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Infrastructure for Aid Localization

The Aid Cloud provides the operational framework and technical infrastructure that enables local organizations to access funding directly while preserving their autonomy and decision-making authority.

The humanitarian sector committed to channeling 25% of funding directly to local organizations. Nine years later, only 2% reaches them directly. The barrier isn't capacity—it's infrastructure. We're building the framework that solves this.

The Challenges

Traditional Approaches Don't Scale

Capacity building takes 3-5 years per organization. With thousands of local organizations needing support and humanitarian needs growing 15% annually, this approach cannot meet the moment.

Local Organizations Locked Out

Local humanitarian organizations possess deep community trust, cultural competency, and sustainable presence. Yet they struggle to access direct funding without navigating complex systems that require sacrificing decision-making authority.

The Funding Gap Is Growing

362 million people need humanitarian assistance. The funding gap reached $32 billion in 2024. Institutional funding stagnates while corporate ESG budgets exceed $300 billion—but lack credible channels for direct local impact.

An Operational Framework, Not Just Software

Aid Cloud provides implementers/ support agencies with a complete framework for supporting local organizations—combining operational models, financial architecture, and technical infrastructure that enable direct funding at scale.

The framework includes the proven mechanics for how funding flows, how accountability works, how local organizations maintain authority while accessing professional systems, and how risk is managed across portfolios of projects.

It's the blueprint and infrastructure for direct local funding—adaptable to different connectors and contexts, but built on core principles that make localization actually work.

What The Aid Cloud Provides

Financial architecture that ensures sustainability

Portfolio risk management approach

Campaign mechanics and checkpoint systems

Technical infrastructure for operations

Transparent accountability framework

Proven operational workflows

Shared marketplace for project discovery

Platform intelligence and comparative analytics

Aid Cloud's shared marketplace enables supporters to discover projects across all connectors/ support agencies, creating network effects that benefit all participants.

More Funding Reaches Communities

Aid Cloud's infrastructure-as-a-service model delivers 15-25% better cost efficiency compared to traditional INGO intermediation:

Traditional INGO Model: 45-55% operations and indirect costs

Aid Cloud Model: 30% for connector operations + platform infrastructure

The difference: 15-25 percentage points more funding reaches direct implementation.

On a $100,000 project, that's $15,000-$25,000 more impact in communities. Across a portfolio of 30 projects, that's $450,000-$750,000 additional humanitarian assistance.

How?

Shared technology infrastructure, standardized processes, purpose-built systems, and consolidated financial management—eliminating duplication without reducing accountability or quality.

The Development Laboratory: Story of Helping

Aid Cloud is being developed through Story of Helping, a humanitarian creative agency that funds local organizations through documentary photobooks. Story of Helping supports 24 local organizations across Myanmar and along the Thailand border.

Every aspect of Aid Cloud is being built, tested, and refined through Story of Helping's real operations:

Financial management systems handling actual project funds

Compliance and risk frameworks operating in real crisis contexts

Campaign mechanics with real supporters and funding goals

Accountability infrastructure serving real local organizations

Content production coordinating real documentary work

Marketplace infrastructure for project discovery

This isn't theoretical. We're building the framework by doing the work, learning what works in actual operating conditions, and developing the platform that others can use.

Additional Early Partners:

We're in discussions with connector partners in Ukraine and other contexts who would help shape the framework's development through their own implementations.

Infrastructure Built by Humanitarians

Aid Cloud's co-founders bring 30+ years of combined humanitarian operations experience—managing INGO programs, navigating institutional donor requirements, coordinating with local organizations in crisis contexts.

We're not tech founders trying to understand humanitarian work. We're humanitarian operators building the infrastructure we wished existed when we were doing this work.

The framework is being developed by people who understand both what local organizations need and what funders require—because we've been on both sides.

Visit Story of Helping

Additional Benefits

Connectors Can Specialize by Sector

Aid Cloud enables connectors to build deep expertise in specific humanitarian sectors—water and sanitation, health, education, agriculture, protection—creating powerful alignment with corporate funders whose business relates to that impact area.

A water-focused connector can partner with water utilities and technology companies. A health-specialized connector can engage pharmaceutical companies and healthcare providers. An education connector can work with EdTech companies and device manufacturers.

This sectoral alignment enables authentic corporate partnerships, deeper employee engagement, and more credible ESG reporting—while connectors build genuine expertise that benefits local organizations in their sector.

Data Insights No Single Organization Could Generate Alone

As connectors use Aid Cloud, every project contributes to growing platform intelligence. This aggregated data enables all connectors to access insights impossible to generate independently—turning individual experience into collective knowledge.

What Connectors Access:

Cost efficiency benchmarks across sectors, geographies, and project types

Campaign performance patterns showing what drives funding success

Risk indicators based on portfolio-wide data and early warning signs

Best practices identified from hundreds of projects and implementations

Sector-specific metrics for health, water, education, agriculture, and protection outcomes

This comparative intelligence helps new connectors learn from established ones, enables continuous improvement through data, and builds the evidence base for direct local funding effectiveness.

Data Privacy: All analytics are aggregated and anonymized. Individual project details remain confidential to the relevant connector. You contribute to platform intelligence while protecting your relationships and proprietary information.

Localization Has Failed. Infrastructure Can Fix It.

Nine years after the Grand Bargain commitment, only 2% of humanitarian funding reaches local organizations directly. Traditional capacity building cannot scale to meet the need.

Infrastructure-as-a-service solves what capacity building cannot: organizations can access professional systems immediately, the approach scales across thousands of organizations, and local autonomy is preserved through structural design rather than promised through policy.

Technical Documentation

For detailed technical architecture, operational workflows, and system specifications, download our comprehensive white paper.

This document covers:

Complete workflow from project submission through payment execution

Financial architecture and account structures

Multi-tenant platform design and marketplace infrastructure

Security, compliance, and risk management frameworks

Sectoral specialization and corporate alignment opportunities

Checkpoint mechanics and portfolio management

Comparative analytics and platform intelligence

Development roadmap and approach

Download White Paper