Matt's Freedom Fundraiser
A fundraising platform I built for myself. After a spinal cord injury left me tetraplegic, I was living in a long-term care facility and needed a way out. I built this app to collect donations and sell event tickets through Stripe, connected it to a legal trust to stay compliant with Medicaid, and raised enough to fund my transition to independent living. Automated thank-you emails, real-time campaign tracking, and a live progress bar. It worked — I moved home to Hampton Bays.
Project Overview
When I needed to raise funds for my transition to independent living, I built my own platform. Direct Stripe integration with zero platform fees, automated donor communications via Celery + SendGrid, and real-time campaign tracking. Connected to a legal trust to stay compliant with Medicaid. Rebuilt from a Django monolith to a decoupled React + DRF architecture.
The Challenge
Needed to raise funds for my transition out of a long-term care facility to independent living, with full legal compliance and zero platform fees eating into donations.
The Solution
Built an independent donation platform with direct Stripe integration, automated thank-you emails via Celery + SendGrid, real-time campaign tracking with atomic updates using Django F() expressions, and event ticket sales with multi-line-item checkout.
Technology Stack
Backend
Frontend
Payments
Deployment
Key Features
Direct Stripe integration — 100% of donations reach recipient
Multi-line-item Stripe Checkout — event tickets and donations in a single session
Automated Celery email system for donor thank-yous and ticket confirmations
Real-time campaign tracking — progress bar, dollars raised, tickets sold updated live
Atomic donation updates using Django F() expressions
Google OAuth and email-based authentication via Django Allauth
Business Impact
Eliminated platform fees that siphon money from donations
Provided immediate access to funds without arbitrary hold periods
Legal compliance through trust integration with Medicaid
Reliable donor communication without platform censorship
Technical Achievements
Built under extreme constraints and it worked — moved home to Hampton Bays
Enterprise-grade donation platform from scratch
Atomic F() updates for concurrent donation tracking
Rebuilt from Django monolith to decoupled architecture
Technical Implementation
Stripe webhook processes completed payments — verifies signature, updates donation status and campaign totals atomically using Django F() expressions, and queues a Celery task for the thank-you email. Frontend is a single-page React app with smooth-scroll navigation. Rebuilt from a Django monolith to a decoupled React + DRF architecture.