The SteadyPhone Sponsor Program

The one-line version

Your agency buys in once, becomes a vouching source, and every client you enroll gets a stable number with free voicemail and free access, forever. The only things that ever cost money are placing outgoing calls and auto-forwarding an incoming call to an outside phone — both run less than 80 cents an hour.

Why "sponsor," not "subscribe"

SteadyPhone follows the same trust model that made Community Voice Mail work for 350,000+ people over three decades: a client isn't just handed a number, they're vouched for by an agency that already knows them. When your agency becomes a SteadyPhone sponsor, you get your own vouch code — every number you issue carries your agency's referral behind it, without ever revealing that connection to whoever's calling. Nothing about the number itself says "shelter client" or "case managed." That's the whole point, and it doesn't cost extra.

What's free, forever

Once a client is enrolled under your vouch code, these never cost anything — not to your agency, not to your client, no matter how long they stay enrolled:

• Receiving calls, answered in the browser or PWA. Anyone can call your client's number, any time, at no cost — this is the default way a client answers.
• Voicemail. Storing it, retrieving it, checking it from any browser or by dialing in from any phone.
• Web/PWA access. Logging in from a library computer, a shelter kiosk, or a client's own device — no app store account, no payment method, no per-seat license fee.
• Staying enrolled. There's no expiration date and no renewal fee tied to a client simply having and using their number.

What actually costs money

Two things: placing outgoing calls through the web phone, and auto-forwarding an incoming call out to another phone number. Forwarding is handy for a client relying on a prepaid or borrowed device — a "burner" phone that changes often — but it's billed the same way an outgoing call is, since it places a second call leg out to that device for as long as the two of them talk; an unanswered forwarded call still drops to voicemail as usual. Everything else — every inbound call answered in the browser, every voicemail, every login — draws nothing from your balance.

Item	Cost	Notes
Becoming a sponsor agency	$500	Sets up your vouch code and your starting pool of calling minutes
Outgoing calls	Under $0.80/hour (a little over a penny a minute)	Metered only when a client places a call out
Auto-forwarded calls	Under $0.80/hour, same metered rate as outgoing calls	Optional — forwards an incoming call to another phone (e.g. a prepaid/burner device); falls back to voicemail automatically if unanswered
Inbound calls	Free, forever	No limit, no meter — when answered in the browser or PWA
Voicemail	Free, forever	No limit, no meter
Browser/PWA login	Free, forever	No per-seat or per-client fee
Additional minutes	Purchase anytime — by the agency or the client	Agency top-ups refill the shared pool; client top-ups go straight to that client, never expire
Per-client rate limits	Optional, agency-set	Caps discretionary outgoing and auto-forwarded use of the agency's pool only — see below

What $500 actually buys

Before any of that $500 is even spent, every client you enroll already has the two things that matter most: unlimited free inbound calls and voicemail, forever, from the moment they're enrolled — answered in the browser or PWA, no meter, no expiration date, no matter how long they stay with the program. Most of what matters most to a client — a callback from an employer, a caseworker relaying a deadline, a family member checking in — is a call they're receiving, not placing. None of that ever touches the $500.

The $500 buy-in funds a separate, shared pool for the calls a client places themselves, or chooses to forward out to another phone — at under 80 cents an hour, that's roughly 600+ hours of outgoing calling, refillable any time by your agency or by the client, and never expiring. It's a shared pool across your whole caseload, not a per-client allotment — and because the calls that matter most rarely draw from it in the first place, it tends to go a lot further in practice than the sticker number alone suggests.

Clients can top up their own minutes, too

The agency pool doesn't have to be the only source of outgoing calling. Once someone's back on their feet — a first paycheck, a little cash from family — they can add minutes to their own account directly, the same way people already top up a prepaid phone: cash at a register, a reload card, no bank account or credit card required.

This isn't a replacement for the agency pool — it's an option on top of it. Nobody is ever required to self-fund, and clients who can't still draw on your agency's minutes exactly as described above. But for the clients who can, it means:

• Your $500 goes further. Every client who starts covering their own outgoing calls is one less draw on the shared pool, stretching your initial buy-in across more people, longer.
• Nobody's stuck waiting on a budget cycle. If the agency pool runs low before a top-up, a client with their own minutes keeps calling out without interruption.
• Self-funded minutes aren't subject to the agency's rate limit — that cap exists to protect your pool, not to police how someone spends their own money.

Everything else stays exactly the same either way: the number, the vouch code, free inbound calling, and free voicemail, forever.

Rate limiting, done the right way

You can cap how many outgoing minutes any one client can use per week or month, so a handful of heavy users can't burn through the whole agency pool. The cap applies to outgoing, discretionary calling — which includes calls a client has set to auto-forward to an outside phone, since forwarding places a second call leg the same way dialing out does. Calls answered directly in the browser or PWA, and voicemail, are never rate-limited, never throttled, and never cut off — even if your agency's minute pool runs to zero. Being reachable is the entire promise of the program, and running low on minutes should never mean a client goes quiet.

The price is cheap. The return isn't.

What sponsoring looks like day to day

1. You buy in. $500 sets up your agency's vouch code and starting minute pool.
2. You enroll clients. Takes about as long as any other intake step — assign a number/extension, set an initial PIN, done.
3. They're reachable immediately. Answering in the browser or PWA, and voicemail, work from day one, free, no matter what.
4. They call out — or forward — when they need to. Job callbacks, family calls, anything they place themselves, plus any incoming call auto-forwarded to another phone — all metered at under 80 cents an hour against your pool.
5. Anyone can top up. You purchase more minutes for the shared pool any time, and clients who are able to can add their own — nothing expires, nothing resets.