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Forming a charity (preferably non-profit)
Bewildered_Ronin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Problem:
Too many people I know have such horrible, crappy computers. Really old Dells (like when Dell first started (Pentium 2's and stuff for those that don't know)) that have poor specs even for their time. A lot of people, even in the USA, do not have working computers. Some of these people are even computer savvy, but just too poor.
Goal:
Offer electronic recycling in exchange for the rights to resell equipment. The idea is that these computers will be given as gifts to individuals, centers (women, homeless, Vet Affairs, etc) with minor part purchases.
IE: Keep mobo, GPU, CPU and RAM, but upgrade from 512MB to 1 or 2 GB. The price of these purchases will be offset by the recycling of unusable and unwanted PC parts to Goodwill.
Funding:
I heard on NPR news recently that Goodwill centers are partnering with Dell to offer free electronic recycling. If you donate enough to Goodwill, you can get tax credits. These tax credits we will use in exchange for our own money to buy computer parts such as more RAM and cheap GPUs.
Modus Operandi:
So, that's the idea in a nutshell. To promote and run electronic recycling events, bundle it all up, bring it home, strip it down, build some Franken-comps, recycle the useless crap, get tax credits to cover price of parts, buy some spare parts, give the completed PCs away.
Some Unknown Variables:
1) We will, at first, probably use a free GUI Linux distro. The plan is to make computers that will run Firefox 3, Open Office Suite, and other free software (ZipGenius, etc) effectively. The catch is, we also want these computers to be able to run XP and potentially Vista (or possibly Win7) if the user ever decides to do that. We plan on distributing a manual outlining the basics of the programs and include a list of sites (and include a PDF with inks) to support sites like Major Geeks and so on.
The problem is that I think we should go Linux, especially at first. My friend says Windows XP. My friend was even suggesting an alternate of Win98. I don't like the sounds the licensing fees on that. (unless we could convince the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to give us free licenses
) What do you think? Unrealistic? Bad idea? Suggestions?
2) I don't know who I should consult about setting something like this up, and neither does my friend. We both guessed lawyers. None of us has money to spare for lawyers to set things up, and the one lawyer we know is in Family and Domestic Relations Court. Any advice on this? Recommendations for a good place to seek further advice about this? Is there pro bono publico (free) law centers that could help with such a thing?
3) The workforce starting off would be me and one other, maybe a few other people. My friend was suggesting we target low income individuals for priority. I was thinking teachers, students, and centers so we could avoid all the damn paperwork involved with proving low income. I would like to do low income, but I do know it is lot of paperwork and is something I think we should shoot for further down the road. Any personal experience or knowledge about such things?
4) We also need ideas about how to give these away! Any creative advice would be great. We just thought of doing a lottery when we have comps in batches, otherwise it is a first built, first served ordeal against individuals on a list. If you can think of anything better, please, do tell.
Conclusion:
I guess that's it. I'm a little bit buzzed on some vodka and green (do they even have flavors?) Monster right now ( ) so I might have forgotten a few things. If you think so, please ask and hopefully I'll have an answer. If not, then it's something else I'll need to look into! We really do want to do this, so any help is greatly appreciated.
Cheers and thanks!
P.S.
What do you think about "Tech The World" as a name? I like the cheeky word association, especially if we go the education and student route.
Too many people I know have such horrible, crappy computers. Really old Dells (like when Dell first started (Pentium 2's and stuff for those that don't know)) that have poor specs even for their time. A lot of people, even in the USA, do not have working computers. Some of these people are even computer savvy, but just too poor.
Goal:
Offer electronic recycling in exchange for the rights to resell equipment. The idea is that these computers will be given as gifts to individuals, centers (women, homeless, Vet Affairs, etc) with minor part purchases.
IE: Keep mobo, GPU, CPU and RAM, but upgrade from 512MB to 1 or 2 GB. The price of these purchases will be offset by the recycling of unusable and unwanted PC parts to Goodwill.
Funding:
I heard on NPR news recently that Goodwill centers are partnering with Dell to offer free electronic recycling. If you donate enough to Goodwill, you can get tax credits. These tax credits we will use in exchange for our own money to buy computer parts such as more RAM and cheap GPUs.
Modus Operandi:
So, that's the idea in a nutshell. To promote and run electronic recycling events, bundle it all up, bring it home, strip it down, build some Franken-comps, recycle the useless crap, get tax credits to cover price of parts, buy some spare parts, give the completed PCs away.
Some Unknown Variables:
1) We will, at first, probably use a free GUI Linux distro. The plan is to make computers that will run Firefox 3, Open Office Suite, and other free software (ZipGenius, etc) effectively. The catch is, we also want these computers to be able to run XP and potentially Vista (or possibly Win7) if the user ever decides to do that. We plan on distributing a manual outlining the basics of the programs and include a list of sites (and include a PDF with inks) to support sites like Major Geeks and so on.
The problem is that I think we should go Linux, especially at first. My friend says Windows XP. My friend was even suggesting an alternate of Win98. I don't like the sounds the licensing fees on that. (unless we could convince the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to give us free licenses
) What do you think? Unrealistic? Bad idea? Suggestions?2) I don't know who I should consult about setting something like this up, and neither does my friend. We both guessed lawyers. None of us has money to spare for lawyers to set things up, and the one lawyer we know is in Family and Domestic Relations Court. Any advice on this? Recommendations for a good place to seek further advice about this? Is there pro bono publico (free) law centers that could help with such a thing?
3) The workforce starting off would be me and one other, maybe a few other people. My friend was suggesting we target low income individuals for priority. I was thinking teachers, students, and centers so we could avoid all the damn paperwork involved with proving low income. I would like to do low income, but I do know it is lot of paperwork and is something I think we should shoot for further down the road. Any personal experience or knowledge about such things?
4) We also need ideas about how to give these away! Any creative advice would be great. We just thought of doing a lottery when we have comps in batches, otherwise it is a first built, first served ordeal against individuals on a list. If you can think of anything better, please, do tell.
Conclusion:
I guess that's it. I'm a little bit buzzed on some vodka and green (do they even have flavors?) Monster right now (
) so I might have forgotten a few things. If you think so, please ask and hopefully I'll have an answer. If not, then it's something else I'll need to look into! We really do want to do this, so any help is greatly appreciated.Cheers and thanks!
P.S.
What do you think about "Tech The World" as a name? I like the cheeky word association, especially if we go the education and student route.
Blog - Bewildered Ronin @ Blogspot | 24/7 streaming NPR Talk & BBC World - RadioIQ
Steam ID - BewilderedRonin
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Bewildered_Ronin on
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I volunteer there on occasion
http://freegeek.org/
This brings up a good point. Instead of starting a new one in your local place, maybe find another similar charity in you state and talk to them and see about opening some sort of 'branch' operation. I'm not sure if this is doable, but if it is, then you could save a lot of the hassle in terms of lawyers and accountants and whatnot.
As far as the technical parts, decide exactly what the purpose of these machines should be. Chances are a linux distro is going to get you what you need in terms of internet access, office products, email. So really think if windows is necessary as it can add significantly to costs of things and possibly a nightmare with license management.
Funding is more complicated than that.
1) If you're an NPO, you're already tax-exempt. Tax credits will be redundant/useless for the organization. Therefore, to get any benefit out of the Goodwill program, you're talking about having individuals take hardware that was donated to your org, re-donate to Goodwill, claim the tax credits as individuals, and turn the money back in to your org. Best-case scenario, that's legally sticky and you'll need to pay some lawyers to protect your butt very well against the IRS. At worst it could be completely illegal. You might be able to bypass half of this issue by creating an official partnership with Dell & Goodwill, whereby there's a legal understanding that the donations are coming in to the partnership - you take what can still be used and GW gets the rest. But that still leaves the question of how the tax credit helps.
2) Even assuming you get the tax credit issue worked out, and it fully covers the expenses of buying hardware to fill the donation gaps, there will need to be more funding. How can you bring in money to pay the people who will be working part-time or full-time for the org? What about transportation and office costs? You could try to run all-volunteer, but really, if you're taking the trouble to form an NPO, you might as well go the rest of the way and have paid staff. Volunteers are great, indispensible even, but they come and go, simply because they don't have to be there. You can get more systems built and help more people if you have at least one person who's excited about the org and paid to be there every business day.