We are pleased to announce the launch of the Center for Humanitarian Technology (CFHT)—a new nonprofit focused on providing fit-for-purpose technology solutions to nonprofit partners at no cost. The goal of CFHT is to be a ‘nonprofit for nonprofits,’ pulling on deep technology, engineering, and operational expertise to deploy technology for humanitarian aid partners.
The founders of CFHT began collaborating in March 2022—brought together by their commitment to help Ukrainian refugees and internally displaced people. While working with NGOs operating in Ukraine and nearby countries, the team of volunteers noticed a consistent need for technology and operations support. CFHT was developed from the idea that nonprofits provide vital humanitarian aid and frequently react to catastrophic crises with little time to plan how to work most efficiently or leverage technology.
“We realized there was an unaddressed problem space where humanitarian aid agencies work in crisis situations with ad hoc processes—they understandably do not have the capacity to introduce technology into their operations,” said Dean Hamilton, CFHT Founder and Executive Director. “We bring a unique blend of technology expertise, deep experience operationalizing ad hoc processes, and a passion for iterating imperfect solutions to optimize the humanitarian efforts of our partners.”
The mission of the Center for Humanitarian Technology:
CFHT’s mission is to develop and operate generalized technology solutions – that address common problems faced by humanitarian NGOs – to improve the collaboration, efficiency and effectiveness of our humanitarian NGO partners.
In the first few months of operation, CFHT has focused on building a partner base of humanitarian relief partners, technology solution partners, and volunteer expertise, including our initial partnership with Agape Care International, Wilson Perumal & Company, and Swivl.
“I really value the mix we have at CFHT—where ideations about what’s possible meet the practicality and willingness to get simple solutions in place,” said Caroline Suni, CFHT founding member and project manager.“ As an organization, we can lay the groundwork to use technology like graph databases to revolutionize humanitarian aid logistics while working in parallel with partners on the ground to meet their operational technology challenges on a much different scale.”
For more information about the Center for Humanitarian Technology or to learn about being a CFHT partner or donor, please visit www.cfht.org or contact Jeannie Elliott at contact@cfht.org.
CFHT gives special acknowledgement to the hard work from our Ukranian volunteers, including Alla Semenchuk, Emily Dorisio, Oksana Kharchenko, Ira Medvedieva, Natalia Revak, and Ivanna Trotskovets.