Global Hand: Background story

Global Hand’s development has been spearheaded by Crossroads Foundation, a Hong Kong based non-profit organisation that sits at the nexus between over 1,000 corporations and 2,000 NGOs. It leverages donated freight, corporate expertise and product, and is currently handling requests from NGOs in over 92 countries.

As Crossroads grew, we met the same patterns internationally that we had seen locally. Corporations and community organisations around the world asked us for ways to engage with NGOs in their area, as they were struggling to connect. We searched the Internet for a “matching” service, but found none. Consultation with United Nations personnel confirmed that no Internet provision existed.

So Global Hand began. In 2002, we met with other NGOs to discuss the concept and built a prototype website to enable appropriate matching functionality.

Global Hand 1, our first iteration, matched offers and requests for goods.

Global Hand 2, our next iteration, broadened the platform to include services: goods, freight, human resources, along with funding.

Global Hand 3, our current iteration, broadened the platform to a much wider scope of partnership options. Over the years, the landscape of private sector engagement has changed radically and this platform has been set up to accommodate this much wider partnership range.