Preventing the "Second Disaster"
Aidmatrix streamlines post-disaster donations process
Is too much of a good thing ever bad? When disasters strike, media coverage tends to focus on the catastrophic damage wrought by the event. Consequently, these news reports often trigger an outpouring of aid to the devastated community. But, a widely unreported and largely unknown phenomenon occurs when unsolicited donations pour into communities and overwhelm recovery specialists creating a logistical nightmare.
For example, surplus donations intended for victims of Hurricane Andrew were discarded in 1992 because they were unneeded. Tens of thousands of unaffiliated volunteers who showed up in New York City following the events of September 11th were turned away. After Hurricane Katrina, donations warehouses were set up in various states, yet the network technology to allow the tracking and delivering of goods without duplicating efforts was unavailable.
Enter Aidmatrix – a nationwide donations management system designed to organize and track goods and resources. In cooperation with FEMA since 2006, the Aidmatrix Foundation launched its web-based system to support states and members of the Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD). The network connects government, the private sector and nonprofit organizations to a database which tracks available resources in real time.
 Gov. Scott McCallum |
“Aidmatrix has taken state of the art technology used in successful businesses, reconfigured it and applied it to humanitarian purposes,” said Scott McCallum, President of Aidmatrix and former governor of Wisconsin. “To work, it requires a partnership between the government, Aidmatrix and the private sector.” Since FEMA acts in a supporting role to the disaster affected-state in managing unaffiliated volunteers and unsolicited donations, access to this type of technology is vital to preserving limited state resources. |
During the recent California wildfires, utilizing the network allowed emergency relief workers a common platform to access available resources on a 24/7 basis.
“Making the decision to adopt the system was not a difficult one for us,” said Greg Smith, emergency services coordinator for the California Office of Emergency Services. “Our previous method of managing donations was extremely inefficient and excluded one of the most crucial pieces - the VOADs.”
State donation coordinators now have the software tools to allow for rapid deployment of the network at call centers where all donation offers can be immediately entered into the system and also allows states and VOAD members to post resource requests. Transportation, warehousing, and final distribution of goods take place only on items that are needed.
“Donations management is essentially about communications and logistics,” remarked Rhode Island Donations Coordinator Joe Cournoyer. “Aidmatrix is the best tool to provide a portal for in-kind donations and volunteers.”
FEMA Voluntary Agency Coordinator Ben Curran is optimistic that other states will soon follow suit. “We expect to get most of the states signed up to utilize the Aidmatrix tool to support their volunteer and donations operations,” said Curran.
Currently more than half of the U.S. population resides in states participating in the Aidmatrix network. Goods and services provided through the system total $1.5 billion annually.
“We will continue to work on making this an even more powerful tool as we join with them [Aidmatrix] and other state's portals to link the entire nation together to build a national donations management system,” said Smith.
“The private sector understands the need for efficiency,” said McCallum. “This not only falls within the guidelines of corporate responsibility but is a solid financial decision for inventory disposal.”
Having now expanded globally across six continents, McCallum attributes the Aidmatrix success story to a simple philosophy. “We’ve made humanitarian aid more efficient - the system gets the right aid to the right people at the right time.”
Visit Aidmatrix online at www.aidmatrix.org.
Last Modified: Wednesday, 30-Jan-2008 17:07:03 EST