and Croatia.
United Kingdom — Gift Aid Records: HMRC-ready contribution statements & data exports to support your Gift Aid process. Eligible UK charities reclaim 25p per £1 donated: a church with £200,000 of eligible giving reclaims £50,000.
Ireland — Charitable Donation Scheme: Relief is claimed by the approved body, not the donor. With 31% grossing up, a €1,000 donation becomes €1,449, so the body claims €449.
Germany & France — Government-Prescribed Receipts: Germany uses the BMF template under § 50 EStDV, France Form 2041-RD (Cerfa n° 11580). ChurchPlan provides the itemized giving records churches use to prepare them.
In other countries where ChurchPlan does not issue an official tax receipt, churches receive the ChurchPlan Giving Summary — a complete, itemized record of donations received, clearly identified as not an official tax receipt.
Children’s records, guarded harder.
Churches serve whole families — which means minors’ information is in the system. ChurchPlan treats that as the most protected data it holds, with the legal guardian in control at every step.
A binder hopes. A system enforces.
Most compliance failures aren't malice — they're a volunteer who didn't know the rule. ChurchPlan removes the opportunity for the mistake.
The policy binder
Rules live in a document. People have to remember them, every time, under Sunday-morning pressure. One forgotten step becomes the parish's problem.
The ChurchPlan way
Rules live in the software. The receipt is issued correctly because it can't be issued incorrectly. The roster is supervisor-only because the system won't show it to anyone else.
Let the system carry it.
Start free — the receipting rules, privacy regimes, and safeguarding defaults are already in place when you arrive.
Start free