Before you get mad,
read this.

Is it? The Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. FEC that money is speech. Billionaires spend unlimited fortunes to amplify their political voice through Super PACs, lobbyists, and dark money. If money is speech when a corporation spends it, why isn't it speech when a community pools $200 so a single mom can afford to show up at a rally?

We're not paying people to hold opinions. We're making it financially possible for people who already hold those opinions to act on them. There's a difference — and the people upset about this know it.

This is a platform for human rights. If believing that Black lives matter, that LGBTQ+ people deserve dignity, that immigrants are human beings, and that children shouldn't go hungry makes us “liberal” — then sure, call it what you want.

But ask yourself: when did compassion become partisan? When did “don't be racist” become a political position? We didn't make these issues political. The people profiting from division did.

90% of every dollar goes directly to the activist. Not to us. Not to overhead. Not to a Super PAC consultant making $400/hour. Compare that to traditional nonprofits where overhead averages 25-40%, or PACs where your donation funds TV ads you'll never see.

Every transaction is transparent. Every action is verified with proof. Every dollar is traceable. We're the opposite of exploitation — we're accountability.

Real activists also need to eat. They need to pay rent. They need childcare.

“I couldn't afford to take a day off work to protest. STAND/WITH/ME made it possible for me to show up for my community — and still pay rent.” — Daniela T., Chicago IL

“I'm a single mom. When ICE started raids in my neighborhood, I wanted to be at the courthouse every day. But who watches my kids? Who pays for groceries?” — Maria R., Phoenix AZ

“My boss told me if I went to the march, I'd lose my job. I went anyway because STAND/WITH/ME supporters had my back. I lost the job. I didn't lose my apartment.” — Tyrone W., Detroit MI

Protesting is a privilege. The people most affected by injustice are the ones who can least afford to fight it. That's not an accident — it's by design. We're breaking that design.

One side has a literal company called Crowds on Demand that provides paid actors to fake grassroots support. In 2024, Republican donor Monty Bennett hired them to create a fake BLM organization in Dallas. The Koch brothers manufactured the entire Tea Party with Big Tobacco money years before it “spontaneously” appeared.

We're not hiding anything. Our activists are verified. Our actions are documented. Our funding is transparent. That's the difference between astroturf and grassroots.

In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. FEC that corporations have First Amendment rights and can spend unlimited money on political speech. This created Super PACs and unleashed a flood of dark money: from under $5 million in 2006 to over $1 billion in 2024 alone. Billionaire election spending multiplied by 163x. 80% of Americans opposed the ruling — and yet here we are.

Crowds on Demand will get you a crowd within 24 hours. Paid actors posing as supporters at campaign rallies. Fake advocacy groups influencing city council votes. In 2018, energy firm Entergy used paid actors to push through a controversial gas plant. This isn't a fringe operation — it's an industry.

Academic research confirms the Tea Party was planned by Big Tobacco and the Koch brothers years before 2009. Citizens for a Sound Economy — funded with $5.3 million from tobacco companies — registered usteaparty.com in 2002. As NPR reported: the Koch think tanks wrote the playbook, and Americans for Prosperity ran the plays.

If billionaires can spend unlimited money to shape politics, regular people need a way to pool their resources too. That's what STAND/WITH/ME is. Not a PAC. Not a nonprofit with 40% overhead. A direct, transparent pipeline from people who care to people who act. 90% goes to the activist. You see the proof. No middlemen.

STAND/WITH/ME is a platform that connects activists with supporters who want to fund peaceful protest actions. Supporters browse verified activists, fund their causes, and receive proof of impact. Activists earn 90% of all contributions directly.

When you support an activist, your card is pre-authorized through Stripe but not charged until the action is verified. Via Stripe Connect, the payment goes directly between you and the activist — we never hold your funds. 90% goes to the activist, 10% covers platform costs.

After completing their action, activists must submit an impact report with photos, videos, attendance data, and location verification. Our verification team reviews every submission before funds are released.

Peaceful protests including rallies, marches, sit-ins, awareness campaigns, art installations, musical protests, community gardens, and community organizing events. All proposals are reviewed by our dual AI system. Violence, property destruction, and harassment are strictly prohibited.

If an activist doesn't complete their action or their proof is rejected, your contribution is automatically refunded in full. You can also dispute fraudulent activity through our resolution process.

Submit your government-issued ID for identity verification, connect your social media profiles, and provide references from other organizers or community members. Verification builds trust and significantly increases your funding success rate.

Activists earn between $50 and $5,000+ per action, depending on scope, location, and community impact. You receive 90% of all contributions. Your verification status and track record directly influence how much supporters contribute.

Safety Mode (real-time hazard monitoring), Emergency SOS (one-tap alert with GPS), incident reporting, legal aid partners, and a comprehensive Field Guide with know-your-rights info, de-escalation tactics, and digital security tips.

Your location is only shared when you explicitly activate Safety Mode or trigger Emergency SOS. Location sharing is always user-controlled. All location data is encrypted and never sold.

STAND/WITH/ME partners with legal aid organizations. Use the incident report feature to connect with legal resources. Our network includes civil rights attorneys experienced in protest-related cases.

Then we did our job.

Here's the thing: we never hold your money. Every payment flows directly from supporter to activist through Stripe Connect. If STAND/WITH/ME disappears tomorrow, no one's funds are trapped in our accounts because we don't have accounts with your money in them. Activists who've already been paid keep their money. Pending pre-authorizations release back to supporters. Stripe handles all of that independent of us.

We built it this way on purpose. Not because we expected to get shut down, but because we believe a protest platform should be architecturally resistant to exactly this scenario. If a government can kill your movement by flipping one switch, you built it wrong.

And if they do come for us? It means we were loud enough to matter. It means activists got funded. It means people who couldn't afford to protest showed up anyway. It means the system noticed, and the system was uncomfortable. That was the whole point.

We hope whoever comes next builds it better. We'll open-source everything we can on the way out. The idea doesn't belong to us — it belongs to everyone who ever stood up and got told to sit down.

That's all, folks.

We're fully aware of the irony. Corporate Memphis — the flat, friendly, geometrically wholesome illustration style perfected by Big Tech to make trillion-dollar surveillance companies feel like your neighborhood lemonade stand — is the visual language of institutional platitude. It's the aesthetic equivalent of a company saying “we're all in this together” while laying off 12,000 people.

So why use it on a site dedicated to fighting the very systems that popularized it? Because we think it's funny. And because reclaiming the visual language of corporate comfort to fund actual dissent is exactly the kind of energy this platform runs on.

Also, honestly? The bold shapes, thick borders, and flat colors are just pretty. We're activists, not monks. We're allowed to like nice things.