Financial sustainability

How we sustain this

Guardians of the AV is donation-led during Phase 0. Here is the full revenue model as it grows — five streams, each one tied to the populations and services we exist to serve.

Phase 0 — donation-led

Right now, the work is funded by community capital — individual donors, faith congregations, and local business sponsors. There is no for-profit parent, and no city-licensing or marketplace revenue. We don’t depend on government contracts to exist.

Donations will be received by our fiscal sponsor, Social Good Fund (a California 501(c)(3)), and will be tax-deductible through Social Good Fund once our fiscal-sponsor account is in place. It retains a standard fiscal-sponsorship fee on payments processed; the rest funds the credits and the work.

Community giving is our first and primary support. Donations are paused until our fiscal-sponsor account is in place.

The five streams — in order of activation

Stream 1

Phase 0 — configured (activates with the donation rail)

Donation processing fee

5% of every donation routed through the platform. Applied to meal-fund, transport-fund, gear-fund, laundry-fund, and housing-fund donations. The fee is disclosed at checkout and donors can choose to cover it so 100% of their stated amount reaches the fund.

Applies to all population-specific funds as new populations are added. Scales with donation volume, not the number of cities.

Stream 2

Phase 1 — first county partnership

City licensing

A per-city SaaS license — “Guardians of Lancaster,” “Guardians of Palmdale” — gives city and county partners access to operational dashboards, coordination tools, analytics, outreach management, and population-level reporting.

The Antelope Valley pilot is our Phase 1 target. Additional cities are a Phase 2 activation. Pricing is annual or monthly SaaS, scoped per-city.

Stream 3

Phase 1 — Founding 30 active

Business memberships

Tiered monthly subscriptions for businesses that want verified placement on the platform, hiring access to the trust-scored workforce, and population-aware impact reporting.

Local Sponsor — meal/ride credit funding, community badge, impact report
Employer Partner — job listings, hiring pipeline, workforce-ready access
Community Guardian — full sponsor + employer benefits, featured placement
Enterprise Partner — city-wide presence, analytics, custom engagement

Large-gift sponsorships (>$500 / event or >$2,000 / month) are handled offline via invoice or ACH. See /sponsor.

Stream 4

Phase 2 — marketplace live

Marketplace transaction fees

A percentage fee on community labor marketplace transactions — paid work completed by Tier 2+ residents for partner businesses. The fee is deducted at payout and logged in Supabase at the transaction level.

Applies to all populations in the labor marketplace. Scales with transaction volume as more cities and populations are added.

Stream 5

Phase 2 — data products

Data and analytics

Population-specific data products for city agencies, county departments, and state programs: CalAIM, CDSS, HHS, and Sheriff reentry-services teams. Operational dashboards, trend reports, and planning intelligence — sold as data-service agreements, not raw-record exports.

Individual-level data is never sold, shared, or included in data-product agreements. See /privacy and /ethics for what we will never do with resident data.

IP structure and compensation — on the record

The platform was built by the founder and is contributed in-kind to the charitable work — there is no for-profit owner and no license fee. When Guardians of the AV, Inc. is formed, the nonprofit will own the platform directly (how we’re set up has the full explanation). No royalty, no license, no cut to anyone.

Aaron Turner does not take a cut of donations, sponsor fees, or platform equity.
Donations flow through our fiscal sponsor, Social Good Fund (a 501(c)(3)) — never to a personal or for-profit account.
When Guardians of the AV, Inc. is formed, the nonprofit receives funds directly. No for-profit takes a cut at any stage.
The IP transfer mechanism is documented in /why-catalyst.

What is not a revenue stream

Resident data — never sold, never included in data products, never shared with law enforcement without a court order
DV-survivor referral data — never disclosed, not even in aggregate
Donor lists — not rented, not shared, not sold
Surveillance fees — we do not charge partner agencies for access to resident location or behavior data

Related surfaces

/donate — fund a specific credit lane
/sponsor — business and civic sponsorship, tier pricing
/transparency — full trust-artifact catalog
/why-catalyst — how Guardians of the AV is set up (and the path to its own 501(c)(3))
/ethics — non-waivable ethical commitments, including what we will never monetize