High-Tech Help for the Hungry

People go hungry and cold not because there isn't enough bread and aren't enough sweaters in the world, but because supplies aren't evenly distributed to meet demand. While many blame that basic injustice on corruption and greed, some tech-savvy philanthropists have begun to wonder if part of the problem is just bad communication. Yes, they say, the need for food and disaster relief continues to grow, but businesses, charities, and individuals who want to offer assistance would do so more freely and more often if they could be sure that their gifts were going where they were most needed, as swiftly and efficiently as possible.

A Dallas-based nonprofit called Aidmatrix thinks it has a way to get all parties on the same page -- or, rather, the same Web site. They've developed an online system that works as a kind a digital clearinghouse, a place where both donors and distributors can log on and engage in a Web-assisted trade, matching need with supply.

In the age of televised suffering and the NGO, the world is full of relief agencies, many of which desperately need a reliable stream of aid. On the other side of the equation are countless donors, whose contributions often flow out into this network with very little data on the impact finding its way back.

Launched in 2000, Aidmatrix draws on the experience of its for-profit parent, i2 Technology, Inc., which markets digital demand-and-supply networks to telecommunications and defense firms, among others. The crossover applications were clear. If providing instant knowledge can work wonders in the private sector, think what it could do in the equally complex, just-in-time economy of giving.

For instance, consider the food distribution network that orbits around America's Second Harvest, the country's largest hunger-relief organization. Some 215 food banks rely on Second Harvest for 1.8 billion pounds of grocery items per year. Meanwhile, 50,000 food shelves and other local agencies are supplied by the food banks. Before Aidmatrix, in the era of fax machines and phones, the food banks were stuck in a costly hit-and-miss ordering process, repeatedly adjusting their massive grocery orders to what the Second Harvest clearinghouse had on hand in the ever-shifting stock. Back at Second Harvest, the organization and its donors were stuck in a murky, time-consuming paper chase, funneling food offerings and tracking orders. Completing the aid transaction, from offer to transport to the last bit of paperwork confirming the donation,took an average of two weeks.