A summary of the campaign application built and donated by a volunteer supporter — including a fair-market accounting of what it would have cost the campaign to procure commercially.
of custom campaign software — designed, built, secured, and deployed at no cost to the campaign.
Built solo, deployed to Cloudflare Workers, July 27–30, 2026.
Working sessions reconstructed from the project's git history:
| Session | What was built | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 27 evening → Jul 28 dawn | 26 rounds of overnight security hardening | ~10 |
| Jul 28 daytime | Rides dispatch, canvass, VAR importer, emails | ~7 |
| Jul 28 late → Jul 29 dawn | Backend audit + PII hardening | ~2.5 |
| Jul 29 all day | Analytics, events, admin UX audit, sign redesign | ~13 |
| Jul 30 | Bot protection, 5-role permissions, AI voter matching | ~3 |
| Total contributed time | ~35 hrs | |
Comparables considered: NGP VAN, Aristotle, Numinar, Political CRM, and boutique political-tech firms. Rate assumed: $200/hr blended — small-market political tech shop, 2026 rates, including PM, QA, and design overhead.
14–18 calendar weeks for the realistic mid-tier scenario with a three-person pod. A rushed delivery for a fall election deadline pushes to roughly 10 weeks with a five-person pod, landing in the high tier due to overtime and coordination overhead.
Where an agency's $270,000 mid-tier budget would be allocated:
| Feature area | Days | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Public marketing site + contribute + endorsements | 12 | $19,200 |
| Admin dashboard + 5-role permission model | 18 | $28,800 |
| Yard-sign pipeline + placement map + photos | 14 | $22,400 |
| Rider dispatch + live GPS + multi-stop routing | 22 | $35,200 |
| Events + Stripe ticketing + QR door-scan | 14 | $22,400 |
| Donations + Stripe webhooks + donor CRM | 12 | $19,200 |
| Email system (Resend, 8 templates, gallery) | 8 | $12,800 |
| Voter file import + AI-augmented matching | 12 | $19,200 |
| Canvass + walk-list w/ proximity grouping | 8 | $12,800 |
| First-party analytics dashboard | 5 | $8,000 |
| Authentication + password reset + session security | 6 | $9,600 |
| Security hardening (26 rounds) | 12 | $19,200 |
| Bot protection + Cloudflare Workers deploy pipeline | 6 | $9,600 |
| PM, design, QA, bug buffer (~28%) | 32 | $51,200 |
| Total agency value | 181 | ~$270,000 |
Estimated at typical campaign usage — approximately 5,000 form submissions per month and 100 rides during GOTV week:
| Service | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare Workers + D1 database + R2 storage | $5 – $15 |
| Resend email (5K–20K sends) | $20 |
| Anthropic (AI voter matching, light usage) | $10 – $30 |
| Cloudflare Turnstile bot protection | Free |
| Infrastructure total | $35 – $65 |
| Stripe processing fees (~$20K/mo processed, pass-through) | ~$610 |
An agency-provided maintenance retainer for an application of this scope would typically cost the campaign $1,500 – $3,000 per month for bug fixes, list imports, and GOTV surge support. All maintenance is being provided as part of this contribution at no cost to the campaign.
The application includes 26 rounds of overnight security hardening — protections that most political-tech agencies either omit or bill separately as a $15,000–$25,000 engagement.