[PLUG] Need F/OSS solution for tracking non-profit resources. Google hasn't helped.

[Michael Dexter]

Ronald,

I suppose it depends on how tightly you want to moderate the system. It
pains me to say this but a wiki of your supply of services would allow
people to find them on their own. If you do need moderation, it sounds
like a database with a web-based front and and various categories of
users: Providers who keep their "inventory" of availability up to date,
constituents who presumably apply and the moderators who make the
connections between the first two. It further pains me to say that one
could have knocked this out in a day with Filemaker Pro 4.0 Web Sharing
but I have yet to see a web-connected tool as simple as that since.

Michael

On 2/12/14 2:55 PM, Ronald Chmara wrote:
> Background: Multi-state non-profit needs to get more geeky. They connect
> vulnerable, and sometimes volatile, folks with aid.
> http://www.thecupcakegirls.org/
> 
> So, I've found a ton of "non-profit donor management" software, and lots of
> "contact management" software (like salesforce), but nothing that seems to
> fit right.
> 
> Here's how I understand the puzzle:
> On the input end, somebody finds (for example) a dentist willing to do some
> side work, so they get their name into the system, and their offered work.
> 
> On the storage end: It collects a huge DB of all kinds of offered resources.
> 
> On the output end, relatively computer illiterate people (who have been
> doing this in spreadsheets, or their brains) connect a need with a donor.
> 
> So:
> person A needs a babysitter
> person B needs a chiropractor
> person C needs a driver
> person D needs a therapy session
> 
> person X looks up all those needs, and finds donors for each.
> 
> I'd hate to re-write a system that already existed, as it seems obvious
> enough that it already *should* exist, but my google-fu hasn't helped.
> 
> Any suggestions of extant software, or things that are close?
> 
> -Ronabop
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