Atlas
The Norwegian NGO sector, in one place.
Atlas is an organisation-neutral information platform that aggregates public data about every large Norwegian NGO — activities, chapters, funding, people, and the humanitarian needs that shape them — so anyone can find what they're looking for without learning how 40 different NGO websites work.
Published at atlas.sovereignsky.no (documentation and dataset
catalogue) and api-atlas.urbalurba.com (the public PostgREST API). The first service from
Helpers — helping the helpers (NGOs and volunteers).
⚠️ These two hostnames are the verified ones and they are derived, not remembered.
website/hosts.mjs is the single source of truth and says so in its own header. This line
previously read "Launched as atlas.helpers.no" — a hostname that does not resolve at all,
measured 2026-09-24. Do not reintroduce it; check hosts.mjs.
What it does
Atlas answers three questions through three entry points:
- Where near me? — map-based chapter finder across every large NGO (Red Cross, Norsk Folkehjelp, Sanitetskvinnene, Nasjonalforeningen, 4H, Speiderforbundet, Kirkens Bymisjon, Frelsesarmeen, Redningsselskapet, and more)
- I want to do / get X — activity-first discovery (find språkkafé, leksehjelp, besøkstjeneste, Hjelpekorps rollout near you) regardless of which NGO runs it
- Understand the sector — funding transparency, coverage-gap explorer, honest-pair comparison of NGO efficiency
Plus a dedicated tool for NGO staff:
- Tilskuddsmatcher — cross-agency aggregator of open grant calls from directorates, foundations, and the EU, matched to each NGO's activity profile and kommune-level need signals
And a non-negotiable crisis band surfaces sector-wide helplines (113, 112, 110, Mental Helse 116 123, Kirkens SOS, Kors på halsen, Alarmtelefonen for barn og unge) on every page.
Who it's for
16 personas across three tiers — full detail in website/docs/about/personas.md. Primary:
- Kari wants to help but doesn't know where → activity-first matching across orgs
- Jonas wants to donate transparently → honest NGO comparison
- Amira just arrived and needs concrete services → språkkafé, Norsktrening, coordinator contact
- Lars worried about family in a storm warning area → who responds, across all rescue-capable orgs
- Tone civically engaged, exploring board service → cross-NGO chapter browsing
- Ola data-curious — sector explorer
Secondary (internal NGO staff):
- Lisa (tilskuddsansvarlig) — finds grant calls that match her org's mission and drafts applications citing real need data
- Inger, Arne, Signe, Mette (chapter/district/national staff)
Plus tertiary: Magnus (active volunteer QC), Henrik (corporate partnerships), Åse (person in crisis — crisis band), Dev (public-data developer), Sara (15-year-old looking for youth activities).
Status
Research and design phase — not yet implemented. The repository currently contains working research, data-source verification, and design specs. No code yet.
What's done
What's next
Repository structure
Why two frontends? Atlas has two Next.js apps with deliberately different access patterns: a public customer app that talks only to the PostgREST API (atlas-frontend/), and an internal diagnostics app with direct Postgres access for verifying ingestion + dbt output (atlas-contributor-frontend/). Full rationale at website/docs/contributors/frontends.md. The split is forced by the customer app being designed as a forkable reference for external developers — it can't import atlas-data/ types or use a DB driver.
./
├── README.md — this file
├── atlas-frontend/ — public customer Next.js app
│ │ — PostgREST consumer; no DB role; forkable reference. Default port 3001.
│ ├── app/ — App Router pages and layouts
│ ├── src/ — shared code (components, lib)
│ ├── public/ — static assets
│ ├── next.config.ts, tsconfig.json — Next.js + TypeScript config
│ ├── package.json — frontend deps (Node 20+)
│ ├── postcss.config.mjs, components.json — PostCSS, shadcn config
│ └── design-tokens/ — Digdir Designsystemet token sources
├── atlas-contributor-frontend/ — internal diagnostics Next.js app (NOT deployed publicly)
│ │ — direct Postgres reads (uses `postgres.js`); for ingest/dbt verification. Default port 4000.
│ ├── app/ — App Router pages: /admin, /coverage-gap, /data, /kommuner, /ngo
│ ├── src/ — components + lib
│ └── package.json — depends on `postgres` driver (not present in atlas-frontend)
├── atlas-data/ — TypeScript ingest + dbt + raw migrations (writes marts.* in Postgres)
│ ├── ingest/ — one folder per upstream source under ingest/src/sources/
│ ├── dbt/ — dbt Core project (raw.* → marts.*)
│ └── migrations/ — raw.* schema SQL, numbered 001_*.sql onwards
├── atlas-private-data-repo/ — per-NGO private data folders (sample-ngo committed; real NGOs gitignored)
├── website/ — public-facing documentation; Docusaurus-shaped, Docusaurus not yet installed
│ ├── README.md — layout conventions, helpers-projects sister-site references
│ └── docs/
│ ├── index.md — landing page
│ ├── about/ — what Atlas is, who it's for
│ │ ├── what-is-atlas.md — what Atlas is and why
│ │ └── personas.md — 16 personas across 3 tiers
│ ├── sector/ — Norwegian NGO sector context
│ │ ├── ngo-landscape.md — 35+ NGO sector map
│ │ └── sector-research.md — Frivillighetsbarometer + ISF findings
│ ├── getting-started/ — first-time orientation
│ │ └── reading-a-row.md — how to interpret a record in marts.fact_kommune_indicators
│ ├── concepts/ — canonical Atlas entities (planned)
│ ├── measurements/ — per-(source,metric) reference (planned)
│ └── sources/ — per-ingest-source provenance (planned)
└── docs/
├── ideas/ — proposals being chewed on, pre-INVESTIGATE
└── research/
├── common-schema.md — formal data model
├── compare-ngos-spec.md — Compare-NGOs page design spec
├── tilskuddsmatcher-data-availability.md
│ — v1-wedge feasibility verdict
├── data-sources.md — verified Norwegian sources
├── data-sources-international.md — IFRC/UN/EU/global sources
├── barentswatch.md — maritime cross-sectoral info system
├── forf.md — volunteer rescue forum
│
├── <ngo>-activities.md — activity catalogues (Tier A: Red Cross, Norsk Folkehjelp,
│ Sanitetskvinnene, Nasjonalforeningen)
├── <ngo>-activity-indicator-matrix.md
│ — activity → kommune-level need indicator mapping
├── <ngo>-profile.md — Tier C/B-minus reference profiles
│ (Flyktninghjelpen, SOS-barnebyer, UNICEF-komiteen,
│ Leger Uten Grenser, Redd Barna, CARE Norge,
│ Plan International, Kirkens Nødhjelp, Regnskogfondet,
│ WWF Norge, Bellona, ZERO, Norsk Luftambulanse,
│ Redningsselskapet)
├── redcross-*.md — Red Cross-specific working material
│ (the reference case the framework was built against)
└── redcross-organizations-api-schema.json
Key decisions on record
- Organisation-neutral. No NGO's branding dominates. Per-NGO logos appear on their chapter cards and attribution; shared chrome uses Digdir Designsystemet (neutral Norwegian public-sector design foundation).
- Read-only. Atlas consumes public APIs and renders public content. Actual signups, donations, and purchases hand off to each NGO's own systems with context pre-filled.
- Scraping is in scope where NGOs don't expose APIs, subject to each source's terms.
- Four engagement pathways: Gi tid (volunteer) / Gi penger (donate) / Bli medlem (member) / Ta et standpunkt (campaign action). The fourth is new — for orgs like Amnesty, WWF, Naturvernforbundet, Solidaritetsungdom where advocacy is the primary ask.
- Crisis band is non-negotiable. Built before anything else that renders on screen.
- Norwegian-first. UI reads naturally in Norwegian. Multilingual activity discovery is an extension for integration-adjacent activities.
Data sources
Atlas is built on public Norwegian and international registries, all free and mostly no-auth:
- Brreg (Enhetsregisteret, Frivillighetsregisteret, Regnskapsregisteret) — the org-identity spine
- Lottstift / tilskudd.lottstift.no — 163 NGO grant schemes, historical awards + current open calls
- Innsamlingskontrollen — verified fundraising transparency
- SSB (PxWebApi v2) — demographics, households, income, crime, tourism
- FHI Folkehelsestatistikk — health indicators, Folkehelseprofil, Oppvekstprofil (replaced Kommunehelsa in Nov 2025)
- Bufdir — child poverty + welfare monitors
- IMDi — refugee settlement
- DSB Kommuneundersøkelsen — municipal preparedness
- Kartverket / Geonorge — geography, boundaries, tilfluktsrom
- met.no + Frost + NVE HydAPI + Varsom — weather, hydrology, hazards
- IFRC GO, UNHCR, OCHA HDX, WHO GHO, ReliefWeb, GDACS, Carbon Brief, Meta-Gallup — international humanitarian context
Full catalogue with verification dates and auth requirements: docs/research/data-sources.md and docs/research/data-sources-international.md.
Helpers
Atlas is the first service from Helpers, whose purpose is helping the helpers — NGOs and the volunteers who work for them. Additional Helpers services will follow the <service>.helpers.no pattern.
⚠️ Atlas itself does not follow that pattern today. It is published at
atlas.sovereignsky.no; atlas.helpers.no does not resolve, measured 2026-09-24. Left as
written because it states an intention about Helpers' naming rather than a fact about Atlas —
but a reader should not infer the live hostname from it.
Contributing
The project is in research/design phase. The research docs in docs/research/ are working material — open to corrections, additions, and framework pressure-tests. If you spot a factual error in any org profile, activity catalogue, or indicator mapping, open an issue or PR.
When implementation starts, contribution guidelines and code-style will go here.
Licence
TBD. Intent is an open licence for the code and CC BY (or equivalent) for the data research docs — consistent with the public-good positioning and open-source framing in website/docs/about/what-is-atlas.md.
