Step work lives in three places
A notebook, a text thread, and a memory of a conversation in a parking lot. None of them are where you look when you need them.
Now in open beta
Sponsorship is a promise. This is the tool that helps you keep it.
12Gradus gives a sponsor one calm place to hold every sponsee: where they are in the steps, when you last spoke, what they're carrying today — and a way to reach them that works even when they don't open an app. Sponsees are free. Always.
Sponsees never payFirst name, last initial — anonymity firstCancel any time
The gap we kept falling into
Nobody means to lose track of a sponsee.
It happens in the ordinary way: a week gets busy, a text goes unanswered, and the person who most needed a call is the one who slipped the furthest down the list. Sponsorship runs on memory and goodwill, and both of them run out.
Silence reads as "fine"
The sponsee who stops answering looks exactly like the sponsee who is doing well. You find out which one it was later than you'd like.
The app nobody opens
Half of recovery happens on a phone with a cracked screen and no data plan. A tool that only works inside itself doesn't work.
What you get
One place to hold the whole relationship
For the parts of sponsoring that paper, memory and a crowded phone keep dropping.
A real CRM for sponsees
Every sponsee gets a profile: recovery date, program, contact, what they're working on, private coaching notes only you can see. Open it before a call and you're caught up in ten seconds.
Step work 0–12, assigned and tracked
Assign reading, writing, meetings or worksheets — or build your own form with your own questions. Sponsees fill it in, turn it in, and you see it. Reusable across every sponsee you'll ever have.
Chat with an SMS bridge
Message inside the app, or let it ride out as a plain text message. Your sponsee replies from their phone's messages app and it lands back in your thread. No download required on their side.
Scheduling you both can see
Put the call on a shared schedule. They get the details by text when it is booked, and both of you get a reminder about an hour before. Video meetings get a private room with no accounts and no sign-in.
A rough-moment button
One tap tells you a sponsee is struggling right now — in the app and, if you've opted in, as a text to your cell. It also puts their own prevention plan in front of them while they wait.
Privacy that isn't decorative
Journal entries a sponsee marks private stay private — enforced in the database, not just hidden in the interface. First name and last initial throughout. Their mailing address is theirs alone.
All 33 fellowships
Built around Gamblers Anonymous and open to every twelve-step program — AA, NA, OA, Al-Anon and the rest. Pick the fellowship on the profile.
Milestones worth marking
Days of Freedom milestones from 30 days to two years, with magnets you can send when one lands. Program-agnostic on purpose.
Getting started
Three steps, about ten minutes
Create your account
Sign in with an emailed code — no password to forget. Say whether you sponsor, are sponsored, or both. You can be both; one login covers it.
Invite your sponsees
You get an invite code for each person. They enter it, and the two of you are paired. If they'd rather stay in text messages, add their cell and let the SMS bridge do the rest.
Work the steps together
Assign the work, watch it come back, leave your notes, mark the milestones. Keep the human part exactly where it was — on the phone, in the rooms, over coffee.
The text bridge
Works on the phone your sponsee actually has
A sponsee with no app, no storage space and a pay-as-you-go plan is still a sponsee. Add their number and your messages arrive as ordinary text messages — they reply from their normal messages app, and it lands back in your thread inside 12Gradus.
- They confirm once by replying YES. Consent is recorded, and STOP works forever after.
- Assignments, date changes and newly scheduled sessions can ride out the same way.
- Turned-in step work and rough-moment taps can text you back, if you opt in.
Carrier-registered messaging. Message and data rates may apply. How opt-in works.
Built AI-first
AI does our paperwork. It does not do your sponsoring.
We use AI to run the company — this site’s assistant, our support drafts, our own operations. We do not put an algorithm between a sponsor and a sponsee, and no recovery content trains anything.
Ask, and get a straight answer
The assistant in the corner of this page answers from these pages — pricing, privacy, how the bridge works — and says so when it doesn't know.
Never in the private places
Journals, private reflections and chat are not read by a model, not summarised by one, and never used as training data.
Written down, not implied
Our commitments are on one page, in plain language, with the things we refuse to do listed first.
Pricing
Sponsors subscribe. Sponsees never pay.
No trial timer, no feature held hostage. If money is the reason you would not sponsor someone, write to us.
Sponsee
$0 forever
Everything a sponsee needs. There is no version of this that costs money.
Join with an invite codeSponsor
$10 / month · unlimited sponsees
First 7 days free for new subscribers
The whole sponsor workspace — everything built so far and everything built next. One plan, no upgrade tier.
Start sponsoringTech for recovery
Why we built this
A short film about what a tool like this is for — and what it isn't.
Open call
32 fellowships still need a sponsor
The step library is written for Gamblers Anonymous. Every other program needs a sponsor from inside it to shape the questions — and we would rather ask than guess. A year of the Sponsor plan, free, for helping.
Somebody is waiting on a call from you.
Start free, add your first sponsee, and see whether it makes the next week easier.