Changemaker Lite

A self-hosted campaign platform for community organizers who want to own their data.

Documentation · Website · Apache 2.0 License

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Changemaker Lite consolidates advocacy campaigns, geographic mapping, volunteer canvassing, media management, newsletters, and administration into a single Docker Compose stack. One .env file, one command to start, everything under your control.

Why Changemaker Lite?

Most campaign tools are SaaS platforms that lock you into monthly subscriptions, hold your data hostage, and disappear when funding dries up. Changemaker Lite is different:

• Self-hosted -- runs on any machine with Docker. Your server, your data.
• All-in-one -- replaces 5-10 separate tools with a single integrated platform.
• Free and open source -- Apache 2.0 licensed. Fork it, modify it, make it yours.
• Privacy-first -- no telemetry, no third-party analytics, no data leaving your server.

What's Inside

Advocacy Campaigns

Let supporters look up their elected representatives by postal code and send advocacy emails in a few clicks. Track responses, moderate a public response wall, and monitor email delivery.

Interactive Map & Canvassing

Import thousands of addresses, draw canvassing areas, schedule volunteer shifts, and track door-to-door visits with GPS. Volunteers get a full-screen mobile map with real-time location tracking and visit recording.

Volunteer Portal

Volunteers get their own portal with shift sign-ups, canvassing assignments, activity tracking, a social calendar, and a friends system to stay connected with their team.

Media Library & Public Gallery

Upload campaign videos, manage metadata, schedule publishing, and share them through a public gallery. Includes GDPR-compliant analytics.

Landing Pages & Email Templates

Build campaign microsites with a drag-and-drop GrapesJS editor. Design email templates for consistent campaign communications.

SMS Campaigns, Newsletters & More

Send SMS campaigns via an Android bridge, sync subscribers to Listmonk for newsletters, recognize volunteers on a Wall of Fame leaderboard, and monitor everything with built-in Prometheus + Grafana observability.

Quick Start

# One-command install (downloads pre-built images, runs config wizard)
curl -fsSL https://gitea.bnkops.com/admin/changemaker.lite/raw/branch/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

cd ~/changemaker.lite
docker compose up -d

Or clone and build from source:

git clone <repo-url> changemaker.lite
cd changemaker.lite

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env -- set passwords, JWT secrets, admin credentials

docker compose up -d v2-postgres redis api admin
docker compose exec api npx prisma migrate deploy
docker compose exec api npx prisma db seed

Then open http://localhost:3000 and log in with the admin credentials from your .env.

Documentation

Full documentation is available at cmlite.org/docs/getting-started.

The docs site covers installation, configuration, all features, architecture details, production deployment with Pangolin tunnels, and troubleshooting. It is the authoritative and up-to-date reference for Changemaker Lite.

Architecture at a Glance

Layer	Technology
API	Express.js + Prisma + PostgreSQL 16
Media API	Fastify + Prisma (shared DB)
Frontend	React + Vite + Ant Design + Zustand
Reverse Proxy	Nginx (subdomain routing)
Cache & Queue	Redis + BullMQ
Newsletter	Listmonk
Monitoring	Prometheus + Grafana + Alertmanager
Tunneling	Pangolin (self-hosted Cloudflare alternative)

The entire stack runs on Docker Compose. Enable optional modules (media, newsletters, SMS, monitoring) with feature flags in .env.

License

Apache License 2.0

AI Disclaimer

AI tools were used to assist in the creation of this project. All generated code has been reviewed. Users should test all functionality to ensure it meets their requirements.