HAND Protocol

Regenerative infrastructure for those who heal, build, and serve.

HAND Protocol (Holistic Approach to Nurture and Develop) is a nonprofit foundation incorporating as a 501(c)(3) in Austin, Texas in 2026. We provide long-term branding, marketing, web/dev, and one-on-one development support for Reciprocates, healers, impact entrepreneurs, and grassroots community organizations doing work that matters. We don't build and bounce.

This monorepo holds the public web presence (foundation campaign + discovery research + legacy archive) and earlier Web3 tooling preserved as source history.

Surfaces

Path	What it is	Status
web/foundation-campaign/	Primary public site. 501(c)(3) filing campaign, $77,777 first goal.	Live in source
web/discovery/	Three long-form discovery docs: vision of the resource pool, research on existing skill-exchange models, national landscape map.	Live in source
web/sovereign-reciprocates/	Sovereign Reciprocates: HAND's AI workstream as a public page. Reuses the discovery design system.	Live in source
web/governance/	Governance package: Articles, Bylaws, all policies, board governance, theory of change, strategic plan, Form 1023 narrative.	Live in source
web/legacy/	Archive of HAND's earlier landing-page and crowdfunding designs.	Live in source
web/landingpage/	Pre-pivot Next.js Web3 starter homepage.	Preserved, not deployed
sweetspot/	SweetSpot dApp + Solidity contracts + subgraph indexer.	Preserved, not deployed
projects/spin/	Vite + React + TS sub-project.	Standalone

Documents

• HANDOFF.md: current state of the project. Read this first if you are picking the work up cold or returning after time away. Names what just shipped, what is in motion, what is open, and where to find what.
• PRODUCT.md: strategic context: users, mission, brand personality, anti-references, design principles.
• DESIGN.md: visual system: colors, typography, components, spacing, motion.
• AGENTS.md: guide for AI coding agents working in this repo.
• AI-RECIPROCATES.md: Sovereign Reciprocates: HAND's AI workstream. Custom open-source agent systems per Reciprocate group, owned by the group, with the eight sovereignty principles that govern the design.
• AI-EVAL-FRAMEWORK.md: how we measure whether the agent systems are earning their place and remaining sovereign. Six dimensions, three decision gates, public quarterly reporting.
• funding/mcgovern-letter.md: draft LOI to the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation for the AI workstream ($111,111 over 18 months).
• governance/: full governance package (36 documents). Articles, Bylaws, all policies, board governance, theory of change, strategic plan, grant-readiness, Form 1023 narrative. Each at Draft v0.1, pending counsel review and board adoption.
• funding/grant-readiness-research.md: 5,300-word research report on Texas 501(c)(3) incorporation, IRS requirements, fiscal sponsorship, board governance, succession, multi-state solicitation, AI-specific governance. Underpins the governance documents.

Local development

The three active web surfaces are plain static HTML/CSS/JS. No build step.

cd web && python3 -m http.server 8000

Then open:

• http://localhost:8000/foundation-campaign/ (campaign)
• http://localhost:8000/discovery/ (discovery hub)
• http://localhost:8000/legacy/ (archive)

The Next.js landingpage and Vite spin project have their own build flows; see their package.json for scripts.

Contributing

HAND Protocol welcomes contributors. If you'd like to donate skills, partner as a Reciprocate, or support the filing raise, reach out:

• Email: hand@handprotocol.org
• Discord: discord.handprotocol.org
• X / Twitter: @hand_protocol

For technical contributions to the website, read AGENTS.md for working conventions (no em dashes, no side-stripe borders, accessibility requirements, brand vocabulary including the term Reciprocates).

License

The code in this repository is released under the MIT License. Content (documentation, copy, research notes in web/discovery/) is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The HAND Protocol name and logo are reserved.

Status

Pre-incorporation. The foundation campaign is currently raising toward a $77,777 first goal ($22,222 operating minimum) to file for tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status and launch the pilot cohort. Watch the foundation campaign for the current status, or reach out to support.

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Based in Austin, Texas. Operating since 2025.