Joshua Han, CFA
Chair & Director
Fifteen years in wealth management. Left full-time finance to run the campaign. Takes zero salary from donor funds.
Back the campaign
100% to operations. Zero salary. Public books.
We are a Canadian non-profit corporation, not a registered charity. That means we cannot issue tax receipts for Canadian donors. We tell you up front because we would rather lose the donation than bury the fact.
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Raised to date (CAD)
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Contributors
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Last updated
This figure is reconciled every Monday from our bank and payment platform. The full transaction list is at /transparency.
Why we are asking
The action has to match the magnitude of the task.
This has to be the fastest, loudest, most momentous movement for AI governance anyone has ever run. Not because that sounds dramatic, but because the window we are in is measured in months, not years. Slow and quiet will not meet the moment.
Money is what lets us move at the speed the moment requires. It funds television commercials when the story breaks. It buys out-of-home advertising in the ridings of the Members of Parliament we need on our side. It funds real-world campaigns, printed briefings, rallies, in-person events. The physical presence that turns an online signature into political weight. It funds the coalition work, the French translation for national reach, and the creative production that moves people who have not yet heard the argument.
In the next 90 days, with your backing, we commit to: targeted digital and out-of-home advertising in the key federal ridings, in-person briefings with every Member of Parliament we can secure, a national press event in English and French, and a designer-produced campaign film that runs on television and social. Every line item hits the ledger the week it spends.
Every channel is on the table. What we will not do is move slowly, or quietly, or with less force than this moment demands.
Where every dollar goes
Specific, not aspirational.
Each row on this table corresponds to a real expense category on the public ledger. When your contribution funds one of these line items, you will be able to see the matching entry on /transparency within a week.
| Amount | What it funds |
|---|---|
| $50 | One month of Cloudflare hosting plus the database that stores every confirmed signature. |
| $200 | One week of email delivery at the campaign’s peak volume. |
| $1,200 | Legal review of the corporation’s bylaws and the petition terms. |
| $5,000 | One month of a paid team member’s time (Founder’s Associate or Lead Engineer) on outreach and execution. |
| $10,000 | A printed briefing kit hand-delivered to every Member of Parliament we are engaging. |
| $25,000 | One week of regional TV advertising in the moment a major AI story breaks. |
| $100,000 | A national advertising push across digital, radio, and out-of-home for a full month. English and French. |
The ask
Pick a tier. Monthly makes the biggest difference.
A multi-year governance campaign is funded by recurring contributions, not one-off gifts. Monthly is preselected for that reason. You can cancel any time from the Zeffy donor portal.
No tier has perks. No newsletter unlock. No private calls. A campaign arguing that AI lobbyists buy influence cannot sell influence in miniature. Every contributor gets the same thing: a receipt from Zeffy, an optional name on the public ledger if you want it there, and the work continuing.
You are backing
$25 monthly
Contributor tier
Donations open shortly
Your contribution will not be tax-deductible. We are a non-profit corporation, not a registered charity.
Who runs this
The public face of the campaign.
Operation Imaginal is a federal non-profit corporation under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. The CNCA requires a three-director board. Joshua Han is Chair and the publicly named Director. Two additional directors satisfy the CNCA formation requirement so the corporation could be stood up quickly; both have asked to remain unnamed on this page at this stage, and their particulars are on file with Corporations Canada.
The current three-director board is a bootstrap structure, not the long-term governance model. As the campaign grows, the board is expected to expand and transition to hands-on directors selected for campaign strategy, execution, and sector expertise. Those directors will be publicly named on this page the day they join.
A note from Joshua
I’m not taking a salary for this. Salaries are not wrong, I just want the work to speak for itself, and the cleanest way to do that is to separate my pay from your money. Every hour I put in is donated. That part is firm.
The team around me is a different story. We’re hiring a Founder’s Associate and a Lead Engineer, and eventually a researcher, and we plan to pay them properly. You cannot ask exceptional people to do exceptional work for free, and this campaign is going to need exceptional people. Staff compensation shows up as a line on the public ledger, classified openly, same as every other expense.
The cap: no one on the team earns more than $120,000 CAD per year. The ceiling is published here so you can hold us to it. When a paycheque clears, it lands on the public ledger under Staff compensation, role by role.
So: no salary for me. Real pay for the team, capped. All of it on the books. If the campaign succeeds, I’ll have done what I set out to do, and that’s what I want to be paid in.
The rules on money
What we accept, and what we refuse.
- No money from frontier AI labs, their subsidiaries, or their parent companies. The campaign is calling for binding oversight of the firms in question. Accepting money from the companies we are asking to be regulated would destroy the credibility of the ask. Some lab leaders have publicly called for regulation; that is their right, and it does not change our answer. This rule is permanent and has no exceptions.
- No money from cryptocurrency projects, tokens, or token-based entities. Crypto’s entanglement with AI hype is adjacent to the problem the campaign exists to address. Reputational distance is required.
- No money from PACs, political parties, or partisan-affiliated entities. The campaign is non-partisan by design. Partisan-coded money destroys that frame.
- No anonymous contributions above $10,000 per donor per year. Below that threshold, anonymous giving is allowed and bucketed on the public ledger (for example, “Anonymous contributions (count: 17) · $422 total”). Above $10,000 a donor must appear named on the ledger within seven days, or the contribution is declined and refunded. The rule exists so that no single anonymous source can quietly steer the campaign.
If you want your name listed with your gift at any amount, tell us at checkout or email corrections@operationimaginal.org. Your entry will appear on the next monthly reconciliation.
Questions people ask before giving
Short answers, in order of how often they come up.
Is my contribution tax-deductible?
Not in Canada. We are a Canadian non-profit corporation under the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act, not a CRA-registered charity. Charitable status is a separate application process that typically takes 6 to 18 months, and we have chosen to start with the faster structure so we can get on with the work.
We may apply for charitable status in 2027 once the campaign’s operational pattern is established. If that changes your decision, we understand.
Why Zeffy specifically?
Zeffy is a Canadian donation platform that charges the campaign 0% in fees. Their revenue comes from optional tips that donors choose to add at checkout. Those tips go to Zeffy, not to us. We do not count Zeffy tips in our reported totals.
For a campaign whose central claim is that every dollar funds operations, paying 2.9% to a conventional processor would undercut the claim by 2.9%. Zeffy lets us mean “every dollar” literally.
Can I cancel a monthly contribution?
Yes, any time, from your Zeffy donor portal. No questions. No retention dance. The cancel link is in every receipt email.
Can I give anonymously?
Yes, up to $10,000 per donor per year. Anonymous contributions are bucketed on the public ledger as, for example, “Anonymous contributions (count: 17) · $422 total.”
Above $10,000 we require a name on the ledger within seven days, or we decline and refund the contribution. The rule exists so that no single anonymous source can quietly steer the campaign.
If you want your name listed with a gift of any size, tell us at checkout or email corrections@operationimaginal.org and your entry will appear on the next monthly reconciliation.
Where are the books?
On this same site, at /transparency. The ledger shows every transaction (contribution or expense) with the date, category, line-item description, and amount. Reconciled monthly from our bank and payment platform. The timestamp on the top of the page tells you how fresh the numbers are.
Do you pay anyone?
Yes. The founder takes no salary, but the campaign hires and pays a small team. Right now we are bringing on a Founder’s Associate and a Lead Engineer. A researcher comes next.
The reasoning is simple: exceptional work requires exceptional people, and we want them on this full time, not doing it on evenings and weekends. Staff compensation appears on the public ledger as its own category so you can see exactly what any paid role costs.
No staff member earns more than $120,000 CAD per year. The ceiling is a published commitment. Role-level salary ranges are posted on /transparency under Staff compensation when the first paycheque clears.
If you object to paid staff on principle, we would rather you know that before you give.
What happens to unspent funds if the campaign ends?
Per the bylaws of Operation Imaginal Inc., remaining funds at wind-up are disbursed to one or more organizations with aligned governance or AI-safety purposes. They do not become personal assets of any director.
The bylaws are linked from /transparency#governance so you can verify this yourself.
Can I request a refund?
Yes, within 30 days, for any reason. Email corrections@operationimaginal.org with the date and amount. Refund processes through the original payment method.
Who are the three directors?
The CNCA requires a three-director board. Joshua Han is named publicly as Chair and Director. The other two directors have asked to remain private for now. Their particulars are on file with Corporations Canada and available to auditors; we do not publish their names out of respect for their privacy.
If a director’s status changes or if the board composition changes, the update is published on /transparency#board.
Can I contribute from outside Canada?
Yes. Zeffy accepts major cards in most jurisdictions. Non-Canadian donors are not eligible for Canadian tax receipts in any case, and since we do not issue those to Canadian donors either, there is no asymmetry.
How do I give $10,000 or more?
Email corrections@operationimaginal.org. We respond within one business day. The contribution appears on the public ledger with your name (or bucketed anonymously if you prefer), consistent with the rules above.
Does Joshua take a salary in any form?
No. Not now, not planned. The founder’s zero-salary commitment is firm. Staff members other than the founder are paid as a normal operational expense (see “Do you pay anyone?” above). If the founder’s zero-salary status ever changes, the change will be announced on this page before it takes effect, and the board resolution authorizing it will be posted on /transparency.
What are you allowed to spend the money on?
Anything consistent with the corporation’s stated purpose in the bylaws. On the ledger, every expense is classified into one of eight categories: Infrastructure, Design and content, Advertising (digital, broadcast, out-of-home), Legal, Outreach, Events, Staff compensation, and Research. No other categories are permitted without a board resolution that becomes part of the public record.