See Every Organization
Feeding Your Community
A complete map of food relief in your region, built for your foundation.
The Visibility Problem
35 organizations provide food relief in your region. You fund 12. What about the other 23?
You Only See Your Grantees
When you're deciding where to invest next, you're working from a partial picture. The organizations you don't fund? You don't know what they do, where they operate, or who they serve.
You Can't Find the Gaps
The board asks: which neighborhoods are underserved? You can answer for your grantees. But you can't speak to the areas where nobody operates, because you've never had a way to see the complete landscape.
You Can't Spot the Overlaps
Three food pantries might serve the same zip code while a neighboring community has none. Without visibility beyond your portfolio, redundancies stay hidden and strategic opportunities stay invisible.
How It Works
Identify Together
FastRoots collaborates with your team to identify every documented food assistance provider in your region, including organizations outside your current portfolio.
Research and Verify
We collect data through public sources and direct provider outreach: program types, hours, languages, dietary accommodations, food sources, mission, and more. You don't chase the information; we do.
Receive Your Map
Your foundation gets an interactive mapping tool with filterable data and visual analysis. Conduct due diligence, manage your portfolio strategically, and see gaps at a glance.
What Happens Next
Your ecosystem map stays current through the channels that work for you: your staff can update records directly,
providers can submit their own changes, and FastRoots can conduct quarterly verification sweeps.
And when you're ready, your map can become a public resource: a foundation-branded "find food" tool for your community.
Western North Carolina:
From Blind Spots to Complete Visibility
Three food relief organizations and one regional collaborative used FastRoots
to see each other's work across a 12-county region for the first time.
The Challenge
Following Hurricane Helene, a funder and fiscal sponsor were coordinating three food relief organizations across a 12-county region:
No one had a complete picture of who was serving where
Gaps and overlaps were invisible
Funder could not identify underserved areas
Organizations didn’t know what the others were doing.
The Solution
FastRoots gave the network shared visibility for the first time:
Built real-time maps showing where each organization was serving
Created shared visibility for funder, fiscal sponsor, and grantees
Revealed overlaps and coordination opportunities across the three organizations
Enabled grantees to see each other's work and adjust in real time
The Results
With full visibility across the region:
Complete coverage map of 45 relief centers in 12 counties
Organizations discovered collaboration opportunities that had been invisible
106,000+ meals and food boxes delivered through coordinated distribution
First-ever regional report on collective impact
“Instead of working in silos, the three grantee organizations used shared data to see each other's service areas and coordinate distribution. It's a model we hope to see in future recovery grants.”
Director, Long Term Recovery Operations, American Red Cross
“FastRoots gave us real-time visibility into what the other relief organizations were doing. We discovered partnership opportunities we wouldn't have found otherwise.”
Executive Director,
Equal Plates Project
Questions Foundations Ask Us
How is this different from 211 or other resource directories?
Most directories cover many issue areas broadly but lack the depth foundations need for strategic decisions. They also go stale quickly and aren't designed for funders.
FastRoots is different in three ways:
we focus exclusively on food relief
we collect detailed operational data (hours, languages, dietary accommodations, service areas)
we build the map specifically for your foundation's strategic needs.
The result is an asset you own, not a public database you query.
How do you collect the data?
We do the research so you don't have to. FastRoots identifies every documented food assistance provider in your region through public sources, then verifies and enriches the data through direct outreach to each organization.
Your team's role is limited: a kickoff conversation to define scope and a review of the draft map. We handle everything else.
How long does the mapping take?
Most projects take 6-8 weeks from kickoff to delivery. Timeline varies based on region size and number of organizations, but we'll give you a specific estimate after our initial conversation.
How do you keep the map current?
After delivery, your ecosystem map stays current through the channels that work for you:
Your staff can update records directly
Providers can submit their own changes
FastRoots can handle ongoing verification on your behalf
Most foundations choose a combination. We'll help you decide what makes sense based on how quickly
your landscape changes.
Can we make this available to the public?
Yes. When you're ready, your map can become a public "find food" tool branded to your foundation. This positions you as the go-to resource for food relief in your region, builds community trust, and creates donor cultivation opportunities.
The public tool is optional; many foundations start with internal use only and expand later.
Ready to See Your Complete Food Relief Landscape?
Whether you want to see how it works, discuss your region,
or just learn more, we're here to help.