Decision Delta
Automating business change
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Decision Delta · Proposal

Pushpay Giving Platform Replacement

Crossroads Christian Fellowship

Prepared for Crossroads leadership
Michael Hallak · Founder & Principal · Decision Delta
406.471.7581

Context

The problem today

Beyond cost, Pushpay creates operational friction:

  • QBO journal entries don't match bank deposits — Karri manually untangles lump sums
  • Multiple designated funds land in one account with manual fund splits
  • No unified donor ID across Pushpay, QBO, Stripe, and Planning Center
  • Year-end giving statements require manual consolidation across giving funds and payment methods
$0
Pushpay cost (processing + platform)
$0
Platform fee alone
0
Blended processing rate
Out of scope: Executive reporting / church health dashboard — separate phased project after giving platform is live.

G — Goals

What this project achieves

Stewardship

Improve stewardship of giving amounts by eliminating surcharges and fees

  • Replace Pushpay with a church-owned platform at budget-neutral Year 1
  • Eliminate ~$550/mo platform fee; Stripe nonprofit rates passed through at cost

Operations

Streamline operations and management of funds with automated workflows

  • Sync giving to QBO with fund segmentation — end manual deposit reconciliation
  • Unified donor & household records via one-time migration + ongoing strategy
  • Automate year-end statements; offline gifts via check photo & CSV upload
  • Recurring giving migration & donor self-service transaction history

D — Deliverables

What Crossroads receives

Platform

Giving platform

  • Trusted, church-branded URL with interface at giving.crossroadschristianfellowship.com
  • One-time & recurring giving (card + ACH via Stripe Connect)
  • Self-service unlimited per-fund Stripe accounts (Offering, Eden's Child, Missions)
  • Donor accounts, self-service history, fee coverage option
  • Offline giving: check photos & CSV import
  • Admin: transactions, subscriptions, funds, reports, export
  • Automated year-end statements with DAF / no-statement rules

Integrations

Integrations, deployment, documentation

  • QBO sync with fund-level metadata & deposit mapping
  • OData endpoint for automated Excel ingestion (finance ops)
  • Site monitoring to verify status of service
  • Wiki with how-to guides for using the platform
  • Support portal for feature requests, bug fixes, improvements

P — Process

How we get there

1

Paperwork

NDA, MSA, SOW

2

Azure & access

Subscription, DNS, Stripe Connect, QBO OAuth

3

Data mapping

Pushpay export, donor seed, Karri edge-case review

4

Platform build

UI, admin, QBO sync, funds, statements

5

Staging review

Crossroads validates workflows

6

Migration & go-live

Cancel Pushpay recurring; donors re-enroll

7

Handoff & support

Training, documentation, SLA

A — Assumptions

What we need from Crossroads

  • Onboarding credentials to relevant systems are provided
  • Church owns Azure and grants deploy access during build
  • 501(c)(3) nonprofit discount is applied for Stripe rates
  • Stakeholders are available for timely questions
  • DNS for giving.crossroadschristianfellowship.com is ready
  • Recurring donors re-enroll after Pushpay cancellation

C — Cost

Investment & savings

Budget-neutral Year 1 at projected volume · savings accelerate in Year 2+

$15,000
One-time build
$300/mo
Support ($3,600/yr)
~$50/mo
Azure (church-paid)

Processing rate comparison

Pushpay today vs Stripe nonprofit pass-through at giving baseline — church pays Stripe directly, no Decision Delta markup.

Pushpay
—
Custom (Stripe)
—
Rate reduction
—

C — Cost

3-year projection · Y1 at 20% above giving baseline

0%40%
$0
Year 1 savings1
$0
Year 2 cumulative savings2
$0
Year 3 cumulative savings3
Year# Giving volumeVolume Pushpay Custom platformCustom Annual savingsSavings
Year 11
Year 22
Year 33
Pushpay total cost Custom platform total Savings delta
—
Y1 savings1
—
Y2 savings2
—
Y3 savings3

T — Timeline

Estimated schedule

W1
System onboarding — Credentials, Azure, DNS, Stripe Connect, QBO OAuth
W2
Giving platform — Branded URL, one-time & recurring (card + ACH), funds, donor accounts, admin
W3
Integrations & staging — QBO sync, OData, offline gifts, statements, Crossroads validation
W4
Go-live & handoff — Donor re-enroll, Pushpay cutover, wiki, support portal — church runs it

Duration: 4 weeks to production, then Crossroads operates with ongoing support

R — Results

What Crossroads gets

Financial

No platform fee; $19.6k/yr saved in Year 2, $23k/yr in Year 3, $44.2k cumulative over 3 years at 20% growth

Operational

QBO matches bank; fund segmentation automated; less manual work for Karri

Donor experience

Trusted church-branded experience, self-service history, recurring giving

Ownership

Platform, data, and Azure belong to Crossroads

Foundation

Clean, accessible data for future executive reporting (separate project)

Support · $300/mo

1 feature request/month · bug fixes (1h response, 24h target) · uptime monitoring