Software Helps Charities Track Product Inventories

By Nicole Wallace

The Aidmatrix Foundation, in Dallas, has built technology systems linking companies that have surplus products with charities that can put those supplies to good use. The organization's software also helps charities track their supplies internally.

The fees that charities pay for the technology vary according to the size of their projects. As a rule, Aidmatrix and the technology companies it works with donate 80 to 95 percent of the cost to build new applications, and ask charities to pay roughly 20 percent of the costs of maintaining the technology.

In Jackson, Miss., the Federal Emergency Management Agency oversees a warehouse used to store building materials for several charities. With the help of Aidmatrix technology, leaders of those organizations and FEMA representatives can all see exactly what is in the warehouse. And if one charity has more materials than it needs, the group can use the system to make the excess available to the other charities.

"Before, warehouse representatives would work in the warehouse, and then they would get in their car and drive, sometimes for hours, to some central meeting to share information about what was where, and then turn around and drive back," says Keith R. Thode, Aidmatrix's chief operating officer. "Now it's all visible. In fact, it can be visible on a handheld."

The National Association of Free Clinics, in Washington, has worked with Aidmatrix to connect clinics around the country to a common system, which the association can use to alert members when a company has medicines or other materials to donate.

Many times donated medicines are approaching their expiration dates, and in the past, the association had trouble getting the word out about donation offers, says Patricia H. White, executive director of West Virginia Health Right, in Charleston, and president of the association's board of directors.

"We couldn't deal with it fast enough," she says, "and there was product that was still being destroyed."

Sophisticated logistics software has long been too costly for most nonprofit organizations, says Scott McCallum, Aidmatrix's chief executive officer. Aidmatrix is able to provide the technology at a low cost because i2 Technologies, the Dallas company that started the charity in 2000, donated the original supply-chain software, from which Aidmatrix's applications have evolved.

The organization also has technology that corporations can use to run virtual giving drives — which allow employees to make cash donations instead of bringing canned goods or other items into the office. Last month, Accenture, the business-consulting company, raised $75,000 for food banks across the country through its fourth annual virtual food drive.

To get there: Go to http://www.aidmatrix.org.