Starting A Non-Profit

Hi everyone. Glad i found this site :D.

We have two companies right now, one is our main company and is a computer repair and sales (which boast a whopping 25 employees :D ) and a side company which deals with used computers and sales. What my boss wanted to do is start a company that can in a sense work between both of the companies, and come up with electronics and computers to donate to our local community and 'less fortunate'. We get ALOT of computers that are a bit older, and not something we would desire to sell, but for free someone that has never had would love to have. We get on average around 20-40 computer systems per week PIII or less, which we would like to refurbish and give away. We dont want to invest alot of money in these but we do have some spare parts laying around we could use that wouldnt cost, and fix the computers up.

What would your suggestions be on getting this started? Would we need all the information like 501for our organization? Would you guys go for a windows operating system (can be costly though) or the free Linux operating system? And should we charge a small administrative fee for these (this is not nessary, since if we did it would be only a delivery fee or something if we gave it to the disable etc)

Thanks.

Hi,

Great to have you here. You will find a lot of information on computer refurbishing programs. We also get a lot of requests for donated computers, so there is certainly a need for what you want to do.

I don't think you need to be a 501(c) 3 to do this, but you will need to investigate that more thoroughly. A good place to start learning is on teh TechSoup Refurbished Computer Initiative (RCI) Program page. There are lots of links there that should be a good start. There is some info there about becoming a refurbished computer donor.

If you find that you still have questions that you don't get answered in that way, let us know.

Best wishes,

Sasha

clc9052:

What would a company need to qualify as to get non-profit donated operating systems?

I believe you would need to have a 501(c)3 tax designation for programs that serve nonprofits. . However, I think there may be some software available through the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher program that you don't need that for.

See if the info on that link helps you, and if you have more questions feel free to let me know and I'll see if I can find an answer!

Sasha

Thank you Sasha for your help and pointing us in the correct direction! I owe you one!

My pleasure. Sounds like you are going to make great use of the info you get  here, and will be 'paying forward' any help you receive. Let us know how it goes.

Best wishes,

Sasha

clc9052,

Hope you don't mind my using your first name... If all you want to do is donate computers, rather than also receiving equipment donations or seeking grants, there's no need to create a nonprofit program. We administer something called the Community Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (Community MAR) Program in San Francisco. Community MAR supplies MS Windows 2000, Windows XP, and MS Office 2003 licensing for computers that go to schools, nonprofits, and low-income families anywhere in the world (although Office can’t go to schools). All Community MAR licensing is $5 per copy. Companies like yours are eligible for the program.

Find the Community MAR FAQ at: http://www.techsoup.org/mar/marFaq.aspx. It’s a pretty detailed description of how the program works. If you can spend 10 minutes looking at it, you’ll probably get a very good sense of the program.

Apply to Community MAR at: http://www.techsoup.org/mar. Click on 'Become a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher' on the left hand side of the page. If you have any questions about the program, the best person to contact is our Community MAR administrator, Stephen Brown at 415-633-9350 or communitymar@techsoup.org. It takes 20 minutes or so to fill out the online application, and then takes 7 to 10 days to go thru the qualification process.

-jim