Aidmatrix Welcomes Enterprise Technologist as New CEO & President

The Aidmatrix board of directors elected career-technology executive and long-standing board member Mark Theilken, to succeed Gov. Scott McCallum, as its new CEO and President. Mr. Theilken will assume the duties effective immediately and will remain on the board of directors. Mark Theilken has been a member of Aidmatrix' board of directors since 2012 and has more than 30 years experience in the high-tech industry in sales, marketing, and general management, including more than 22 years in executive positions at IBM in the U.S. and Asia-Pacific. 

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Aidmatrix Relief Warehouse Work in Rwanda

Our International NGO teams are at work in Rwanda, doing training and planning for bringing relief warehouses online with our International NGO partner. Working in the warehouse where everything is cataloged, tracked in and out, and orderly as relief supplies and the tools required to do the work are managed by this professional team of relief workers. Our technology is providing opportunities for efficiency gains (and minimizing paper usage), which the country representative is very pleased about. 

"The deputy regional director here for the first three days and he was testing the system along with the others, and was supportive and encouraging," commented the Commodity and Supply Chain Management Director of our partner INGO. 

Learn more about Aidmatrix's SCM4Good™ work with INGOs

SafeNight Program Highlighted at D.C. Partnership for Freedom Finalists’ Workshop

Last week, Aidmatrix was honored to be one of 12 finalists invited to attend the Partnership for Freedom workshop in Washington, D.C. This competition is designed to develop “Modern Solutions to Modern Day Slavery” and Aidmatrix’s SafeNight mobile app, in participation with Caravan Studios (a division of TechSoup Global), was selected as a finalist. 

The SafeNight program is a mobile app that empowers sheltering relief agencies to get same-day, deeply-discounted hotel rooms to cover overflow capacity so no one need be turned away. Women’s shelters, homeless shelters, trafficking shelters, and disaster shelters can all leverage this program.

This event is the Partnership for Freedom’s “first of three Innovation Challenges – Reimagine: Opportunity – a competition to improve the infrastructure of support for survivors of modern day slavery. [They] are looking for new partners and innovative ideas that lead to sustainable social services in the United States. $1.8 million in funding will be shared with winners to bring their ideas to life.”

Forbes covered the event in the following article: “Fighting The Cruelty Of Human Trafficking, Social Entrepreneurs Craft New Models For Helping Victims.” You can view this article on our blog at

http://aidmatrixfoundation.blogspot.com/2014/01/on-forbes-fighting-cruelty-of-human.html.

The following are a few quotes from the workshop about SafeNight:

“SafeNight addresses the REAL GAP [the first night of safety] in the market using technology as the tool.  It’s innovative.  It’s easy to understand and feasible. Sustainability is baked into the design.  And it’s naturally scalable.” - Ed Marcum, VP-Investments for Humanity United.

"The field is desperate for this [securing the first night of safety for a human trafficking victim]!" - Survivor of Human Trafficking. 

"SafeNight gives us TIME to put together a plan for wrap-around services & permanent housing.” - An NYC Social Worker.

The workshop provided invaluable access to leaders in the field of human trafficking response. Small groups were formed to further refine the projects with the help of experts in trafficking, housing and services, and law enforcement. Then the teams collaborated with other finalists to innovate for the cause.

Aidmatrix and Caravan Studios, will be submitting their final proposal on SafeNight to the panel as a result of this workshop.

On Forbes: Fighting The Cruelty Of Human Trafficking, Social Entrepreneurs Craft New Models For Helping Victims

Tom Watson, Contributor

Social ventures, social change, social media, social movements.

1/11/2014 @ 4:19PM |

Fighting The Cruelty Of Human Trafficking, Social Entrepreneurs Craft New Models For Helping Victims

Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day, and President Obama has named January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month – public campaigns aimed at shining a light into the darkest corners of human cruelty: modern-day slavery and the trafficking of human beings in the United States and around the world.
One effort to combat trafficking and help its victims centers on the creativity and energy of social entrepreneurs. Partnership for Freedom is a coalition of funders in partnership with the Federal government to identify and fund new models for “innovative and sustainable social services for human trafficking survivors,” created by Humanity United, which is part of The Omidyar Group, and launched in partnership with the Obama Administration at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2012. The coalition includes the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, the
Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative, Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation, and other private donors, led by Pierre and Pam Omidyar.

That’s a lot boldface names, but one aspect of the partnership is well worth noting: a public funding challenge that asks social entrepreneurs to propose new solutions for helping victims of human trafficking in the U.S. That challenge has a prize of up to $1.8M over two years to fund the big ideas and measure their impact. Last month, a pool of 162 ideas from more than 260 organizations in 39 states was culled to a dozen finalists – later this spring, as many as three projects will be chosen for funding.

But while the funding is clearly top down, the ideas are much more bottom up.

San Antonio Food Bank Partners with Aidmatrix Through AgencyExpress in 2013

The week of Thanksgiving 2013, Aidmatrix welcomed San Antonio Food Bank to the network of AgencyExpress food banks leveraging online shopping. Led by President and CEO Eric Cooper, San Antonio serves a 16-county area providing much-needed food to over 500 partner agencies throughout Southwest Texas. A special shout-out goes to Megan DeMers and Genevieve Noriega who led their team implementing AgencyExpress. Happy Shopping to our friends at the San Antonio Food Bank and their partner agencies!

To learn more about AgencyExpress, contact: charlotte_medley@aidmatrix.org or Ida_beal@aidmatrix.org.

Aidmatrix Welcomed Eastern Illinois Food Bank to AgencyExpress in December 2013

In December 2013, Eastern Illinois Food Bank - located in Urbana - joined the network of Feeding America food banks leveragingAgencyExpress online shopping. Aidmatrix is pleased to welcome the Eastern Illinois  team headed up by James Hires, Executive Director.  A special shout-out goes to Kelly Daly and her team which implemented AgencyExpress during Q4. Eastern Illinois services 14 counties on the eastern side of the state assisting over 200 partner agencies through 220 emergency food programs.

To learn more about AgencyExpress, contact: charlotte_medley@aidmatrix.org or Ida_beal@aidmatrix.org.