138
iOS apps
across 5 learning verticals; all free, all on-device.
The work, in numbers.
Spark & Anvil's mission shows up as code, curriculum kits, character casts, and trauma-informed design discipline. Here's the current state of the portfolio.
Updated 2026-05-23. We don't track kids — these stats are about what we built and what we ship, not what kids do inside our apps.
138
apps with a named cast
100% portfolio coverage — every app has recurring characters that embody curricular concepts.
720
characters site-visible
across the portfolio; each character carries one specific learnable thing.
6
apps ship pass-and-play
today; ~111 more on the roadmap (~80% portfolio ceiling).
21
curriculum frameworks
mapped across the portfolio (NGSS / CCSS / NCAS / C3 / ISTE + 16 more).
80
trauma-informed gates
established (SAMHSA TIP 57) for apps touching heavy content; external review for the strictest set.
0
ads · IAPs · trackers
shipped across the portfolio. By construction.
100
% free, forever
guaranteed via the non-profit pivot.
iOS 26
native build target
Swift 6, SwiftUI, SpriteKit, FoundationModels on-device.
How we sustain the work
Through 2026, founder Nathan Tran has personally invested approximately $5,000 from personal savings to bring Spark & Anvil's portfolio to its current state — 138 apps · 586 cast portraits · 4 brand-logo concepts · 55,200 question kits authored · on-device AI architecture proved out. (Audited breakdown publishes with the FY26 annual report.)
Ongoing operational cost runs at approximately $500/month minimum:
| Bucket | Approximate / month |
|---|---|
| Anthropic Claude Max (2 subscriptions — research, planning, content authoring) | ~$400 |
| Gemini API (cast art, illustrations, audio gen — when generating; varies) | ~$30-60 |
| Apple Developer Program (annualized) | ~$8 |
| Cloudflare Pages + Email Routing | free tier |
| Domain registration (.com + .org annualized) | ~$2.50 |
| Mailchimp / Listmonk (email list) | free tier |
| Plausible Analytics (privacy-first) | ~$9 |
| Brand-asset + infrastructure buffer + one-offs | ~$30-50 |
| Total minimum | ~$500/month |
Excludes one-time / occasional expenses: outside legal for IRS Form 1023 (~$1,500-$3,000 one-time, future) · fiscal-sponsor pass-through fees (5-7% of donations, future) · external sensitivity reviewers (~$300-$1,500 per app, engaged when reviewer-gated apps reach asset gen). These will be itemized on the FY26 annual report.
We're intentionally lean — no full-time employees, no office, no marketing budget, no consultants on retainer. Founder time is unpaid through pre-determination phase. Every $25 monthly donor covers ~5% of the platform cost. Every $5 monthly donor covers ~1%.
When IRS Form 1023 determination clears (anticipated Q4 2027), monthly operating costs will rise to absorb part-time community manager + legal + audit + foundation grant management — projected $5,000-$10,000/month at Year-3 scale. Donor + foundation revenue will cover that growth.
The pivot is not about raising money for a person — it is about making the mission durable beyond any one person's bank account.
How we count
- Apps shipped = production-track portfolio repos (see /apps for the full inventory).
- Kids reached — we will publish this number annually using anonymized App Store install counts. We don't track usage inside apps. We don't know which kid opened which app on which date. That's by design.
- Trauma-informed gates — counted as the number of apps that ship a
documented sensitivity posture in
Docs/TECHNICAL_DESIGN.mdper SAMHSA TIP 57. - Curriculum frameworks — counted from
Docs/RESEARCH_CURRICULUM_STANDARDS_MAPPING.md(NGSS / CCSS-Math / CCSS-ELA / NCAS / C3 / ISTE + 16 others).
Our first annual report will publish at end of fiscal year 2026 with revenue, expenses, board, partners, app-install counts, and audit findings.
Support the mission →