| Refurbished Computers |
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| Written by Lorna Doone Brewer | ||||||||
| Friday, 12 March 2010 00:00 | ||||||||
 It seems to be the nonprofit organization's special burden, and even badge of honor---to make things happen on an extremely limited budget. For one thing, startup funds are usually pretty small. Once you're up and running, surviving on donations and fundraising is pretty tricky. Most importantly, being fiscally responsible means that more money can go toward your mission. BUT
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There are things pretty much all organizations need. Computers are a great example. From communicating with constituents via email to keeping the books and inventory, most nonprofits rely pretty heavily on these technological marvels. Unfortunately, they can take a big bite out of any budget. Its a good thing, then, that nonprofit types are so resourceful and know all about leveraging donations. Thats exactly what TechSoup Stock has done. Theyre collecting perfectly good computers from large companies, refurbishing them, and offering them to nonprofits at a fraction of the price of new machines. According to them, most of these computers are only a couple of years old, and each is loaded with a new operating system before being offered to 501(c)(3) organizations. There are tons of advantages to this type of program, not the least of which is the fact that the majority of these perfectly-working machines would have ended up in the landfill. Now, theyre being put to great use helping the nonprofits of the US reach their goals. Its sort of like a retirement programs for PCs slave away in corporate America for awhile and then spend your golden years volunteering! Nonprofit organizations are allowed to request an unlimited number of computers and up to ten monitors annually. If the organization has multiple locations that are all covered by the 501(c)(3), however, each can make a separate request. TechSoup Stock is also putting together a program to collect and recycle the very same machines once they have truly reach the end of their useful lifespan, again avoiding simply dumping them off in the landfill. Check the TechSoup site for more information on their Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) Program. | ||||||||
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About the Author: Dianne Crampton is Group Development Consultant and Leadership Coach. For the past twenty years she has helped not-for-profit leaders and their teams learn how to work well together to consistently achieve goals with high levels of group and individual satisfaction. She is also the founder of the TIGERS group development model. The model addresses six collaborative core values necessary for creating an ethical, quality-focused and successful team culture. The values are trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. The TIGERS model passed a rigorous validation study through Gonzaga University and was Crampton’s dissertation for her Master’s of Arts designation in Organizational Leadership. As president of TIGERS Success Series, Dianne has published in a business anthology endorsed by Stephen Covey and written for trade magazines. Merrill Lynch nominated her business for Inc. Magazine’s regional small business and entrepreneurial awards. Her work with Native Americans was recognized at a United Nations sponsored conference in 1994. Dianne is also the creator and distributor of the TIGERS Team Wheel game. This game helps Board Chairs and Executive Directors identify behaviors that build collaborative groups and behaviors that cause conflict, morale problems, production failures, and misunderstandings. For more information go to http://www.corevalues.com/Game.htm |
