TaroWorks, the offline mobile field service app, is awarding a $20,000 grant to subsidize the digitization of a nonprofit’s last mile distribution operations in vulnerable communities. The grant will be funded by Qualcomm Incorporated, through its Qualcomm® Wireless Reach™ initiative.
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TaroWorks provides a mobile app that helps last mile distributors manage and gain greater visibility into sales, inventory, and product maintenance while offline in places like rural India, Kenya, and Cambodia. The grant will be awarded to a qualified NGO, humanitarian or social service organization or nonprofit towards the cost of configuring and deploying TaroWorks’ new inventory management system – TaroWorks Enterprise. TaroWorks is accepting applications for the grant until July 8, 2022. TaroWorks will run two rounds of the grant in 2022, with the first round focusing on nonprofits. The second, focusing on social enterprises will open later this year.
“We have heard from many organizations that they lack the financial support needed to implement digital solutions to serve the last mile,” said TaroWorks CEO Brent Chism. “Wireless Reach™ is covering the costs of designing and implementing TaroWorks tools for two organizations. This will allow us to learn from last mile distribution managers about what their industry needs to better serve base-of-pyramid communities.”
“Qualcomm is excited to continue our long partnership with TaroWorks, and to help drive the impact of nonprofits making a difference by distributing life-changing goods and services to millions of people at the last mile,” said Angela Baker, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Director, Government Affairs at Qualcomm Incorporated.
Wireless Reach has been a proud supporter of TaroWorks since 2014, enabling its growth from a program incubated within the Grameen Foundation to a thriving social enterprise focused on last mile software and services for trusted partners in the global development community.
“Distributors who are serving these ‘last mile’ populations…play a crucial role in sustainable development by driving demand for beneficial products and delivering them to hard-to-reach consumers,” wrote leaders of the Global Distributors Collective (GDC), a worldwide coalition of last mile distributors who reach more than 33 million people in last mile households with solar lights, clean cookstoves, and water filters. “While the importance of last mile distribution is increasingly recognized, funding is still not flowing into this space,” they added. (Impact Alpha, May 27, 2021)