Market Gap Presents HelpMatch Opportunity

• None of these entities provides a good mechanism for individuals to help individuals. Craig's List allows individuals to post offers and requests, but there is no indication of under or over-fulfillment of the request. There are issues of trust/legitimacy of need.
• None of these entities has a provision for finding a match for donations of used goods. (Although through Ebay's MissionFish one can sell used goods and donate the proceeds to a charity of choice. Inkindex will take high value used goods like equipment and barter it for cash, goods or services needed by a non-profit.)
• None of these entities effectively mobilize all the compassion and willingness to donate personal items to those affected by disasters (whether is on a more local scale like a tornado, flood or fire, or huge scale like a hurricane or earthquake). This presents a logistics nightmare that no organization has solved.

Within the US, at least, the internet is ubiquitous enough that even without additional infrastructure like call-centers, we could do a lot more to match those who need help to those who are willing to provide it. When individuals help individuals you remove the distribution logistics burden.

Alternatively, we can support the distribution logistics by supporting collaboration within networks (either existing community groups, corporate response groups, or ad hoc groups) that will provide the organizational/man-power side of the distribution system.

HelpMatch Exploration: Turning a threat into an opportunity

Donor Concern: how do I know my donation is going to someone with authentic need? How do I know my goodwill is not being taken advantage of?

Opportunity: Provide authentication through sponsor networks. A sponsor will form a HelpMatch domain or network of individuals or groups who are vouched for by the sponsor. For example:

• a company can create a network of employees and vouch that these employees live in the area impact by the disaster.
• a company that has customer address information may be able to vouch for customers in an affected area. When a person registers to receive help, they could designate and give permission for the company to vouch that their address information is correct.
• a non-profit aid organization in a local community could register and vouch for the people that come to register for help through them.
• a company with diffuse presence (like Walmart or McDonalds in the US) could register as a sponsor, set up kiosks and check id's in person as people register, so they can vouch for them.

Sponsors could be allowed to set policies which would define:

• how a person or group is included in the vouched-for network
• different levels of trust (so, for example, anyone could claim a certain level of assistance without a high trust level, but to claim bigger amounts of assistance the person or group has to have a higher trust level)

HelpMatch could also set policies, for example, setting trust levels

• when a person donates through HelpMatch
• when a person is referred by another member of HelpMatch
• if a sponsor assigns a level of trust

Trust levels may be limited within HelpMatch domains, or generalized across all of HelpMatch.

The Role of Network Sponsors

A sponsor is an individual or organization who wants to help, and who sets up and uses a HelpMatch-supported network to do so.

• Sponsors and their vouched-for networks may federate to increase reach and opportunity, and have a wider catalog of needs and donations.
• Sponsors may also create networks on the donor side, to broadcast need, collect donations, etc.
• Sponsors may create networks on the recipient side, vouching for the authenticity of the need, and assisting in registering (e.g., set up mobile internet access, registration kiosks at local stores or schools, etc.) and in distribution of donated goods.
• Sponsors may work in the middle, providing transportation and intermediate collection/redistribution.

HelpMatch would then provide a portal to the sponsored networks, and donors and potential recipients could search for and register with a network, and then donate to, or find help within, the network.

Illustrative Scenario

After Hurricane Katrina, the Indiana University Student Housing Office started to look for interim housing for parents of IU students from the hurricane-stricken region. People could call IU and offer to put up hurricane-displaced family members of IU students. Effectively, IU was vouching that these family members were indeed bona fide displaced families. IU got the word out about its efforts through local public road and the local newspaper. The response rate was good, and more people offered to open their homes and take in families than were needed.

This sponsor network is already a feature of our informal nationwide disaster response system. But how could we better support it? What if IU could use HelpMatch to set up an IU-sponsored network? This would promote the network, but they would also use traditional media like radio and newspapers, and emerging media like blogs and Craig's List. IU could allow family members from the disaster-stricken areas to register for assistance through the network based on their relationship to IU students whose home address is in the disaster area. They could then enter their needs, or they could search through the donations database (where offers of temporary housing would be a kind of donation). Or students could come to an IU office and working with IU staff, register their families and enter the needs their family has communicated to them.

Implications for HelpMatch Capabilities

Establish Identity: HelpMatch needs to establish an identity in the marketplace that sponsors want to be associated with. We need to create a snowball effect, where non-profits and corporations want to get on board.

HelpMatch System Capabilities: 

• Make it easy to create networks and support creation (consultants? help center?). We may need a cookie-cutter way to set up small individual-sponsored networks, and provide more sophisticated and customizable network setup and collaboration support for organizationally-sponsored networks.
• Provide portal for sponsor networks
• Allow federation of networks
• The UI needs to be customizable to the brand of the sponsor, so that the sponsor can generate goodwill through it's involvement in this disaster aid initiative.
• Policies can be used to tailor the networks. For example, policies could be set about what can be donated (e.g., no alcohol across state boundaries), and policies could be used to adapt for different regions. The policies will need to be flexible and customizable.

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