POWERBACK.us is an innovative platform that empowers small-dollar donors to make a real impact on democracy by aligning politicians with their campaign's values. This README provides an overview of POWERBACK.us, how it works, and how you can contribute.

• Introduction
• How POWERBACK Works
• Demo vs Production
• Our Values
• Contributing
• License

POWERBACK.us draws inspiration from the #ForceTheVote movement of 2021, which challenged members of Congress to demand a vote on Medicare For All. This platform takes the concept further, allowing users to harness their collective power to promote accountability from our representatives.

POWERBACK.us is a digital revolution for wherever political corruption has become the new normal. We are not and will never be affiliated with any political party or individual candidate. Instead, POWERBACK.us focuses on serving voters, citizens, and regular people like you who just want their voices heard.

POWERBACK.us's operation is simple yet impactful:

1. Search for House Representatives who matter to you.

2. Create a Celebration agreement. This agreement means that POWERBACK.us commits to deliver your prepaid campaign donation on your behalf, to the House congressional candidate of your choice, if and when the We The People Amendment to overturn Citizens United is brought to the House floor for a vote.

3. Choose your campaign donation amount, and proceed with payment. For larger amounts, POWERBACK.us takes care of proper filing with the FEC. (Learn more at our FAQ)

4. Your voice is heard, and you contribute to the cause you care about.

• You must be 18 years old to donate. Read more at the Eligibility requirements.

The demo experience uses fake totals, no authentication, and no real payment—it is for trying the flow and UI. Production is a conduit for real political donations: it requires auth, processes payments, and enforces eligibility and FEC compliance constraints.

• Party Free: POWERBACK.us will forever be nonpartisan, weaved into its very design of how information is presented.

• Your Data: Your peace and privacy is our top priority. POWERBACK.us will never sell or unilaterally share your identifying data with anyone or anything outside of our network.

• Low Fees: Our fees are the lowest out there, ensuring that democracy doesn't require paying a premium. Virtually all fees are to cover the payment processing service, Stripe. Learn more about these fees at the FAQ.

• No Profits: This is not a for-profit organization. POWERBACK.us relies on user and public support to continue our mission. You can make a difference by:

  • Giving a Tip along with your Celebrations
  • Supporting us on Patreon
  • Contributing Bitcoin: bc1q7ymx62q8un9rptlc570sdg258e2wl8u0swjcps
  • Joining our Discord community
  • Contributing code on GitHub

POWERBACK.us welcomes contributions from the open-source community to help improve the application. We are ambitious to grow beyond this single issue in the House to include all elections and all legislation at all levels of government.

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/powerbackus/powerback.git
   cd powerback

2. Set Up Your Environment

   • Follow the Development Setup Guide
   • Install dependencies: npm install
   • Configure environment variables (see Environment Management)

3. Acquire API Keys

   • Free API keys required for development
   • See API Key Guide for setup instructions
   • Keys typically approved instantly

4. Start Development Server

   npm run dev

• Contributing Guidelines - How to contribute
• Project Overview - Architecture and structure
• Coding Idiosyncrasies - Project-specific patterns
• Development Guide - Complete setup instructions

• 📄 Position paper - Technical and legal framework
• 📚 Documentation Index - Complete documentation navigation
• ❓ FAQ - Frequently asked questions
• ⚖️ Eligibility Requirements - Donation eligibility

• 🐦 X - Updates and announcements
• 💬 Discord - Community and discussions
• 💝 Patreon - Support our mission

• Development Setup - Set up your local development environment
• Project Overview - Architecture and file structure
• API Documentation - Frontend ↔ backend API endpoints
• API Keys Guide - Required API keys and setup

• Authentication System - JWT authentication and security
• FEC Compliance Guide - Compliance tiers and limits
• Donation Limits - Annual and election cycle resets
• Donor Validation - FEC "best efforts" validation

• Payment Processing - Stripe integration and escrow system
• Webhook System - Real-time payment event processing
• Bitcoin Donations - Cryptocurrency donation support

• Status Ledger System - Celebration status tracking
• Defunct Celebrations - Session end handling

• Background Jobs - Automated watchers and monitoring
• Election Date Notifications - Election date change alerts

• React Contexts - Global state management
• Custom Hooks - Reusable React hooks catalog
• Design System - UI components and styling
• Common Props - Centralized props type system

• Email System - Email templates and notifications
• Link Tracking - UTM parameters and external-link click tracking
• Analytics - GA4 event tracking utility

• Deployment Automation - CI/CD pipeline and automated deployment
• Production Setup - Production server setup and configuration
• Environment Management - Environment configuration
• Version Information - Dependency versions

• NPM Scripts - Available npm commands
• Linting & Formatting - Code style guidelines
• Git Worktree Guide - Git workflow utilities
• Coding Idiosyncrasies - Project-specific patterns

• Local MongoDB Setup - Local database installation
• Remote MongoDB Setup - Remote database configuration

If you'd like to contribute to the development of POWERBACK.us, please see the Contributing Guidelines.

This project is licensed under the GPL License - see the LICENSE file for details.