Most churches and nonprofits end up running their org on a patchwork of tools — one for donations, another for volunteer sign-ups, a third for staff tasks, a fourth for email, maybe a fifth for the website. Studio pulls it into one platform built for orgs that need to do a lot with a small team.
What Studio Is
Studio is an all-in-one operations platform for organizations. It combines donations, invoicing, projects, forms, messaging, people management, team collaboration, website management, and a built-in client portal — under one login, one bill, one support team.
What You Get On Day One
1. A Donation Platform You Actually Own
- Connect your own Stripe account — money flows donor → Stripe → your bank. Studio never holds funds.
- Public donation pages with custom branding, 6 pre-built templates, and QR codes
- Recurring giving — monthly, quarterly, annual — with a self-service portal so donors manage their own subscriptions
- Funds, campuses, designations — for multi-location churches, capital campaigns, memorial gifts, mission funds
- Fundraising goals with public thermometer
- Offline donation recording — Sunday cash, mailed checks, pledges — all counted toward year-end totals
- Year-end tax statements auto-generated for every donor
- Unlimited donations on every plan — no caps, no monthly limits
2. Volunteer & Event Sign-Up Forms
- Drag-and-drop form builder — name, email, dropdowns, file uploads, section headers
- Three ways to distribute — public link, WordPress plugin embed, or iframe on any website
- Submissions auto-create projects — so every volunteer sign-up, event RSVP, or prayer request becomes a trackable item
- Route by category — send event sign-ups to your Events team, volunteer applications to HR, etc.
3. A Client Portal for Your People
- Give board members, staff, ministry leaders, or key volunteers their own secure login
- Projects, tasks, messages, calendar, files all in one place
- Multi-client switching — a volunteer who serves multiple ministries sees them all in one login
- Light/dark mode, notification preferences, mobile-friendly
4. Project & Task Management Built for Ministry Ops
- Plan a capital campaign, coordinate a mission trip, run a building project — track every task, comment, deadline, and file
- Threaded discussions with @mentions, file attachments, status tracking
- Recurring project groups — every Sunday service, every monthly board meeting, every quarterly newsletter
- Automated due-date reminders so nothing slips
5. Website Management (If You Want It)
- Connect your WordPress site(s) with the Studio Connect plugin
- Uptime monitoring — know before your congregation does if the site's down
- Plugin management — update, deploy, or roll back across multiple sites from one dashboard
- Security alerts on plugin changes and suspicious activity
6. Invoicing (For Events, Programs, Rentals)
- Event ticketing, program fees, facility rentals — send a branded invoice, accept card or ACH
- Public pay URL — no login required for the payer
- Unlimited invoices on every plan
7. Team & Volunteer Coordination
- Role-based access — Administrator, Director, Staff, Contractor — with financial-access toggles
- Invite flow — secure email invites, 7-day expiry, auto-reminders
- Time tracking for staff (optional) with retainer hour support
- Assignment notifications so your team knows what's theirs
8. Multi-Campus / Multi-Ministry Support
- Workspaces — each campus or ministry can have its own space with its own clients, projects, and settings
- Shared donors / unified donation reporting across campuses if you want it
- Workspace-level permissions — campus pastor only sees their campus
Who Studio Is For
- Churches from single-location to multi-campus — running weekly services, small groups, missions, capital campaigns
- Nonprofits with staff + volunteers, board oversight, grant-funded programs, and event-based fundraising
- Ministries operating inside a larger church or as independent 501(c)(3)s
- Parachurch organizations — campus ministries, missions orgs, training centers
- Small teams that are done with 7 different subscriptions and want one tool that does it all
Who Studio Is Not For
Being honest about what we are and aren't:
- Not a full donor CRM — we track giving history, but if you need deep donor journey mapping, grant tracking, and moves management, pair Studio with Bloomerang or Blackbaud.
- Not a membership database — we have people records, but we're not Planning Center. If you need family relationships, attendance tracking, and children's check-in, you'll still need that.
- Not accounting software — Studio tracks donations and invoices. Your accountant still uses QuickBooks or Aplos for GL, 990 filing, and fund accounting.
- Not event management at Eventbrite's level — we do signups and paid invoices, but not seat maps or scanning.
- Not email marketing — Studio sends transactional emails (donor receipts, invites, notifications) but doesn't do newsletters or campaigns. Pair with Mailchimp, Flodesk, or ConvertKit for that.
How the Pricing Works
- Free tier available — unlimited donations and invoices on every tier, including free. Stripe fees apply.
- Studio platform fee — a small percentage on transactions (lower on paid plans, waived on some).
- Plan upgrades unlock non-payment features: more team seats, more storage, more sites, more workspaces.
- Philosophy — we don't charge per donation or per donor. We make money when you do, via a small transaction fee. Everything else scales with your operational needs.
Why Orgs Switch to Studio
- "We were paying for 6 tools. Now we pay for one." — Studio replaces donation software, volunteer sign-up forms, project management, internal messaging, and website monitoring in one place.
- "Our Stripe account doesn't disappear if we cancel." — Studio is not custodial. Your Stripe, your money, your donors. Leave anytime, keep everything.
- "Donors get a real self-service portal." — Recurring donors don't need to email the office to change their amount or card.
- "Our volunteers get a portal, not just email threads." — Every project, task, and file in one place, filtered to what each person needs to see.
- "Setup was under an hour." — Stripe connects in 5 minutes. First donation page live in 20. No implementation consultant required.
Getting Started
- Sign up at usestudio.app
- Complete the 5-step onboarding (name your org, tell us what you do)
- Connect Stripe (~5 min with EIN + bank info ready)
- Publish your first donation page (~20 min)
- Invite your team and start using the rest of the platform at your pace
Questions? Email hello@circlesco.com — a human replies, usually within a business day.