$ — cause.software / pbc
Cause Software, PBC is a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation building open-core infrastructure for 501(c)(3) public charities, civic-tech teams, and legal-aid organizations — software whose charter is bound to public good.
What we are
Cause Software, PBC builds the engine; public-benefit organizations run it. Our charter is mission-locked: directors are legally bound to weigh public benefit alongside profit, the core code is open and auditable, and our annual benefit report is published. We are for-profit so we can pay engineers market-rate — and bound forever to the cause we were founded to serve.
Three commitments
The charter binds the company to public benefit forever — including through any change of control. Directors are protected when they put public good first; the law makes that the job.
The case-management engine and document-generation core are publicly auditable and free for any 501(c)(3) to use, fork, or self-host. Premium SaaS — AI agents, hosted infrastructure, integrations — funds the core.
Annual benefit report disclosed publicly. B Corp Certification targeted year two. Sliding-scale pricing for nonprofits; market-rate for commercial advocates. The asymmetry is the point.
The platform
Case-management engine · document generation · statutory citation library · escalation logic.
Free, auditable, MIT-style license for any 501(c)(3). The same engine that powers our anchor client — the same engine any qualifying nonprofit can run for itself. No vendor lock-in. No per-letter pricing. Every assertion in every generated letter cites the statute it stands on.
AI agent · hosted infrastructure · bureau integrations · support · SOC2-track.
Subscription pricing on a sliding scale. Nonprofits pay cost-recovery; commercial advocates and law firms pay market. The premium tier funds the core — and is governed by the same mission-lock as the rest of the company.
Consumer-rights advocacy · FCRA / FDCPA / RESPA / state UDAPs.
Our flagship anchor client is The Dispute Project, a 501(c)(3) public charity in formation in New York. They run the open core; we provide the premium hosting and infrastructure under an arms-length services agreement. Other public-benefit clients welcome on the same terms.
Organizational structure
Cause Software, PBC is the commercial entity — founder equity, market-rate wages, mission-locked charter. The Dispute Project is a peer client, not a parent and not a subsidiary — a 501(c)(3) public charity governed by its own independent board, served by Cause Software under an arms-length master services agreement on the same terms offered to any qualifying public-benefit organization.
Open by default
Cause Software is not a charity pretending to be a SaaS, and not a SaaS pretending to be a charity. It is a Public Benefit Corporation — for-profit, mission-locked, accountable to the cause through statute and through annual public reporting.
Three commitments, no exceptions:
Three doors
Are you a 501(c)(3)? The open-core engine is free for you to run. The flagship deployment lives at thedisputeproject.org.
Civic-tech, legal aid, consumer-rights nonprofit? Email partners@cause.software.
Engineer or researcher who wants market-rate wages and a mission-locked charter? engineering@cause.software.