Community members passing food and supplies in a mutual aid exchange
Status: In active development

Mutual Aid Platform

Mutual Aid Platform gives grassroots networks, nonprofits, and community coalitions the coordination capacity they've never had. Designed to reflect how mutual aid actually works, it operates alongside existing workflows rather than replacing them. We want to support the community relationships that organizers have built from the ground up, with infrastructure that is accessible, easy to use, and built to scale, so they can deliver more for the people who need it most.

The challenge

When a person's request comes in through the wrong channel or the wrong language, it doesn't get dropped by accident. It disappears because no single system was built to catch it. The challenge is coordinating across fragmented tools and languages for communities that require trust and the option to remain anonymous, without adding burden on the organizers holding it all together.

The solution

An AI-assisted coordination overlay that handles intake, triage, matching, and communication overhead.

The deliverables

  • SMS / WhatsApp / Web intake
  • Multilingual support
  • Organizer dashboard
  • Network referral system
  • Human-in-the-loop approval workflow
  • Policy-driven tenant and network governance controls

Building for the whole problem, not just part of it

We're bringing together SMS access, multilingual communication, and AI-assisted matching into one integrated system. With it, organizers can spend less time on logistics and more time focusing on relationships and making important judgment calls.

Community volunteers gathered together

How it works

Mari is a community member living with diabetes who relies on food assistance and medication to stay healthy. Jess is the on-call lead organizer at her local food pantry, coordinating support. Together, they show how a single request moves through the system on both ends to connect people with care.

Mari corresponds in Haitian Creole throughout. English translations are shown below each message for the reader.

  1. Fri 6:02 pm

    "Mwen bezwen èd pou manje ak medikaman."

    "I need help with food and medication."

    Request parsed and flagged. Jess alerted with AI-suggested next steps.

    • Food assistance
    • Medication-access referral

  2. Fri 6:03 pm

    "Nou resevwa mesaj ou. Yon òganizatè pral reponn ou byento."

    "We received your message. An organizer will reach out shortly."

    Receipt-only acknowledgement sent in Mari's language. No routing claim.

  3. Fri 6:06 pm

    No new message. Last ack still on screen.

    Jess triages and confirms categories. AI suggestions reviewed.

    • Pantry A at capacity
    • Route to Pantry B

  4. Fri 6:09 pm

    "Èske w dakò pou nou pataje detay ou yo ak Pantry B epi yon travayè sante kominotè? Reponn WI oswa NON."

    "Do you agree for us to share your details with Pantry B and a community health worker? Reply YES or NO."

    "Wi."

    "Yes."

    Consent captured per named recipient. Audit logged.

  5. Fri 6:12 pm

    No new message. Mari is not pinged until there's an outcome to share.

    Jess sends two separate referrals. One human action per partner.

    • Pantry B (food)
    • CHW partner (medication access)

  6. Fri 6:38 pm

    "Pantry B ap livre manje madi 9 a.m. nan adrès ou. Yon travayè sante kominotè ap rele w lendi maten pou pale sou medikaman ou."

    "Pantry B will deliver food Tuesday 9 am at your address. A community health worker will call you Monday morning about your medication."

    Both partners accepted. Jess sends one consolidated update, no fragmented pings.

    • Pantry B: Tue 9 am delivery
    • CHW: Mon 9 am call

  7. Mon 9 am, Tue 9 am

    Mon: CHW call (off-platform)

    "Mèsi anpil! Mwen resevwa manje a."

    "Thank you very much! I received the food."

    CHW marks complete. Delivery confirmed. Exchange closed.

    • Audit record sealed
    • Outcome metrics written

Who it serves

For community members and contributors

  • Request help or offer a contribution by SMS, in your own language
  • No requirement to download an app, no requirement to create an account, it happens automatically
  • Your contact information stays protected throughout
  • Connect to partner organizations if the first can't fulfill your request, with your consent at every step
  • Have your contributions matched to the requests that need them

For organizations and coalitions

  • Reduce the coordination overhead currently managed by hand
  • Handle multilingual intake automatically
  • See requests, resources, and suggested matches in one place
  • Refer to partner organizations with member consent
  • Keep using the management, pantry, or volunteer tools you already run
  • Measure and export outcomes for funders, coalition leads, or your board
  • Distribute administrative authority across your team
Community members gathered together at a mutual aid event

AI that supports judgment

Every suggestion surfaces for human review before anything is acted on, with a logged rationale the full team can see and override. Organizers stay in control.

Hands exchanging phones

Where we are

The architecture is defined, core systems are being built, and the initial phase is focused on the intake and matching workflows, where coordination overhead is highest.

The platform has not yet been deployed at scale with a live network, and we are not presenting it as a finished product. The work is being built with grassroots mutual aid networks and nonprofits as the primary early partners, with municipal government use as a later-stage direction. What matters at this stage is that the design choices are right and the foundation is built to hold when real demand arrives.