Gratitude for a Community That Wants to Help

At Prison Professors, we remain focused on one mission: creating free self-directed learning resources that help justice-impacted people prepare for success before, during, and after prison.

Today, I want to express gratitude to a group of Web 3.0 developers and community members who have been working independently to support that mission. They created a separate community-led initiative on BNB Chain, and they recently added a section to their website called “The Story,” where they describe why they chose to support Prison Professors and how they are building around education, accountability, and second chances.

Their website also includes a donation tracker that shows the value of funds contributed to Prison Professors through their independent community effort. As of the time I reviewed the page, the tracker showed more than $439,000 in total value donated, with on-chain transparency through BNB Smart Chain. The site also makes clear that the project operates independently and is not an official Prison Professors project or endorsement. I appreciate that clarity.

Most of all, I appreciate the spirit behind the effort.

The broader community has shown that people from many different backgrounds can come together around a mission. Some people support us through donations. Others support us by sharing our work, building technology, creating awareness, or encouraging people in prison to begin preparing for release. Every form of support matters when it helps us reach more people with tools they can use to build stronger lives.

At the same time, I want everyone to know that our focus will remain on the mission, not on money.

We are grateful for every contribution, but we will not deploy resources simply because they are available. We will use resources only when we have a disciplined plan, clear priorities, and measurable objectives. Right now, we are in building mode. We are working to strengthen relationships, expand our curriculum, improve our technology, scale participation in our programs, and create systems that allow people in prison to document the work they are doing to prepare for success.

That work requires patience. It requires trust. It requires transparency. It also requires careful stewardship.

The goal is not to raise money for the sake of raising money. The goal is to build a stronger organization that can deliver more free resources, reach more institutions, support more families, and help more people create documented records of preparation. If financial resources come before the plan, we risk losing focus. If the plan comes first, resources can help us scale with integrity.

Later today, I intend to publish a longer blog article that addresses these matters in more detail. In that article, I will explain how Prison Professors would deploy resources if we had an annual budget of $3 million. I will describe how those funds could support curriculum development, technology, outreach, advocacy, staffing, prison visits, book distribution, data collection, and long-term sustainability.

I also want to explain the resistance we face, the opportunities ahead, and the responsibility that comes with community trust.

For now, I want to thank the Web 3.0 developers and community members who are working independently to support our mission. I am grateful for their initiative, their creativity, and their desire to help us build pathways for people to earn freedom through merit.

We will continue working every day to prove worthy of that trust.

Related Links

The following pages come from the independent Web 3.0 community initiative that is supporting the Prison Professors mission:

1. Read “The Story”
   https://www.prisonprofessorstoken.com/story

2. View the Community Website and Donation Tracker
   https://www.prisonprofessorstoken.com/