Excerpt: America’s Plan is an all-volunteer project with no paid staff and no profit motive — here is what the work involves, who it’s for, and how to get in touch.
America’s Plan is an all-volunteer effort. There are no paid staff, no investors, and no profit motive. The project exists so people living these issues can build power together — not to make money off anyone’s work. Everyone here is giving their time because they’re living these issues or care deeply about them. The roles are unpaid but real. If donations or grants are ever accepted, how the money is used will be explained clearly through simple published reports.
This page explains what contributing here actually involves, who it’s a good fit for, what the current open roles are, and how to get in touch.
What every contributor is expected to do
Regardless of role, every contributor here is expected to do three things: do the work, help host and moderate conversations in their area, and turn what they learn into simple tools and lessons that others can reuse.
That third part matters more than it might sound. The goal is to put power and skills in the hands of people living the issues — not concentrate them in a small central staff. When an Issue Facilitator learns what makes a forum thread productive, that becomes a guide. When the AI Tools lead figures out which prompts work for policy research, that becomes a training anyone can use. The knowledge doesn’t stay with one person.
Who is the best fit
The most important qualification is direct experience. People who are living with the impacts of an issue — in their own lives, families, or communities — are the primary actors here, not supporting cast. Experts and specialists are welcome, but they function as advisors. Affected people set the direction.
Beyond that, the main thing this project needs from contributors is patience for long-term work. This is not a campaign with a deadline. It is an attempt to build durable civic infrastructure, issue by issue, page by page, discussion by discussion, tool by tool. That kind of work is slow by nature.
You do not need policy expertise. You do not need organizing experience. You do not need a complete plan. You need either lived experience with an issue, or genuine interest in the commons-building side of the work — and the willingness to show up consistently over time.
What to expect from the project
This is a one-person build at an early stage. Progress is iterative and sometimes slow. There is no promise of quick traction or visible results on any short timeline. Contributors do not arrive to a finished organization with clear workflows and support staff. They arrive to something still being built, and the work they do is part of what builds it.
That is an honest description of where this stands. If that kind of early-stage, ground-floor work is not a good fit for where you are, that is worth knowing before you reach out.
Urgent roles right now
Issue Facilitators
Issue Facilitators are people who are directly affected by a specific issue and want to help others get organized around it. The work is relational and practical: bring people together in the community forum for your issue, help new participants feel welcome, ask good questions, and share what you’re seeing on the ground. Reach out to helpful experts when needed — as advisors, not decision-makers.
The job is to guide a group through a progression: understand the problem, map causes, explore solutions, choose concrete next steps. Over time, the goal is to turn strong ideas and findings from the forum into clear guides, tools, or campaign plans that live on the main site. People who are living with the impacts of an issue in their own lives, families, or communities are especially welcome here.
AI Tools & Training Lead
This role is for someone who believes AI can help ordinary people do more with less — without replacing their judgment or lived experience. The work involves exploring and testing AI tools for research, drafting, summarizing, and organizing; creating clear, accessible guides, example prompts, and do/don’t checklists; and hosting occasional forum sessions for questions and help. The goal is to put AI capability in the hands of people living the issues, not centralize it with a few specialists. What works internally gets turned into lessons the whole community can reuse.
Social Media & Training Lead
This role is not about being the only person who ever posts. It is about teaching others how to use social media as a tool for change. The work involves running America’s Plan’s own channels, creating how-to guides and post templates that issue groups can adapt, and helping keep messaging aligned with the project’s values — focused on empowering affected people, not chasing clicks or engagement numbers. Someone comfortable with this role cares about the issues and understands social media well enough to demystify it for others.
Internet Security & Privacy Lead
This role is for someone who understands online risks and wants to help protect people working on sensitive or controversial issues. The work covers both the technical and the human: help choose safer tools and practices, reduce unnecessary data collection, harden the website and forum against common attacks, and write plain-language guidance for users on strong passwords, safer communication, and understanding surveillance. The people organizing here are sometimes challenging powerful interests. Making participation as safe as reasonably possible is not optional work.
Communications & Media Relations Lead
Someone with experience in media, public relations, or email outreach who wants to support a mission-driven, citizen-focused project. The work includes developing core messaging so journalists and the public quickly understand what America’s Plan is, identifying and reaching out to relevant media outlets and podcasts, building and maintaining basic contact lists, and designing respectful email updates for opt-in subscribers. This role coordinates with Social Media and works closely with the Internet Security advisor to ensure outreach respects privacy. A good fit is someone comfortable helping a small project communicate clearly without overpromising or spinning.
Support roles
Several important contributor types don’t map neatly to a named individual role but are just as needed. These include people who can help build and maintain the issue commons — the handbooks, shared knowledge bases, and reference materials that make the forum useful beyond any single conversation. Research and synthesis contributors who can help assess evidence, surface relevant data, and distill complex policy or scientific questions into language that non-specialists can use. And site and content contributors who can help maintain existing pages, draft new ones, and keep the structure coherent as the project grows. Forum participation itself — showing up, asking questions, responding, helping others think through problems — is also real contribution. It is currently what the project most needs.
Future roles
These are not urgent now, but they are wanted as the project grows:
- Volunteer Illustrator / Visual Designer — diagrams, icons, and visuals that explain the model and make complex issues easier to grasp
- Volunteer Nonprofit / 501(c)(3) Attorney — to advise on US nonprofit and advocacy rules if and when a legal entity is formalized
- Volunteer Accountant / Bookkeeper — for simple, transparent financial systems and reporting
- Volunteer Webmaster / Technical Admin — to maintain and improve the website, forum, and integrations
- Researchers, data and visualization specialists, translators, accessibility specialists, and others with relevant skills
What you don’t need — and what you do
You do not need credentials, a formal title, or prior organizing experience. You do not need to arrive with a complete plan or a polished résumé.
What you do need is one of two things: lived experience with an issue this project covers, or genuine interest in the commons-building and infrastructure work — combined with the patience to contribute to something that moves at a deliberate pace and may not look finished for a long time.
A platform that outlasts its founders
In the founder’s own words:
“America’s Plan started as one person’s attempt to solve a problem, but the goal is to build an organization that does not depend on any single individual. I’m older, and I want this platform to outlast me. Over time, the vision is to grow this into a 501(c)(3) or similar nonprofit structure that can be run by the people who are living these issues and using these tools, so the work continues even when I’m no longer here. If you volunteer here, you’re helping build something that belongs to the community and is meant to survive its founders.”
That is the honest framing. This is not a finished organization seeking help to maintain itself. It is an early-stage effort to build something durable and community-owned — and the contributors who join now are part of what makes that possible.
How to get in touch
Use the Contact page. Keep the message simple. Include who you are, what issue brought you here, whether you are directly affected by it, and how you think you want to help. If a specific role caught your attention, say which one. If you have a sense of how much time and involvement is realistic for you, include that too.
The intake process is not elaborate. There is no formal application. A straightforward message is enough to start a conversation.
This article was researched and drafted with AI assistance under human review. See our full AI and editorial practices.