This page explains how Stimpunks Foundation understands impact, effectiveness, and progress. We use the Charting Impact framework to share our goals, strategies, capabilities, and learnings in clear, public language.
We default to open. This is an honest accounting of what we aim to do, how we work, what’s helping, and what’s still unfinished.
What We Aim to Accomplish
Stimpunks Foundation exists to support neurodivergent and disabled people in living, learning, and working on their own terms.
We challenge systems that treat difference as a problem to fix and instead make access, care, and real human needs visible. Our goal is cultural and systemic change—especially in education, design, and work—so fewer people are harmed by environments that were never built for them.
Impact, for us, means reducing harm, increasing understanding, and helping people live more authentically.
Our Strategies
We pursue this work through practical, shareable tools grounded in lived experience:
- Field guides that focus on survival, learning, coping, and design for real life
- Clear frameworks (“In Brief”, “Why Sheets”) that translate complex ideas into usable models
- Manifestos, zines, posters, and visual tools that challenge dominant narratives
- Community learning, peer support, and shared experimentation
- Care infrastructure that supports participation, not just output
We prioritize usefulness over scale and depth over polish.
Our Capabilities
Stimpunks Foundation is led by neurodivergent and disabled people with lived experience across education, design, technology, and community care.
Our capabilities include:
- Content creation rooted in lived reality
- Community-centered publishing and documentation
- Transparent planning and reflection (Now page, Transparency Log)
- A distributed contributor network supported by care-first practices
We invest in the conditions that make participation possible, including connectivity, tools, and flexible contribution models.
How We Know We’re Making Progress
We assess progress using signals that reflect real-world usefulness:
- Qualitative feedback from readers, educators, families, and designers
- Evidence of resources being adopted, shared, or adapted in practice
- Ongoing reflection through quarterly goals and public updates
- Honest documentation of what worked, what didn’t, and what changed
We use metrics sparingly and contextually. Numbers inform questions; they do not define success.
What We’ve Accomplished—and What We Haven’t
What We’ve Accomplished
- Published foundational manifestos and values
- Built field guides and tiered frameworks for education, design, coping, and justice
- Created accessible visual materials for teaching and organizing
- Supported contributors through care infrastructure
- Established public transparency practices
What We Haven’t Yet Accomplished
- Broad, systemic adoption of our frameworks across institutions
- Long-term quantitative outcome tracking that aligns with our values
- Scaling care infrastructure to meet growing demand
We name these gaps openly so we can address them honestly.
Why We Don’t Measure Like Traditional Charities
Many nonprofits rely on simplified metrics—outputs, counts, short-term outcomes—that flatten lived experience and reward performative success.
That approach does not work for neurodivergent and disabled communities.
Traditional measurement often:
- Prioritizes easily counted activity over meaningful change
- Treats people as data points instead of participants
- Incentivizes compliance, masking, and burnout
- Erases context, complexity, and harm
Stimpunks Foundation works in spaces where change is nonlinear, relational, and slow.
We measure what matters:
- Whether harm is reduced
- Whether access improves in real conditions
- Whether people feel seen, safer, and more able to participate
- Whether ideas spread in ways that people adapt—not just adopt
We choose reflection over extraction and learning over optics.
Our Commitment
Charting impact is not about proving worth—it’s about learning responsibly.
We commit to:
- Sharing progress and setbacks publicly
- Centering lived experience in evaluation
- Adjusting direction when something isn’t helping
- Protecting people from burnout and extraction
This work is ongoing. We invite you to learn with us.
Effectiveness means helping real people, in real conditions, without erasing complexity.
