Church management · Kenya
Church management software for Kenyan congregations.
Most Kenyan churches track their members in handwritten registers, count Sunday offerings on a table after service, and coordinate branch activities over a patchwork of WhatsApp groups. It works — until the register is lost, the count is disputed, or the bishop needs a consolidated membership report that does not exist anywhere in one piece. We build church management systems that handle these realities directly: member and household records that replace the register book, M-Pesa giving that removes the offering envelope and the cash-handling risk that comes with it, and a single admin view across every branch or parish in a denomination. We built and run this for the ACK Diocese of Kitale — a platform serving 85+ parishes across 8 archdeaconries — and we build the same capability, scaled to your size, for individual congregations and denominations alike.
In production
We built and operate the ACK Diocese of Kitale platform — a full content and operations system serving 85+ parishes across 8 archdeaconries. It handles 128 API endpoints, 80 data models, M-Pesa and Stripe giving, member and parish records, events, and an Expo mobile app. This is not a prototype; it is how a working diocese manages its parishes today.
See the ACK Diocese buildMember and household records that replace the register book
A paper register cannot tell you how many households are in a particular cell group, which members have not been seen in three months, or who in the congregation holds a pledged but incomplete giving commitment. A digital member record can. We model individuals and households together — family head, dependants, membership class, baptism and confirmation records, cell group assignment, and a full history of every engagement with the church. Pastoral staff access what they need on a phone; administrators run filtered reports without exporting anything to a spreadsheet. Transfers between branches update in one place, not three.
- Household and individual records with full membership history
- Baptism, confirmation, marriage, and burial records attached to the person
- Cell group and department assignment with attendance tracking
- Member transfer between branches with automatic record follow-through
M-Pesa tithes, offerings, and pledges with mobile giving
Passing an offering basket is not the only way Kenyan congregants want to give — and for diaspora members or those who miss a Sunday, it is not an option at all. We wire church giving directly to the Safaricom Daraja API via an STK push: a member dials in or opens the app, selects a fund (tithe, general offering, building project, missions), and the transaction lands in the church account with a record attached to that member. Pledge campaigns work the same way — a member commits to a total, instalment payments track automatically, and the church finance team can see pledge fulfilment across the congregation at any point. Annual giving statements, usable for personal records or employer requests, are generated without any manual tallying.
- M-Pesa STK push for tithes, offerings, and designated funds
- Mobile giving link — accessible outside Sunday service
- Pledge tracking with instalment records and fulfilment reporting
- Per-member annual giving statements generated automatically
Multi-branch and multi-parish coordination from one dashboard
Running a denomination means the head office needs visibility across congregations it does not directly manage day-to-day. Running a multi-campus church means the senior pastor needs an aggregate picture without phoning branch pastors every Sunday afternoon. We built exactly this architecture for the ACK Diocese — a tiered admin model where each parish manages its own records, but the archdeaconry and diocese see rolled-up membership, attendance, and giving data in real time. Branch-level staff see only their own data; diocesan-level administrators see everything. New parishes are onboarded into the same system without new software costs. Reports that used to arrive by post weeks late are live.
Yours on delivery — no per-member SaaS fees
Church software sold as a SaaS subscription charges you every month, forever, for data you generated. We build differently. Each engagement is a fixed-scope, fixed-fee project — you know the cost of each phase before we start. On delivery you receive the source code, database schema, and documentation. There is no per-member seat fee, no annual licence renewal, and no vendor to negotiate with when your congregation grows. If you want continued development or hosting support, that is an optional retainer starting at $3,500 per month — a service you choose, not a trap you are in.
What it covers
The modules, end to end.
Member & household records
Individual and family records with membership class, sacramental history, cell group assignment, and inter-branch transfer support.
M-Pesa giving (tithes, offerings, pledges)
Daraja STK-push giving tied to designated funds, with pledge tracking, instalment records, and annual giving statements per member.
Events & attendance
Service and event scheduling, check-in recording, and attendance history per member — flagging those who have lapsed.
Multi-branch admin
Tiered access so each branch manages its own records while denomination leadership sees consolidated membership, giving, and attendance.
SMS & communication
Bulk SMS to filtered member segments (cell group, branch, department) and automated reminders for events and pledge instalments.
Sermons & content
Audio and video sermon library attached to service records, accessible on the mobile app for members to replay or catch up after absence.
Questions
Frequently asked.
- Can members give via M-Pesa without being physically present on Sunday?
- Yes — that is one of the primary use cases. Giving is triggered by an STK push to the member's phone, or via a giving link they can open at any time. The transaction posts to the correct fund and attaches to their member record automatically. Diaspora members and those who miss a service can still give to a specific campaign or tithe in the same week without needing a bank transfer or envelope.
- We have 12 branches across the county. Can one system manage all of them?
- Yes — this is exactly what we built for the ACK Diocese of Kitale, which spans 85+ parishes across 8 archdeaconries. The access model is tiered: each branch sees and edits its own records, while denomination or district administrators see a consolidated view. New branches are added to the same system as they come online. There is no separate installation per location.
- How is sensitive member data protected? Who can see what?
- Role-based access control is built into the system from the start, not bolted on. A cell group leader sees the members in their group. A branch pastor sees that branch. A finance officer sees giving records but not pastoral notes. Denomination administrators can set and audit permissions across the hierarchy. Data is stored encrypted at rest; API access is authenticated and logged. We can align the permission model to your existing leadership structure.
- What happens when there is no internet — in rural branches or during power cuts?
- Critical functions like service attendance check-in and offering recording are available in the mobile app in offline mode. Entries queue locally and sync to the server when connectivity returns. For rural parishes with intermittent data, field staff work through the app as normal and the data reaches the central record when the network is available — no manual re-entry.
- What does a church management system cost, and who owns it?
- Most engagements start with a scoping Sprint from $4,500, followed by a phased project typically between $15,000 and $75,000 depending on congregation size, number of branches, and integrations required. You own the delivered system — source code, database, and documentation transfer to you on delivery. There are no per-member fees or licensing costs. Optional ongoing development or hosting support is available as a retainer from $3,500 per month. We sign an NDA before sharing specifics of the build.
Build it properly
Tell us what your operation needs.
Fixed-scope, fixed-fee phases. Full IP transfer on delivery. We respond within one working day, and there's an NDA before any specifics.