Frequently Asked Questions

ImpactMatrix is a humanitarian logistics and coordination platform that connects organizations needing help with those who have resources to share — trucks, warehouse space, supplies, surplus goods, or expertise. Smart matching, real-time shipment tracking, in-kind donations, case management, and impact reporting all live in one place so aid moves faster and reaches the right people.

Simply click the 'Get Started' button to create your account. Once verified, you can immediately start posting what you need or what resources you can offer to help others.

On the main page, click the 'Create Offer' button. Choose the type of offer — such as transportation, storage, supplies, or other available categories — fill in the required details, select the relevant category, and submit. You can optionally tag your offer to an event. Once created, your offer appears in your dashboard where you can track its status and manage responses.

To create a need, click the 'Create Need' button on the main page. Select the type of need based on what support you require, choose the appropriate category, and complete the form with the necessary details and optionally tag your needs with an event. After submission, your need will be visible in your dashboard, where you can monitor its status and review incoming offers.

From the main page, you can use the 'Find Offers/Needs' feature to discover available offers and needs in your city. This view uses location data to show results on a map, helping you see which options are closest to you. You can also filter results by type, such as transportation or supplies, making it easier to find exactly what you’re looking for or where you can help.

Events let you group related activity around a specific situation — for example a disaster response, a drive, or a relief operation. You can create an event with a type, description, and one or more locations, then tag your needs and offers to it. This keeps everything connected to the same context so partners can see the bigger picture at a glance.

Yes. Individuals can join as volunteers to find local and statewide volunteer opportunities, crisis-response needs, and paid nonprofit positions, and to track their volunteer hours. Academic institutions also use the platform to connect students with real-world community service and service-learning opportunities.

Every organization type starts with a 30-day free trial — no credit card required. Nonprofits and Foundations use seat-based pricing on ImpactMatrix (ImpactVolunteer itself is always free for these two types): Starter is $29.99/month (just you), Growth is $24.99/seat (you + 1–9 team), Community is $19.99/seat (you + 10–49 team), Enterprise is $14.99/seat (you + 50–249 team), and National (you + 250+ team) is by custom quote. Government agencies are Contact Sales only — deployments are scoped and quoted per jurisdiction, so there is no public price list. Businesses and academic institutions are priced per seat — pick exactly how many employee/student seats you need — from $9.99/seat (Small Business, smallest tier) down to $1.00/seat (Enterprise, largest tier), with Fortune 1000 by custom quote. Suppliers are priced by annual revenue tier, then per seat within that tier — from $199/seat (Small Vendor, 1–10 seats) up to $1,499/seat (Enterprise Vendor, 1–100 seats), each with a matching monthly token allowance, and Strategic Partner (global scale) by custom quote. Suppliers, like Nonprofits and Foundations, can also invite teammates to share one plan under User Allotment — covering both ImpactMatrix and ImpactVolunteer.

Seat #1 is always you — it's never an invite slot. As your organization grows, invite your team under your plan from the User Allotment tab in your dashboard; each person you invite gets their own independent account, with billing borrowed from your plan while they're on your team, and either of you can end that anytime with no disruption. Your invite capacity is always one less than your total seat count — a 10-seat plan, for example, covers you plus 9 team. This works the same way for Nonprofits, Foundations, and Suppliers, and covers access on both ImpactMatrix and ImpactVolunteer.

From the Member Allotment tab in your dashboard — invite by email, and each person gets full access on both ImpactMatrix and ImpactVolunteer under your plan. Unlike User Allotment, every seat is invitable — there's no seat reserved for the admin. This is the same invite list ImpactVolunteer's own Invite Employee/Student tab manages, so you can invite, revoke, or reinvite from either platform. Members can't manage their own billing or leave on their own — adding or removing someone is admin-only, from either side.

Yes. Eligible nonprofits on a paid plan can join the Earn & Refer program. You get a unique referral link, and when an organization you refer subscribes, you earn 20% of their monthly subscription fee for 12 months, paid out automatically each month. Your dashboard tracks every referral, its status, and your earnings over the 12-month window.

Post any need or resource offer on the platform and other organizations can respond. You can see the current status of each offer or need in your dashboard under the Status tab of that specific card. From there you can review incoming requests, chat with the other party, and decide whether to accept or reject the connection.

The AI Match dashboard uses intelligent matching to surface the most compatible needs and offers for your organization, each with a confidence score and the reasoning behind the match. You can switch between Need Intelligence and Offer Intelligence, filter by match strength, category, or location, and open any match for more detail. Connections that are already completed are excluded so you only see active opportunities.

You can send an offer or a need directly from the Offers and Needs section on the main page. Any requests you send appear in your dashboard under the Sent Requests tab, with separate sections for offers sent and needs sent. You can chat with the other organization, track the progress, and withdraw your request at any time if you decide not to proceed.

When you create a General or Equipment need or offer you set a quantity, and that becomes the total to be fulfilled. When someone offers help they enter how much they can provide; when you accept, that promised amount is reserved against your total (you can lower it while accepting, but not raise it, and never beyond what's still open). Several helpers can each contribute to the same listing. As deliveries are confirmed, a fulfilment meter shows promised vs delivered against the total, everywhere you see the listing — under My Items and on the homepage feed where your listings are highlighted with a border. A short delivery only frees up the part that didn't arrive, and a disputed delivery re-opens just the undelivered remainder.

A listing closes automatically once the delivered quantity reaches the total. To close one early, click Close on the card — the small button next to Status under My Items, or the 'Close listing' button on your highlighted card in the homepage feed — and confirm. The listing is removed from active listings and stops taking new requests, but everything already delivered is kept and you can still view it under My Needs or My Offers. Only the organization that created a listing can close it, and a listing that is already fulfilled or cancelled cannot be closed again.

When someone responds to your offer or need, you'll find that interaction in the Status tab of the specific offer or need card; requests you've sent appear under the Sent Requests tab. In both cases you can open a real-time chat to communicate directly with the other organization, discuss details like timelines or quantities, and share photos, documents, and voice messages. You can keep the conversation going until both sides agree, or withdraw the request if you decide not to proceed.

Case Management helps organizations track individual beneficiary cases from intake through resolution — recording person and case details, running assessments, assigning team members, making referrals to other organizations, and keeping a full audit log of every change. It's designed for disaster-relief and social-service teams that manage people, not just goods.

When creating a new case, the AI Intake tab lets you upload a PDF or image of a field report, or paste a description, and the system automatically extracts and pre-fills the person and case fields for you. It highlights which fields were filled by AI versus entered manually, flags missing required information, and warns you if the person may already exist — so you can review and confirm before saving.

Yes. The Stories feature lets your organization publish impact narratives with a title, summary, rich content, tags, and images or video. Stories are shared to a community feed where others can like, comment, and share them, and you can edit or manage your own stories at any time from your dashboard.

Yes. We use industry-standard encryption to protect your information, and authenticated sessions are protected with secure, HttpOnly cookies and server-side route protection so dashboard data is never exposed to unauthorized users. Your private data is only shared with verified partners when you agree to a match.

You can list almost anything related to aid: transportation services, storage and warehouse space, medical equipment, supplies, surplus goods, or professional expertise such as engineering or logistics management. Needs and offers are organized into clear categories so the right resources are easy to find.

Yes. The platform includes tools to track the status of moved goods, helping you stay informed from the moment a resource is offered until it reaches its destination.

From the Shipment area, open the Plan tab to build a shipment from your accepted connections. You can pull items from Available Needs, Available Offers, Gifts in Kind (GIK), and Supply sources, then plan and track the delivery from origin to destination.

Gifts in Kind is a marketplace for surplus goods. Corporate and academic donors list surplus inventory — with condition, quantity, delivery options, and tax-receipt details — and nonprofits browse and claim items they need. AI matching helps donors discover relevant nonprofits, and accepted donations flow into shipment tracking, with a downloadable IRS-compliant tax receipt issued once the recipient confirms delivery.

Yes. Donors can edit their surplus listings after they're created, updating details such as quantity, condition, delivery options, and description. You can manage all of your listings, view incoming claim requests, and accept or reject them from the GIK section of your dashboard.

Nonprofits can see accepted donations under the Received Goods tab, where you can track shipments, chat with the donor, and record a distribution report. Once you confirm delivery of the goods, an IRS-compliant tax receipt is issued and becomes downloadable. If a claim is rejected, you'll see a clear 'Rejected' status along with the reason, so nothing silently disappears from your view.

When goods are sent to you, a delivery appears in the Deliveries tab for you to confirm. Open it and enter the quantity received and the arrival date, and optionally add condition notes, a photo, and your location. If everything arrived, the delivery is marked verified; if only part arrived, the sender is notified of the remainder and can ship it as a new round on the same delivery. If something is wrong or nothing arrived, you can report a problem instead — it's reviewed and resolved by the platform team.

Yes. For Need/Offer connections and Supply requests, a delivery receipt PDF is generated the moment delivery is confirmed — listing both organizations, the item, expected vs confirmed quantity, the date confirmed, and the reference ID. It's emailed to both parties and can be downloaded any time from the Deliveries tab. Gifts in Kind donations receive an IRS-compliant GIK tax receipt instead, issued once the recipient confirms delivery.

Distribution reports let nonprofits document how in-kind donations were distributed — including the distribution method, beneficiary groups, number of people reached, geographic coverage, dates, and SDG alignment. Reports can be saved as drafts or submitted, and your dashboard summarizes total reports and total beneficiaries reached.

The Supplier tab helps you discover essential products and resources from verified external sources when suitable offers are not available on the platform. It gives you visibility into nearby availability and trusted supply options.

The Internal Matrix lets an organization build a private network with partner organizations. Needs, offers, and shipments shared within the network are visible only to its members — ideal for coordinated response between trusted partners. Network admins can manage members and apply their own branding to the shared workspace.

Use the Invite section to bring users onto the platform by email — individually or in bulk via a CSV upload — and track whether each invitation is sent, accepted, or expired. Corporate, academic, and government organizations can also invite sub-branches to create a connected multi-branch structure under their main organization.

Registration requires verifying your email with a one-time code. Nonprofits can additionally upload registration documents (such as proof of 501(c)(3) status) for verification, which is reviewed and marked approved or pending. Verification helps build trust so partners know who they're coordinating with.

ImpactMatrix supports seven organization types — nonprofits (NGOs and 501(c)(3)/501(c)(6) associations), foundations, businesses (corporate CSR and ESG programs), academic institutions, government agencies, suppliers, and individuals (people participating on their own behalf rather than through a registered organization, creating and managing Offers and connections in the Need/Offer marketplace) — each with a tailored experience and pricing. Separately, on ImpactVolunteer, individuals can join as volunteers to find opportunities and log their hours.