The Chamber of Us

What The Chamber of Us does

The Chamber of Us (TCUS) is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN 93-3759486), founded in 2024 and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, with field operations concentrated in Ethiopia. It is volunteer-powered, with a three-person board—Kevin Schmidt as Founder/Executive Director, Sadiya Chatham as Chief Health Officer, and Farhan Salim as CFO—and a distributed volunteer community coordinated through its Libelle platform. TCUS was established to address what it terms the "missing middle" between evidence and action: the point at which pilots, research findings, and funding often stall before reaching institutions that can act on them.

The core offering is Pathfinder, an open methodology (CC BY 4.0 licensed) for managing adoption pathways under uncertainty, accompanied by the TCUS Superstack—a four-layer software environment comprising Quasar (evidence), Sentinel (analysis), Lodestar (governance), and Libelle (people). The methodology produces structured artifacts including Evidence Packs, Adoption Pathway Maps, Readiness Lanes, Decision Ledgers, and Work Graphs. TCUS validates its methods through real field projects, primarily in Ethiopia, where in its first year it helped align more than $100,000 in education infrastructure funding—facilitating a $70,000 donor-advised fund transfer for a Gendit Primary School library build and supporting construction of four classrooms serving 240 preschool children at Kebele 20 in partnership with Together We Learn Ethiopia.

TCUS generates no revenue from its methodology, tools, or services; all offerings are free. Funding is sourced from unrestricted gifts, project support, donor-advised fund transfers (where TCUS serves as a U.S. 501(c)(3) bridge), and in-kind contributions. Go-to-market is community-led and event-driven: TCUS recruits contributors through the Libelle platform and engages funders and partners through direct outreach, with all serious funding inquiries reviewed by leadership. Distribution occurs through GitHub for the open-source methodology, the website for working papers and case studies, Libelle.io for self-serve volunteer coordination, and direct partner engagement in Ethiopia through trusted field organizations.

Name

The Chamber of Us

Legal name

The Chamber of Us

Website

https://thechamberofus.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Chamber of Us is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit building the open-source Pathfinder methodology and TCUS Superstack to help promising work move from evidence to responsible action, serving funders, partners, and volunteers through Ethiopia-based education infrastructure projects.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Strategic Funding/Gifts: Unrestricted gifts that help fund operating capacity including Pathfinder development, Libelle MVP, case studies, field documentation, research on adoption pathways, and open-source infrastructure.
2. Project Support: Support for specific trusted partner pathways including education infrastructure projects, partner-led field projects, and documentation/learning work.
3. Donor-Advised Fund Transfers: TCUS serves as a U.S. 501(c)(3) bridge for donor-advised fund gifts supporting specific projects such as the $70,000 Gendit library transfer.
4. In-Kind Support: Contributions of tools, expertise, or capacity including engineering/design support, cloud/compute/software credits, research/evaluation help, and legal/governance/nonprofit advice.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The Chamber of Us provides the open Pathfinder methodology and the TCUS Superstack reference environment to help teams structure evidence, identify decision actors, classify readiness blockers, and move promising work from evidence to responsible implementation. Its Libelle people layer coordinates volunteer talent for nonprofit, research, and field projects, with active field programs in Ethiopia education infrastructure (Kebele 20 classrooms, Gendit library).

Product overview

The Chamber of Us (TCUS) is a nonprofit building open infrastructure for coordination, implementation, and learning. The core offering is Pathfinder, a methodology for managing adoption pathways under uncertainty, supported by the TCUS Superstack—a software implementation environment with four interconnected layers: Quasar (Evidence), Sentinel (Analysis), Lodestar (Governance), and Libelle (People). Libelle also operates as an external platform (Libelle.io) for volunteer coordination. TCUS produces methodology artifacts including Evidence Packs, Adoption Pathway Maps, Decision Ledgers, and Work Graphs. The organization tests its methods through real field projects, partnerships, and research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Pathfinder methodology Open methodology for managing adoption pathways under uncertainty. Helps teams structure evidence, identify decision actors, classify readiness blockers, document choices, and convert uncertainty into useful work. Provided free to nonprofits, researchers, and practitioners.
• TCUS Superstack Reference implementation environment for the Pathfinder methodology, comprising four interconnected layers that support the evidence-to-action loop: Quasar for evidence, Sentinel for analysis, Lodestar for governance, and Libelle for people coordination.
• Libelle.io volunteer platform External-facing people-coordination platform that maps volunteer skills, interests, and availability to TCUS projects and workstreams, turning interest into useful contribution. Free for volunteers and partner projects.

Quantifiable outcome

• Helped align $100k+ in education infrastructure funding in first year
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and supporting.

• Together We Learn EthiopiacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-running education partner with deep experience supporting school communities in Ethiopia. TCUS' Kebele 20 classroom support built on their existing project pathway. Together We Learn Ethiopia raised significant funding ($22k) and led implementation of four concrete classrooms with furniture, learning resources, and playground for 240 preschool children.
• Building Futures EthiopiacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLed the Gendit library pathway in partnership with Together We Learn Ethiopia. TCUS helped facilitate a $70,000 donor-advised fund transfer to support the Gendit Primary School library build and resourcing.
• Amhara Development AssociationmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerProvided major local funding match ($27k) for the Kebele 20 classroom project once TCUS helped close the remaining gap. ADA is a local Ethiopian development organization that matched the completed funding pathway.
• EthiopiaidsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMentioned as a supporter in the Kebele 20 classroom project public update, alongside Amhara Development Association, Children's Voices in Action, and The Chamber of Us.
• Children's Voices in ActionsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMentioned as a supporter in the Kebele 20 classroom project public update, alongside Amhara Development Association, Ethiopiaid, and The Chamber of Us.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• BuildOn: Nonprofit building schools and education infrastructure in developing countries (including Ethiopia-adjacent regions). Comparable as a field-active education infrastructure organization whose work generates the kind of case-study evidence TCUS studies.
• Catchafire: Volunteer-matching platform that connects skilled professionals with nonprofits for short-term projects — directly comparable to TCUS' Libelle layer and its core thesis that volunteer-to-work matching is a real bottleneck.
• Fund for Shared Insight: Funder collaborative focused on building feedback and listening infrastructure for the social sector — adjacent to TCUS' framing of missing coordination infrastructure and a potential peer funder or partner for adoption-pathway work.
• NetHope: Nonprofit technology collaborative serving international NGOs and humanitarian organizations — comparable as a provider of shared infrastructure for mission-driven organizations, similar to how the TCUS Superstack positions itself.
• VolunteerMatch: Long-standing volunteer-matching platform serving U.S. nonprofits and volunteers — a scaled incumbent in the same horizontal as Libelle and a benchmark for whether Libelle can differentiate on skills-based matching and contribution tracking.
• Results for Development (R4D): Global nonprofit focused on health, education, and governance implementation research — directly comparable to TCUS' adoption-pathway and evidence-to-action framing, and an indicator of the kind of partner/funder ecosystem TCUS could enter.
• Room to Read: Major international education infrastructure nonprofit operating schools, libraries, and literacy programs in low-income countries — directly comparable to TCUS' field partners and the adoption-pathway problems Pathfinder is designed to address.

Broad incumbents

• The Bridgespan Group: Nonprofit and philanthropic consultancy that helps organizations with adoption, scaling, and strategy — overlapping with TCUS' value proposition around 'helping promising work move from evidence to action' but serving a much larger and better-funded client base.
• Mozilla Foundation: Foundation producing open standards, open methodology, and public-good infrastructure for the web — broadly comparable as an example of a well-funded nonprofit whose value comes from open IP, community, and standards rather than proprietary product.

Regional players

• Ethiopiaid: UK-based Ethiopia-focused development charity and a current TCUS field supporter — comparable as an organization operating in the same geographic and thematic space (Ethiopian community development) though with a more traditional charity model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/The-Chamber-of-Us/pathfinder-research
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/the-chamber-of-us

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Chamber of Us