This platform costs money to run. It will always be free to use.
Every tool on CommUnity OS is free, bilingual, and built for neighbors helping neighbors. We don't collect data. We don't run ads. We don't sell anything. That means we depend on people who believe this should exist.
What it costs
Hosting & Domain
Domain registration. The site itself runs on free hosting with no bandwidth limits. No servers to maintain.
Community Tools Backend
Discussion Board, Needs & Offers, Leadership Evaluation, and Community Assessment all run on free infrastructure. Google Sheets backend with Apps Script. Zero subscription costs.
FeedYours & Canning Apps
Free hosting. Open-source code. Nutrition data from USDA public databases. Food preservation data from USDA public guidelines.
Development & Maintenance
Every line of code, every design decision, every translation — built on personal time with personal funds. Your contributions make it possible to keep improving the platform, add new tools, and expand to more communities.
Total operating cost
We built this on free infrastructure deliberately. Nobody can pull the plug because there's nothing to pull. But growth — more tools, more languages, more communities — requires resources.
Where contributions go
Every dollar, accounted for
80% → Platform development and new tools
10% → Hosting, domain, and infrastructure
10% → Community outreach and bilingual content
No salaries. No office. No overhead. No middlemen. When you contribute, the money builds tools.
What we will never do
Collect or sell personal data
Run advertisements
Charge for community tools
Put tools behind a paywall or login wall
Share user information with anyone, ever
What we're building toward
5 neighborhoods using the tools by end of 2026
Each neighborhood means 15-20 people actively posting needs, sharing offers, and holding conversations. That's the threshold where the board stops being a platform and starts being a community.
Open source by summer 2026
Every line of code published on GitHub so anyone can verify how it works, improve it, or build their own version. Transparency isn't a feature — it's the foundation.
3 more languages by 2027
English and Spanish are the start. Communities speak Mandarin, Arabic, Polish, Tagalog, and more. Every language added is another neighborhood that can use the tools.
How to help
CommUnity OS is a community project operating under fiscal sponsorship by The Hack Foundation (d/b/a Hack Club, EIN: 81-2908499). Platform infrastructure is provided by NinoTech LLC. Donations are tax-deductible.
NinoTech LLC grows its platform architecture into tools that serve clients — and invests that growth into CommUnity OS, free civic infrastructure for all of us.
We're setting up secure online payments. Until then, reach us at info@comm-unity-os.org and we'll work out the details. No amount is too small.
CommUnity OS · Fiscal sponsor: The Hack Foundation (Hack Club, EIN 81-2908499) · Donations are tax-deductible
Other ways to support
Use the tools
The most valuable thing you can do is use CommUnity OS in your neighborhood. Every discussion post, every need matched, every leader evaluated makes the platform more useful for the next person.
Share with your community
Tell someone who needs it. Print the QR code for your church, your laundromat, your food pantry. Text the link to your block club group chat.
Contribute code
CommUnity OS is open source. If you can code, you can help build it. The entire platform — every page, every tool, every line — is available for review and contribution.
Translate
The platform is in English and Spanish. If you can help translate into other languages your community speaks, that expands who these tools can reach.
Partner with us
If you run a food pantry, library, community center, or nonprofit and want to offer these tools to the people you serve — email info@comm-unity-os.org. Everything is free to use and share.
For organizations
For food banks and pantries
Our Needs & Offers board generates real-time demand data — what families need, by zip code, in English and Spanish. This data can complement your distribution planning, especially for evening/weekend access and communities your current hours don't reach. We don't replace pantries. We extend your reach into the gaps.
For growers and urban farms
Your graduates are trained to grow food for communities that need it. This platform is where those communities tell you what they need — and where neighbors organize to distribute what you grow. From soil to shelf, with the community's own voice guiding every step.
For funders and foundations
CommUnity OS costs $7 per year to operate. Every dollar contributed goes to community food distribution, new language translations, or tool development — not salaries, office space, or overhead. Finances are transparent through our fiscal sponsor. The community generates the data. The data drives the funding. The funding reaches the table.
Reach us at info@comm-unity-os.org
Connect your data
CommUnity OS already pulls from public data sources — 311 complaints, health statistics, food inspections, housing data. But the most useful information is often held by organizations working directly with communities. If your organization has data that could help families in real time, we can connect it.
How it works
Your organization provides a data feed — an API, a CSV export, or a structured spreadsheet. We build a secure connector that pulls your data into the platform on a schedule you control. Your data shows up on the pages where families need it, in their language, scoped to their zip code. You control what flows. We commit to how it's used: no resale, no ads, no personal data, display only.
Food banks + pantries
Connect your inventory or distribution schedule. When Maria opens the survival page and types her zip code, she sees what's available near her right now — not a directory, but live information. Your data reduces waste by matching supply to demand in real time.
Community health centers
Connect appointment availability or service hours. Families see which clinics near them are taking patients — in their language. For health data that falls under HIPAA, we execute a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) through NinoTech LLC. No protected health information is ever displayed publicly. Only aggregate availability and service types.
Legal aid + tenant organizations
Connect your intake capacity or event calendar. Families who read the tenant rights guide can immediately see whether free legal help is available near them and how to get it. The platform turns knowledge into action by closing the gap between understanding your rights and accessing someone who can enforce them.
Government agencies + public data
We already pull Chicago 311 data, CDC health measures, CFPB complaints, food inspection results, and Census demographics through public APIs. If your agency has additional open data that could help families make better decisions — connect it. The platform is the last mile between your data and the people it's supposed to serve.
Funders: sponsor a data connection
Every API integration makes the platform more useful for the next family that opens it. If your foundation funds food security, housing, health access, or civic engagement — sponsoring a data connection puts your investment directly into community infrastructure that can't be defunded. The platform costs $7 a year. Your sponsorship builds the data layer that makes it intelligent.
Partnership structure
Data partnerships for CommUnity OS are executed through NinoTech LLC (Illinois), which provides the platform's technical infrastructure. Every agreement includes: what data flows, how often it updates, where it displays, and what happens if either party wants to disconnect. For health-related data, we execute a BAA. For all other data, we use a Data Partnership Agreement. Both are simple, plain-language documents — not 40-page contracts.
The platform remains free to every person who uses it. Data partnerships are funded by the connecting organization, a sponsoring funder, or operated at zero cost when the data source is already public.
Ready to connect? info@comm-unity-os.org
The strongest infrastructure is the kind that belongs to the people who use it.