Question

Topic: Strategy

Computer Donation

Posted by aaroncagen on 11/10/2008 at 2:32 PM ET 35 Points
We're an IT outsourcing company, and I’ve been thinking about partnering with a charity for computer donation. We could donate the servers/computers that our clients won’t need once they deploy to our solution (plus anyone else who’d like to donate). Your thoughts?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Frank Hurtte on 11/10/2008 at 2:35 PM Member
    Its a great idea, especially if you can line up publicity and/or tax credits.
  • Posted on 11/10/2008 at 3:08 PM Accepted
    Dear Aaron,

    If you wish to get more brand awareness through PR, I'd suggest you to collaborate with different charities, or directly with charitable projects.

    Anyway, always make sure you let the media and your clients know about it, possibly by adding a newsworthy point to your story.

    Best of luck,
    Davide
  • Posted on 11/10/2008 at 3:09 PM Member
    Dear Aaron,

    If you wish to get more brand awareness through PR, I'd suggest you to collaborate with different charities, or directly with charitable projects.

    Anyway, always make sure you let the media and your clients know about it, possibly by adding a newsworthy point to your story.

    Best of luck,
    Davide
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 11/10/2008 at 5:04 PM Accepted
    Good idea. Be careful that your clients' data is protected by doing more than simply erasing their hard disks.
  • Posted by darcy.moen on 11/10/2008 at 6:10 PM Accepted
    Most caritable organizations won't have need for servers. Desktops and other software, yes, but not servers. You'd likely do better selling the servers on eBay and donating the money to the charity because we've noticed that the other resource EVERY charity has need of: more money.

    Then again, you could host charitable web sites on the servers, that might be a help. Or donate the servers to a web hosting company on the terms that they will host charity web sites for no, low or very reduced costs.

    And if worst comes to worst, send those old serves up to me. I'll find a way to recycle them (and make sure they are not illegally exported as ewaste).

    Darcy Moen
    dub dub dub secondtimeofficeequipment dot com
  • Posted by aaroncagen on 11/10/2008 at 6:24 PM Author
    Everyone,
    Thanks for your well-wishes. Has anyone approached a charity before? Anything I should look out for?

    Jay Hamilton-Roth,
    I'm sure I'd have to get the approval of our technicians. But if something does fall through the cracks, is there anything that comes to mind that I should look out for?

    Thanks again.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 11/11/2008 at 8:45 AM Member
    Take a look at how a local 501(C)3 advertises it: https://www.mcrc.org/
  • Posted by aaroncagen on 11/11/2008 at 2:22 PM Author
    Thanks. In particular I was curious about licenses for operating systems, etc. Do you have any experience with this?

    Also, are there any legal ramifications I should be aware of?

    Thanks
  • Posted by Mikee on 11/12/2008 at 12:09 AM Accepted
    Our church does a computer donation project with the local Habitat for Humanity. Often times these new/first time homeowners are in the need of a computer.

    I do not know what they do about OS licenses.

    Mike
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