Every dollar in. Every dollar out. In public.
Claim sharks hide their costs because their costs are the point. We do the opposite: here is exactly what it takes to run this, what each veteran costs us, and where every donation goes.
Figures shown are illustrative in this preview. In production this meter reads live from our spend metering, updated daily and verified quarterly.
A fixed floor, extended by donations, capped on purpose.
A founder-funded baseline covers the tool every month, no matter what. This is the minimum the tool always runs on.
Every donation adds to the month's pool. At about $1.90 per veteran, $100 opens the door for roughly 50 more.
When the pool is spent, new claims pause until donations reopen it. Anyone already working keeps going — no one is cut off mid-claim.
What it costs to run the tool.
The one variable cost is AI — and it's tiny, because the work is automated. Everything else is flat, small, and listed here.
| Line item | Monthly | Type |
|---|---|---|
| AI inference (Claude API — caching + batch applied) | ~$1.90 / veteran | Variable |
| Hosting (Vercel) | $20 | Fixed |
| Database & auth (Supabase) | $25 | Fixed |
| Encrypted document storage | $10–25 | Fixed |
| Email / SMS (transactional + outcome polling) | $15–30 | Fixed |
| Monitoring & error tracking | $10 | Fixed |
| Domain (amortized) | $2 | Fixed |
| Fixed subtotal | ~$100/mo |
Everything else it takes — even the one-time and donated line items.
Legal, insurance, formation, registration. We disclose these even when they're one-time or donated in-kind, because transparency that skips the awkward numbers isn't transparency.
| Line item | Cost | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Legal review (§5904/5905 + UPL counsel) | $1,500–6,000 | One-time · blocking |
| Nonprofit formation (IRS 1023-EZ + state) | $375–575 | One-time |
| Insurance (cyber + D&O/E&O) | $1,000–2,500 / yr | Annual |
| State charitable-solicitation registrations | $0–400+ / state | As required |
| Accounting / Form 990 | $0–1,500 / yr | Annual |
| Payment processing (Stripe nonprofit) | 2.2% + $0.30 | Per donation |
| Founder labor & development | $0 charged | Donated in-kind |
Where the money you give actually goes.
Every donation lands in the nonprofit account — never a personal or for-profit account.
Card processing is the only deduction, and we show it. The rest is credited to the pool.
Spent only on serving veterans. Unspent donations roll to next month. Never spent marketing your data.