In Time of Need

This site is the future home of The Path to a better future.



In Time of Need is an Oregon nonprofit formed in early 2024, dedicated to serving anyone in their time of need.

We are creating a service on top of a product:

Our service is providing immediate, helpful information to anyone in need, or who just wants to improve their station in life.

Our product is an application that queries our large database of provider contact information, along with Google's data warehouse of geographic direction and institutional details.

This is already an immense undertaking currently being built by volunteers. Our plan is to employ a staff to populate and update our extensive database of service providers.

Eventually this website will be the public access portal to the application we are creating, called The Path, which will be a free resource for everyone either needing services or serving those in need.

This sketch explains the intent and scope of the project. Our grand objective is to cover the lower levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (food, shelter, clothing, etc. in all 50 states, making this information immediately to everyone in need.



As of June 2025, the state of the effort is...

  1. Technical:   We intend to have a fully working prototype early next year, asking people with real needs to test it for effectiveness and ease of use.

    The Path's query engine, including its content management system (CMS), works exceptionally well. (This schema portrays our user interface/experience approach and also how we will use data analytics.) Next step: design a friendly, satisfying user experience (UX) and easily navigable user interface (UI) for the front end of the application (possibly incorporating artificial intelligence).

  2. Content:   Currently our provider database contains location and contact information, hours of operation and other details of all 620 food pantries and hot and boxed meals sources in the state of Oregon.

  3. Staffing:   We'll need people—volunteers for now but eventually employees and contractors—to refine the app's code and to populate and maintain the service provider database and the Well-being Library.

  4. Legal:   In Time of Need is an Oregon public benefit corporation [2209845-95] with a federal EIN [99-0535831]. For the record, here are our Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws, and once again the 501(c)(3) qualification letter from the IRS.

  5. Financial:   We're covering all fees and other expenses out-of-pocket for now.  We're working up a presentation that will tell our story to stakeholders and potential funders. Since we are a 501(c)(3), all donations will be tax-deductible.

Dick, an old professional engineer (emphasis on old), has put together a 15-minute video presentation to explain both the need for, and the universal benefit of, The Path.

The original HTML version of The Path, a proof-of-concept that is temporarily located on Dick's personal website, has two principal resources...