Each year, tens of millions of Americans are thrust into an unexpected personal financial crisis due to a sudden job loss, medical problem, catastrophic event, vehicle breakdown, or countless other life events. If gone unsupported, they can quickly find themselves in a downward spiral that can lead to bankruptcy, utility shutoffs, loss of housing, foregone medications, hunger and more. The nonprofit sector works hard to administer financial assistance but it has been stuck using inadequate tools and restrictive government funding that excludes many people in need. After conducting focus groups with dozens of nonprofits and foundations, we learned that financial assistance is usually administered manually and are very time-consuming . Add to this the challenge of navigating a complex network of providers who all function differently and you can see why this is a big problem.