team-12-hackforge

Admin Page
Login Page
Case Worker Portal
AI Features
Client Onboarding Flow

HackForge

HackForge is a secure, AI-assisted client and case management platform built to help nonprofits replace spreadsheets, streamline workflows, and serve people better.

Live demo: hackforge-crm.vercel.app/login
Community support: GitHub Discussions

Story

Nonprofits do critical work, but many still manage clients, services, visits, and reporting through spreadsheets, paper forms, and disconnected tools.

HackForge was built to solve that problem with a platform that is affordable, secure, configurable, and practical for real nonprofit teams. Across nonprofits, the vocabulary may change, but the core workflow is often the same: register clients, track services, schedule visits, protect records, and report outcomes.

We also wanted AI to be useful in a real workflow, not just flashy in a demo. That is why HackForge uses AI to assist with intake, suggestions, summaries, and structured drafting — while always keeping humans in control through preview and confirmation before anything is saved.

What it does

HackForge brings core nonprofit case-management operations into one place.

Admins can onboard organizations, invite staff, approve newly created clients, and manage operations. Staff can create clients, log services, schedule visits, and use AI-assisted workflows to move faster. The platform uses multi-tenant isolation and role-based access control so each organization’s data stays secure and each user only sees the actions appropriate to their role.

Core workflows

organization onboarding
staff invites
client registration
admin approval for newly created clients
client profiles and service history
visit scheduling
AI-assisted intake with confirmation before save
secure, tenant-isolated data access

How we built it

HackForge is a full-stack web application built with Next.js, PostgreSQL, and Docker.

We designed it as a secure, deployment-ready system with:

a modern frontend
backend APIs
tenant-aware database design
AI-assisted workflows
Dockerized runtime for reliable demos and deployment

Key design decisions

Multi-tenant architecture so multiple nonprofits can safely share one platform
Role-based access control so admins and staff only see what they should
Human-in-the-loop AI so suggestions are reviewed before save
Demo-ready reliability so the app can be shown consistently during judging

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was scope.

HackForge combines multi-tenancy, permissions, onboarding, client approval, scheduling, AI-assisted workflows, and production-minded architecture into one product. In a hackathon setting, one of the hardest decisions was figuring out which flows needed to be fully polished now and which should be clearly positioned as next-stage work.

Another challenge was building AI responsibly. It was easy to generate suggestions, but much harder to build the preview, confirmation, and audit-friendly workflow around those suggestions. That extra work made the product more trustworthy and much more practical.

Accomplishments that we’re proud of

We’re proud that HackForge is more than a concept. It has a real product foundation:

multi-tenant architecture
role-based access control
onboarding and invite flows
client approval workflows
client and service tracking
AI-assisted intake with human confirmation
Dockerized runtime for reliable demos

We’re especially proud of the AI-assisted intake flow because it uses AI in a concrete, high-impact way. Staff can request suggestions, review them in a preview, and explicitly accept or reject them before anything is saved.

What we learned

We learned that building for nonprofits is really about reducing friction.

The best product is not the one with the most features. It is the one that makes intake, follow-up, service logging, and scheduling easier for staff who may not be technical users. That made readability, workflow design, and safe AI integration just as important as backend architecture.

We also learned that security and permissions are not optional polish. Once you are working with client data, tenant isolation, role-based access, and auditability become core product decisions from day one.