Photo credit: AidKit: modified by Causeartist
When a disaster hits, the gap between funding allocated and funding received can cost lives. AidKit is building the infrastructure to close that gap. The company works with governments, nonprofits, and NGOs to stand up eligibility verification, multilingual applications, and payment disbursement in a matter of hours, not weeks.
Brittany Christenson, CEO of AidKit, joined the Disruptors for Good podcast to talk through how the platform works, what they have learned from 240-plus partners, and where the company is headed.
Brittany's path to leading AidKit did not follow a conventional tech route. She studied applied math at Carroll College in Montana, then spent time as operations manager at an organic vegetable farm, where she used technology to scale a community-supported agriculture program from 35 members to a statewide network of 900 families.
From there, she became executive director of ADK Action, a nonprofit focused on food access and community development. During the pandemic, her team launched one of the first SNAP Online programs in the country, sitting alongside Amazon and Walmart as the only vendors authorized to accept SNAP benefits for online grocery delivery at the time.
That experience made one thing clear: many of the problems in the food system were not food problems. They were economic problems. She joined AidKit as its sixth employee. Today the company has 60 people across the country.
AidKit describes its mission as delivering aid with dignity.
In practice, that means building the technology layer between organizations that distribute funds and the people who need to receive them.
AidKit handles eligibility verification, fraud detection, multilingual application flows, and payment disbursement across multiple rails including real-time payments, ACH, direct deposit, physical checks, debit cards, and virtual cards.
The platform is not a standard SaaS product. Brittany is direct about this distinction.
"We make technology that works for communities. We don't make communities bend to work with our technology."
Rather than rebuilding from scratch for each partner, AidKit uses a modular architecture with a shared functional layer and a customizable definition layer on top. Partners get purpose-built solutions without the cost or timeline of fully custom software.
Current partners include Save the Children, GiveDirectly, and state agencies across 27 states. The platform has served more than 600,000 end users and delivered over $400 million in aid.
When Hurricane Helene, Hurricane Milton, and December flooding in Washington state hit, AidKit powered Save the Children's domestic disaster response.
Application links went live in four to six hours. Qualifying families received funds within a day and a half of applying.
The previous standard involved Google Forms, spreadsheets, manual follow-up over email, and prepaid card issuers working in isolation. None of it was multilingual, accessible, or fraud-resistant at scale.
AidKit also works in guaranteed income and maternal health programs.
One prominent example is RX Kids, a program founded by Dr. Mona Hanna and Luke Schaefer at Michigan State University and administered by GiveDirectly.
The program provides $1,500 to pregnant mothers and $500 per month for the first year after birth. Results from the pilot were strong enough that Michigan passed legislation to scale the program statewide.
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