Relief Inventory

Warehouse software for disaster relief

Every donation, from the loading dock to the people who need it.

Relief Inventory helps disaster-response warehouses receive, sort, store, and distribute donated goods. It tracks every item back to the donor and pallet it came from.

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Illustration of a busy relief warehouse with shelving, pallets, delivery trucks, and volunteers

The problem

After a disaster, the donations don't stop coming.

Semi trailers, church vans, pickups and car trunks all show up at the dock. They bring pallets of water, mixed boxes, hygiene kits, and things nobody asked for. The warehouse is often a borrowed building, run mostly by volunteers who rotate in and out every few days.

The questions stay the same. What do we have? Where did it come from? What do our partners need, and is it fair to everyone when there isn't enough to go around? Spreadsheets and paper forms break down quickly. Relief Inventory is built to answer those questions while the response is still under way.

How it works

One path through the warehouse

Each stage records who did what and when. Any item on a shelf can be traced back to the truck it arrived on.

  1. Receive

    Log each arrival at the dock: donor, driver, carrier, and container counts, with a photo. Print a barcode label for every pallet, gaylord, box, or tote.

  2. Sort

    Scan a pallet label, open it up, and record what's inside. Mark each item usable, outdated, trashed, or diverted.

  3. Stock

    Sorted goods go into an append-only ledger, which is the single source of truth for what's on hand.

  4. Request

    Partner organizations and distribution points send requests. Staff enter them from a shared catalog by phone, on paper, or in person.

  5. Pick

    Fill requests by live scanning, or print a batch of pick sheets for teams working on paper. Both feed the same record.

  6. Ship

    Drivers confirm pickup and delivery. Each request moves from filled to shipped to delivered, with a sign-off at each step.

Features

Built for how relief warehouses really run

Donor-to-shelf traceability

Every sorted item is linked to the pallet and donation it came from. That makes recalls, donor follow-up, and reporting possible.

Donation quality tracking

Usable, outdated, and trashed goods are counted separately, so you can see which sources keep sending things you can't use.

Scanners, cameras, or paper

Use USB and Bluetooth barcode scanners, a phone camera, or a keyboard. Printable labels and pick sheets keep paper-based teams in the same system.

Nothing lost on a bad connection

Long sorting, request, and picking sessions save one line at a time. A dropped connection or closed browser doesn't wipe out an hour of work.

Fair allocation

When requests add up to more than you have on hand, the system suggests a proportional split and shows each partner's stated level of need.

Situation reports

An internal dashboard for warehouse leads, plus a separate, shareable situation report (PDF) for partner agencies and leadership.

Volunteer sign-in kiosk

Volunteers, guests, and drivers sign in at a shared kiosk. You get hour totals for reporting and a building roll call for safety.

Donation offers before arrival

Log offers that come in by phone, then accept, refuse, or redirect them before anything ships. Accepted offers link to the real delivery when it arrives.

Permissions by job

Access follows what someone does (receiving, sorting, picking, administration), not a fixed rank. Each person's access can be adjusted individually.

About the project

Built alongside the people doing the work

Relief Inventory was developed together with Adventist Community Services, which has long run donation warehouses for disaster response. Its design comes from real warehouse procedures and from the volunteers who follow them.

It is now in active use in a live disaster-response warehouse. Feedback from the warehouse floor goes straight back into development.

Open source
Free to use, study, and adapt under the GNU General Public License v3.
Runs in a web browser
Works on laptops, tablets, and phones on the warehouse floor. Nothing to install on staff devices.
One instance per operation
Each warehouse or incident gets its own installation, with its own data and backups.

Get in touch

Request more information

Thinking about Relief Inventory for your warehouse, or want to know more about the project? Send a note and someone from the team will reply by email.