feat(about,footer): founder-funded transparency copy + scrub of dead HCB tax-deductible claims

STATUS.md

@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ Off-plan riders (pulled forward, rename-independent):
 - 2026-07-11: Stripe decision — GO. S18–S21 build starts 2026-07-11; pricing per `docs/ideation/2026-07-02-embeds-spec.md` §4 ladder ($29/mo or $290/yr Pro, $15/mo or $150/yr nonprofit, network hand-negotiated). Stripe is the institutional-embeds rail only; HCB is the citizen-donations rail; the two are never conflated.
 - 2026-07-11: S12 ruling — quiet-submit now (registry + directory submissions run this week; review/listing latency burns down while unannounced), the public announcement itself still holds for the late Aug–Sep window.
 - 2026-07-11: Pregen + Blob portraits — both armed, pending owner secrets (~$2.50–3.80/mo pregen + ~cents/mo Blob), surfaced and approved.
+- 2026-07-15: HCB application DENIED (HCB currently sponsors teen hacker builds only) — the citizen-donations rail is undecided again; About/footer copy scrubbed of every fiscal-sponsor/501(c)(3)/tax-deductible claim and `DonateSupport` retired in branch `feat/funding-transparency` (founder-funded framing is the single truthful surface); `DONATE_URL` stays null until a replacement rail is chosen.
 
 ## Issues & learnings ledger (compound these)
 

app/[locale]/about/page.tsx

@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 import type { Metadata } from 'next';
 import { setRequestLocale, getTranslations } from 'next-intl/server';
-import { DonateSupport } from '@/components/DonateSupport';
 import { hreflangAlternates } from '@/lib/hreflang';
 import { DONATE_URL } from '@/lib/site';
 
@@ -27,6 +26,26 @@ export default async function AboutPage({ params }: { params: Promise<{ locale:
       <section className="mt-10">
         <h2 className="font-display text-2xl font-bold">{t('fundingTitle')}</h2>
         <p className="mt-2 max-w-prose leading-relaxed">{t('fundingBody')}</p>
+        {/* The one support ask on this page (the HCB fiscal-sponsorship route
+            was denied 2026-07-15, so the former DonateSupport section and its
+            sponsor/tax-deductible claims are retired). Dark by construction
+            until DONATE_URL is set - one constant, no second flag. Never
+            claims tax-deductibility or nonprofit status - this is a personal,
+            founder-funded contribution, not a charitable gift. Link-out only:
+            never an iframe or a payment field on Oravan's own infra (§6). */}
+        {DONATE_URL && (
+          <p className="mt-2 max-w-prose leading-relaxed">
+            {t('fundingSupportBody')}{' '}
+            <a
+              href={DONATE_URL}
+              target="_blank"
+              rel="noopener noreferrer"
+              className="inline-flex min-h-11 items-center font-semibold underline underline-offset-2 hover:text-ink"
+            >
+              {t('fundingSupportCta')}
+            </a>
+          </p>
+        )}
       </section>
 
       {/* Who's accountable + how to reach a person — surfaced outside the
@@ -37,12 +56,6 @@ export default async function AboutPage({ params }: { params: Promise<{ locale:
         <h2 className="font-display text-2xl font-bold">{t('accountabilityTitle')}</h2>
         <p className="mt-2 max-w-prose leading-relaxed">{t('accountabilityBody')}</p>
       </section>
-
-      {/* §6: the donations leg — link-out only, never a payment field on our
-          own infra. Dark by construction until DONATE_URL is set (HCB
-          onboarding is separate, in-flight paperwork); flipping that one
-          constant is the entire code change needed to light this up. */}
-      <DonateSupport donateUrl={DONATE_URL} />
     </article>
   );
 }

components/Footer.tsx

@@ -23,6 +23,28 @@ export function Footer({ donateUrl = DONATE_URL }: { donateUrl?: string | null }
         <p className="max-w-prose italic text-ink-faint">{t('footer.lore')}</p>
         <p className="max-w-prose">{t('footer.mission')}</p>
         <p className="max-w-prose">{t('footer.aiNote')}</p>
+        {/* Phase 1/2 funding transparency line: dark copy today (DONATE_URL
+            null), automatically upgrades to the "funded + supporters" line
+            with a Support Oravan link the moment DONATE_URL is set - one
+            constant, no separate flag, same pattern as the nav Donate link
+            below. */}
+        <p className="max-w-prose">
+          {donateUrl ? (
+            <>
+              {t('footer.fundingLive')}{' '}
+              <a
+                href={donateUrl}
+                target="_blank"
+                rel="noopener noreferrer"
+                className="inline-flex min-h-11 items-center underline underline-offset-2 hover:text-ink"
+              >
+                {t('footer.fundingCta')}
+              </a>
+            </>
+          ) : (
+            t('footer.funding')
+          )}
+        </p>
         <nav aria-label={t('footer.navLabel')} className="flex flex-wrap gap-5 pt-2">
           <Link href="/privacy" className="underline underline-offset-2 hover:text-ink">
             {t('footer.privacy')}
@@ -53,7 +75,8 @@ export function Footer({ donateUrl = DONATE_URL }: { donateUrl?: string | null }
             {t('footer.partners')}
           </Link>
           {/* §6: quiet, persistent, never a banner or modal - link only, dark
-              until HCB onboarding completes (DONATE_URL flips from null). */}
+              until a donation rail exists (DONATE_URL flips from null; the
+              HCB fiscal-sponsorship route was denied 2026-07-15, rail TBD). */}
           {donateUrl && (
             <a
               href={donateUrl}

lib/site.ts

@@ -10,15 +10,23 @@
 export const SITE_ORIGIN = 'https://oravan.org';
 
 /**
- * The HCB-hosted donation page URL (§6 of the build/GTM strategy). Null
- * until the HCB fiscal-sponsorship application clears — that's paperwork,
- * not code, and is in flight separately. Every donate affordance (footer
- * link, About/Support page ask copy) reads this one constant and renders
- * nothing when it's null, so flipping this to the live HCB URL is the
- * entire code change needed to light up donations everywhere at once.
+ * The externally-hosted donation page URL. Null until a donation rail
+ * exists: the HCB fiscal-sponsorship application was DENIED 2026-07-15
+ * (HCB currently sponsors teen hacker builds only), so the rail decision
+ * is back with the owner and this stays null until a replacement is chosen
+ * and live. Every donate affordance (footer funding line + Donate link,
+ * the About page's "Who pays for this?" ask copy) reads this one constant
+ * and renders nothing extra when it's null, so flipping this to a live URL
+ * is the entire code change needed to light up donations everywhere at once.
+ *
+ * Copy rule, non-negotiable: no surface may claim tax-deductibility,
+ * nonprofit status, or a fiscal sponsor — contributions are personal
+ * support for a founder-funded project (tests/donate.unit.spec.ts pins
+ * this against the message files).
  *
  * Always link out (target="_blank", rel="noopener noreferrer") — never
- * iframe HCB's page in, and never add a payment field anywhere on Oravan's
- * own infra. See docs/ideation/2026-07-05-build-gtm-strategy.md §6.
+ * iframe a payment page in, and never add a payment field anywhere on
+ * Oravan's own infra. See docs/ideation/2026-07-05-build-gtm-strategy.md §6
+ * (historical record; its HCB-specific plan is superseded by the denial).
  */
 export const DONATE_URL: string | null = null;

messages/en.json

@@ -22,7 +22,10 @@
       "donate": "Donate",
       "embeds": "Embeds",
       "navLabel": "Footer",
-      "partners": "Partners"
+      "partners": "Partners",
+      "funding": "Founder-funded. No ads, no tracking, no outside money.",
+      "fundingLive": "Funded by the founder and supporters.",
+      "fundingCta": "Support Oravan"
     },
     "switchLocale": "En español",
     "loading": "Loading…",
@@ -348,11 +351,10 @@
   "about": {
     "title": "About Oravan",
     "intro": "Oravan is free, nonpartisan civic infrastructure: find your federal representatives, understand active bills in plain language, and make a 30-second call — in English or Spanish, with no account and no server-side record of your political activity.",
-    "fundingTitle": "How Oravan is funded",
-    "fundingBody": "Oravan runs without ads, without partisan grants, and without selling data — there's no data to sell. A donation option, hosted entirely off Oravan's own servers, is on the way.",
-    "supportTitle": "Support Oravan",
-    "supportBody": "Oravan is free, ad-free, and takes no partisan money. Your gift helps us: track every bill moving through Congress each week, keep the plain-language decodes current and human-reviewed, and keep call scripts free in English and Spanish. We store no donor political activity, ever — gifts are tax-deductible and processed off Oravan's own servers by our fiscal sponsor, The Hack Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.",
-    "donateCta": "Donate via our fiscal sponsor",
+    "fundingTitle": "Who pays for this?",
+    "fundingBody": "Oravan is independently run and founder-funded. It costs a few hundred dollars a year to host and maintain, currently paid out of one person's pocket. There are no ads, no sponsors, and no investors — and nothing to sell, because we collect no personal data.",
+    "fundingSupportBody": "If Oravan is useful to you, you can chip in to keep it running. Contributions support hosting and upkeep and are not tax-deductible.",
+    "fundingSupportCta": "Support Oravan",
     "accountabilityTitle": "Independent, and reachable",
     "accountabilityBody": "Oravan is an independent, nonpartisan project — not a campaign, a party, or a PAC. Its promises are built to be verified, not trusted: no account, no tracking, and nothing about you kept on a server. For a correction, a question, or a partnership inquiry, the feedback link at the bottom of any page reaches a real person, or email us at hello@oravan.org."
   },

messages/es.json

@@ -22,7 +22,10 @@
       "donate": "Donar",
       "embeds": "Widgets",
       "navLabel": "Pie de página",
-      "partners": "Socios"
+      "partners": "Socios",
+      "funding": "Financiado por su fundador. Sin anuncios, sin rastreo, sin dinero externo.",
+      "fundingLive": "Financiado por el fundador y quienes lo apoyan.",
+      "fundingCta": "Apoya a Oravan"
     },
     "switchLocale": "In English",
     "loading": "Cargando…",
@@ -348,11 +351,10 @@
   "about": {
     "title": "Acerca de Oravan",
     "intro": "Oravan es infraestructura cívica gratuita y no partidista: encuentra a tus representantes federales, entiende los proyectos de ley activos en lenguaje claro y haz una llamada de 30 segundos — en inglés o español, sin cuenta y sin ningún registro en un servidor de tu actividad política.",
-    "fundingTitle": "Cómo se financia Oravan",
-    "fundingBody": "Oravan funciona sin anuncios, sin subvenciones partidistas y sin vender datos — no hay datos que vender. Una opción para donar, alojada por completo fuera de los servidores de Oravan, está en camino.",
-    "supportTitle": "Apoya a Oravan",
-    "supportBody": "Oravan es gratuito, sin anuncios y no acepta dinero partidista. Tu donación nos ayuda a: dar seguimiento a cada proyecto de ley que avanza en el Congreso cada semana, mantener las explicaciones en lenguaje sencillo actualizadas y revisadas por personas, y mantener gratuitos los guiones de llamada en inglés y español. Nunca almacenamos la actividad política de quienes donan — las donaciones son deducibles de impuestos y se procesan fuera de los servidores de Oravan, por nuestro patrocinador fiscal, The Hack Foundation, una organización 501(c)(3).",
-    "donateCta": "Dona a través de nuestro patrocinador fiscal",
+    "fundingTitle": "¿Quién paga esto?",
+    "fundingBody": "Oravan es un proyecto independiente, financiado por su fundador. Cuesta unos cientos de dólares al año alojarlo y mantenerlo, actualmente pagados de su propio bolsillo por una sola persona. No hay anuncios, ni patrocinadores, ni inversionistas — y nada que vender, porque no recopilamos datos personales.",
+    "fundingSupportBody": "Si Oravan te resulta útil, puedes colaborar para mantenerlo en marcha. Las contribuciones ayudan a cubrir el alojamiento y el mantenimiento y no son deducibles de impuestos.",
+    "fundingSupportCta": "Apoya a Oravan",
     "accountabilityTitle": "Independiente y accesible",
     "accountabilityBody": "Oravan es un proyecto independiente y no partidista — no es una campaña, un partido ni un comité de acción política. Sus promesas están hechas para comprobarse, no para creerse: sin cuenta, sin rastreo y sin guardar nada sobre ti en un servidor. Para una corrección, una pregunta o una consulta de colaboración, el enlace de comentarios al final de cualquier página llega a una persona real, o escríbenos a hello@oravan.org."
   },

tests/donate.spec.ts

@@ -3,29 +3,37 @@ import en from '../messages/en.json';
 import es from '../messages/es.json';
 
 /*
- * §6 donations leg (S4-S5). DONATE_URL (lib/site.ts) is null today — HCB
- * onboarding is separate, in-flight paperwork — so this build's real,
- * observable behavior is "dark": no Donate affordance exists anywhere.
- * That's what these e2e tests hold the current build to.
+ * §6 donations leg (S4-S5). DONATE_URL (lib/site.ts) is null today — the HCB
+ * fiscal-sponsorship application was denied 2026-07-15 (teen-builds-only
+ * policy) and no replacement rail is chosen — so this build's real,
+ * observable behavior is "dark": no Donate affordance exists anywhere, the
+ * footer states the founder-funded line, and the About page's support ask
+ * paragraph does not render. That's what these e2e tests hold the current
+ * build to.
  *
  * The "lit" state (DONATE_URL set) can't be exercised in this same run
  * without a second `next build` under a different constant value - this
- * suite's webServer builds once. That's consistent with the plan's own
- * checklist (S4-S5 "Done" line): "the link may sit dark until HCB
- * onboarding completes - the launch-week checklist re-verifies it's live."
- * See tests/donate.unit.spec.ts for a source-level guard that the wiring
- * itself (both surfaces keying off the one DONATE_URL constant) is intact,
- * so flipping it is guaranteed to be a one-line change and nothing more.
+ * suite's webServer builds once. See tests/donate.unit.spec.ts for a
+ * source-level guard that the wiring itself (every gated surface keying off
+ * the one DONATE_URL constant) is intact, so flipping it is guaranteed to
+ * be a one-line change and nothing more.
  */
 
 for (const [locale, prefix, messages] of [
   ['en', '', en],
   ['es', '/es', es],
 ] as const) {
   test.describe(`${locale} locale: donate surfaces are dark`, () => {
-    test('footer has no Donate link, but always has an About link', async ({ page }) => {
+    test('footer states the founder-funded line, with no Donate or Support link, but always an About link', async ({
+      page,
+    }) => {
       await page.goto(`${prefix}/`);
       const footer = page.locator('footer');
+      await expect(footer.getByText(messages.common.footer.funding)).toBeVisible();
+      await expect(footer.getByText(messages.common.footer.fundingLive)).toHaveCount(0);
+      await expect(
+        footer.getByRole('link', { name: messages.common.footer.fundingCta })
+      ).toHaveCount(0);
       await expect(footer.getByRole('link', { name: messages.common.footer.donate })).toHaveCount(0);
       await expect(footer.getByRole('link', { name: messages.common.footer.about })).toBeVisible();
     });
@@ -38,9 +46,8 @@ for (const [locale, prefix, messages] of [
       await expect(page).toHaveURL(new RegExp(`${prefix || ''}/about$`));
       await expect(page.getByRole('heading', { name: messages.about.title, level: 1 })).toBeVisible();
       await expect(page.getByText(messages.about.fundingBody)).toBeVisible();
-      await expect(page.getByRole('heading', { name: messages.about.supportTitle })).toHaveCount(0);
-      await expect(page.getByText(messages.about.supportBody)).toHaveCount(0);
-      await expect(page.getByRole('link', { name: messages.about.donateCta })).toHaveCount(0);
+      await expect(page.getByText(messages.about.fundingSupportBody)).toHaveCount(0);
+      await expect(page.getByRole('link', { name: messages.about.fundingSupportCta })).toHaveCount(0);
     });
 
     test('the About page content itself has no form fields or iframes (link-out only, per §6)', async ({