Distribute Aid

We are applying for this prize because winning would bring an immediate positive impact for hundreds of thousands of people and make our solutions global! In 2020, for every $1 we spent on our organisation, we delivered $340 worth of aid. An injection of $300K to our organisation could result in the capacity to manage shipments of over $100Million worth of humanitarian aid! We support grassroots groups responding to crises, filling the gaps left by official responses. This funding would allow us to bring on more full-time volunteers (we support their living costs). This would result in being able to accelerate our technological growth and our scope of influence. We would also be able to take on more shipments at once thanks to an increase in working capital, and we could invest in grassroots groups, from community warehouses to free training courses.

We are all about knowledge sharing, and elevating the abilities and services of underappreciated and underfunded grassroots organisations. All of our technology and resources are open-source and free to access. We believe this ethos will also massively benefit the 2021 cohort of Elevate Prize winners and that we will have a lot to teach each other.

I became passionate about the rights of displaced people at a young age and participated in a range of activism and volunteer projects. At university, I continued my volunteering and it became clear to me that the step between collecting and delivering aid was very chaotic. I decided to meet with grassroots groups in Europe to discover where the issues lay- and there were many of them! I understood there was a need for a holistic logistics and supply-chain focused coordinating group, so I founded one. 

I find it extremely important to use my platform to create opportunities for others. I do so by making everything open-source, providing training, and encouraging our volunteers to pursue what they are passionate about.

Looking into the future, I hope Distribute Aid will continue to grow and place a focus on accessibility for a wide range of humanitarian projects. I want to continue to use my mediation skills to provide the platform for grassroots groups and larger groups to work together effectively. With the effects of climate change becoming increasingly severe, the need for aid based responses will only grow, and working together is the most effective way to make resources go further.

DA has spent two years working within the humanitarian aid response to the European refugee crisis. We work with over one hundred collection and distribution groups to develop systems of aid delivery to enable longevity of services and ensure money is spent efficiently. Our logistics expertise has brought efficiency in time, money and quality. We’ve reduced main-leg shipping costs by up to 40% by helping grassroots groups collaborate to ship aid more efficiently. In 2020, we managed community-funded shipments costing over €73k, meaning we have saved grassroots groups €32k in one year!

In 2020, we led the response to COVID in Europe. By coordinating the effort as a whole we could bring enough power to fund hundreds of thousands of masks and hygiene items to populations that would otherwise have been overlooked. 

The UN has predicted there will be 13.7 million newly displaced people every year from 2021 onwards. As more people are displaced, more grassroots groups will appear. These community-based groups provide a range of services and should be given free support to optimise their logistics and supply-chain planning. The system we have developed within the European aid response can be transferred to any crisis globally.

At Distribute Aid, we are adopting a new approach by taking a holistic view of the grassroots aid response to the European Refugee Crisis. This holistic approach results in an improved collaboration between groups, thus creating opportunities for larger corporate levels of support such as in-kind donations and commercial shipping. 

Our services are unique because all of our resources and technology are open-source. Currently, the only other way for grassroots groups to access this knowledge and support is through paid professional services. However, we share our knowledge and provide training to grassroots groups in order to maintain their autonomy which is so important in their ability to operate to a high standard.

Our ideas bring innovation to the grassroots space. New systems such as hubs, standardised sorting systems and needs assessments introduce a plethora of benefits across the entire response. Furthermore, all of our individual innovations work in harmony together and complement each other.

Feedback from one group in Lebanon about the needs assessment:

“I was instantly on board... The needs form was great because every NGO wants different items -some food, others clothes or furniture- but we can use one system to gather that information... Thanks team!”

At Distribute Aid, our impact on humanity can be understood through three core factors: environment, community, and end beneficiary. In relation to the environment, all of our main-leg shipments are carbon-neutral, and we are aiming to have an end-to-end carbon-neutral supply chain by 2025. Our guides and aid matching aims for a zero waste outcome from shipments, reducing physical waste and waste in carbon emissions. Additionally, grassroots aid encourages a circular economy that is far more sustainable than the status quo.

We support the community as grassroots groups are community-based. Our work creates stability and sustainability for these communities whilst still allowing them to maintain their autonomy. Finally, our data collection and statistical calculations serve humanity through information sharing and recording important data. The end beneficiaries of this work are displaced and subjected to many human rights abuses. Through tracking the needs of grassroots groups, we can track where governments are falling short in providing basic services. Furthermore, we calculate the needs met through aid delivered according to sphere standards. Having collected this data and presenting it in relation to an internationally accepted standard, the figures gain meaning and thus have consequences and drive change.