For Funders
Why this matters now
AI governance is moving from principle statements to evidence requirements. Regulators, insurers, procurement teams, and civic institutions need to know whether AI governance controls actually operate in deployment, whether evidence can be preserved, and whether independent reviewers can evaluate that evidence.
The missing category is forensic infrastructure: chain of custody, evidence preservation, governance-state attestation, human adjudication, reliability metrics, and credentials that third parties can verify.
The first fundable public artifact is the AI Behavioral Evidence Review Toolkit: a lightweight review method that turns AI behavioral artifacts into bounded evidence packets before full certification infrastructure is required.
Current reality
| Area | Current status |
|---|---|
| Legal status | Registered in Oregon as a nonprofit public benefit corporation |
| Tax status | Federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt recognition pending |
| Governance | Board seating and independent director review underway |
| Primary fundable build | AI Behavioral Evidence Review Toolkit |
| Infrastructure wedge | GTE reference implementation and open trust infrastructure hardening |
| Research base | HEART Standard v1.8, Foundation Charter v2.4, ABTF/TRACE, MAP-States, RCTA/BGF validation path |
| Near-term funding need | Bootstrap capital for Toolkit, Guardian pilot, validation studies, insurance/procurement mapping, and registry path |
| Commercial boundary | Foundation maintains standards and public-interest infrastructure; Dwell/EMPI House are adjacent commercial/reference implementations, not the Foundation’s charitable program |
What HEART contributes
HEART is not another ethics pledge. It is a forensic operational layer for AI governance.
| Contribution | What it does |
|---|---|
| GTE | Protects governance controls and produces attestable execution evidence |
| MAP-States | Makes AI behavior observable through structured evidence frames |
| Behavioral Oracle | Preserves and attests behavioral evidence |
| RCTA/BGF | Measures governance quality across Recognition, Calibration, Transparency, and Accountability |
| Guardians | Creates an independent professional review class |
| HVC | Converts assessment into a market-legible credential |
| ABTF/TRACE | Supports investigative forensics when AI behavioral harm must be reviewed after the fact |
What has already been built
- HEART Standard v1.8 and companion operational specifications.
- Oregon nonprofit registration, Foundation Charter v2.4, anti-capture governance architecture, and Dual-Entity Boundary Doctrine.
- Federal 501(c)(3) tax-exempt recognition pending.
- Public standards site, glossary, and Division architecture.
- GTE reference implementation work.
- RCTA/BGF measurement architecture and validation roadmap.
- AI Behavioral Trajectory Forensics methodology and TRACE software pathway.
- Research assets including MAP-META cross-architecture validation and AIES-facing RCTA work.
Fundable milestones
AI Behavioral Evidence Review Toolkit
Build the first lightweight public entry point for civic, academic, journalism, compliance, and policy users who need forensic-informed AI behavioral review before full certification infrastructure exists. The Toolkit should produce templates, review forms, classification guidance, example packets, and training material.
GTE hardening
Harden the open trust infrastructure so deployers can protect governance controls for HEART and non-HEART frameworks. This is the adoption wedge.
Guardian pilot cohort
Train the first Guardian cohort, test assessment procedures, document reliability, and produce the first public case studies.
RCTA/BGF validation
Run reviewer-reliability, measurement-mode, and mechanistic correlation studies that make the scoring model funder-, regulator-, and insurer-legible.
Insurance and procurement mapping
Translate HVC tiers and continuous attestation into underwriting and procurement criteria that third parties can actually use.
Public registry and verification
Build the registry path for HVC credential verification, status visibility, revocation, and public accountability.
Heart City readiness
Prepare the municipal-scale deployment pathway for cities that need forensic audit infrastructure across civic AI systems.
Why the Foundation is the right vehicle
The infrastructure has to be public-interest, open enough to inspect, and protected against capture by the entities it evaluates. The Foundation exists to hold that boundary: open standards, independent Guardian practice, evidence discipline, anti-capture governance, and a clear separation between public infrastructure and commercial implementations.
Boundary with commercial implementations
Dwell, EMPI House, HeartCore Ventures, and related commercial/reference implementations are not the Foundation’s charitable program. They are adjacent deployments in the broader ecosystem. The Foundation’s role is to maintain standards, evidence methods, professional certification pathways, and public-interest governance infrastructure. Any related commercial entity can interact with the Foundation only as an external deployer, open-infrastructure user, or properly governed research-data contributor under the same terms available to similarly situated third parties.