Nothing happens without fuel. First responders can’t power their vehicles, hospitals can’t administer life-saving treatments without fuel for emergency generators, and disaster survivors can’t heat their homes, power their cooking appliances, or charge their phones to tell their loved ones they’re okay. Fuel saves lives. It is the primary resource needed on the ground immediately after disaster strikes.

Fuel Relief Fund (FRF) acts as a first responder and expert advisor, deploying a team of experienced volunteers in the immediate aftermath of a disaster to provide fuel to survivors, hospitals, search and rescue teams, and other responders. Since our first deployment to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FRF has responded to 17 large-scale disasters and has distributed hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel, impacting millions of people globally.

However, FRF is a small nonprofit operating with limited staff and resources. As such, the organization has relied largely on volunteer administrative support and free or low-cost software for information storage, accounting, and constituent management. While this may be cost-effective, the software and applications FRF currently uses depend on manual processes and require more human resources than we have to allocate. 

To improve overall productivity and capacity in all areas of our work, FRF is overhauling its administrative and information management (IM) architecture and associated systems. Based on an assessment of organizational needs and capacities, the goal of the Administrative and Information Management Systems (AIMS) Project is to develop a new IM architecture built with user-friendly, interoperable software that is tailored to our needs and prioritizes workflow automation. This integrated, automated administration system will improve internal operations and productivity so FRF can be more effective in the field.