Part II: Receiving Donated Computer Gear¹

Part of the nature of charity work is that there are never enough resources to get the job done. Never enough people, never enough money, and never enough tools. This is not to say that there aren't generous donors out there, but the job is always bigger. There is always more to do. Therefore, even more than businesses, charities need to be able to exploit the power of computers in order to enable the people they do have to get as much done as possible in the time they have available. But on the other hand, what money the charity does get is needed (and still more) in order to do the work, so it's hard to justify putting aside large amounts of money to equip the volunteers with those same computers which could be such a help. (Especially when it seems like the computers need to be replaced every few months in order to keep up with the latest and greatest software.)

One of the possibilities for acquiring computers for the work without breaking the budget is through donation. This has undeniable attractions. First, many people (or companies) upgrade to newer, more powerful computers from time to time. Such people may be quite happy to get a tax-deductible receipt rather than sell their equipment for next to nothing. In the same way, many times when people upgrade their home computers, they are willing to give away the old one. (Note: Revenue Canada rules prohibit either the donor or the recipient from setting the value of a donation made "in kind." You can ask a local used computer dealer to set a fair value for you, or else you might take an average of the closing prices on similar equipment from an auction site.)

In addition, as you can see in Appendix A, there are charities which take donated computers, refurbish them, and then pass them onto other charities. If you cannot find a local donor, whether individual or corporate, check through the list of charities to see if one of them can provide what you need.

A computer you are offered, which may not be capable enough for the office, may be useful in other ways. For instance, churches may be able to use older computers in Sunday School, running games or other lesson-reinforcement software, or producing posters or handouts. Charities working with youth might use older computers to create an "Internet Café" as an attraction. When you have nothing, a computer which the salesman in your computer store sneers at as "obsolete" is still a huge step up from a typewriter. Even "antique" computers with early 32-bit processors, like 386s, 486s, and 680x0 Macintoshes, should be quite capable of handling office tasks for smaller charities, even if they can't run the current version of their respective operating systems or applications. Software may be harder to find (although it's amazing what you can find when you look), but a machine which may be undesirable as a purchase, may make a useful tool as a gift. You may have your goal set on a top-end computer (say an Athlon XP, or that hot new dual-processor G4) and someone offers you a less powerful model of the same type. It may still be a good idea to accept the gift and begin computing. Later you can use a local area network to share resources with the more powerful machine when you can afford it.

Most computer equipment, like electronics in general, will tend to fail in the first 90 days, if it fails at all. Hard drives do fail eventually, but they are easily replaced. The paper movement mechanism on a printer will probably be the first thing to go on a given set of computer equipment. The power supply of monitors can blow prematurely if it is used in a location with "noisy" power lines. In general, anything with moving parts is likely to be the first point of failure, but the electronics themselves can run for decades. Therefore, just because a computer is old does not necessarily make it "worn out."

There are, however, a few dangers to donations of computer hardware and software. First, before accepting any hardware, check to see if it can be useful in your church's computing strategy. For instance, "orphan" microcomputers which run operating systems which are no longer in use, and for which you can no longer get software, may be of little use. Another potential "white elephant" would be a minicomputer with a proprietary operating system, which may have little or no software available for charitable tasks. The cost of custom programming is terribly high. You could end up paying more for your software alone than it would have cost you for hardware and software together in a more accessible computer system.

Second, many companies are reluctant to give the computer gear they have replaced to charities, for fear that they will be asked to "support" the equipment in perpetuity for free. If you want to get your hands on the kind of almost-new equipment that companies are throwing out, you need to be willing to promise that you are taking the equipment "as-is", and will not be going back to the donor for help in making it work, and then you need to keep that promise. To a company, the expense they worry about is not the equipment, which they depreciate on their books anyway, but the time of their IT staff. At today's salaries, a few "short" phone calls can quickly add up to a good chunk of money in pay and benefits for IT staff doing things which bring no benefit to the company. Appendices C and D are designed to help you find the resources you need to get and keep your donated computers working, without placing an extra burden on the donor.

There is one more issue to consider in when considering gifts of software. Computer enthusiasts may offer to "give" your charity copies of their favourite software. Christian charities, of all institutions, should be most sensitive to moral issues like copyright, yet all too many have a moral "blind spot" when it comes to copyright violation (whether it be photocopying sheet music for a church choir, or using a pirated copy of Microsoft Office.) Charities which use pirated software are leaving themselves exposed to stiff fines, and possible confiscation of hard-won hardware. In 2001, there were headlines when Microsoft sued a computer re-use charity in Australia for copyright violation. People were outraged, and saw Microsoft as a corporate Goliath beating up on a charitable David. In the end, Microsoft dropped the suit because of the negative publicity, but legally and morally, they were in the right. People try to justify software piracy on the grounds that "Microsoft doesn't need any more money", or "It's for a good cause", but good ends cannot be brought about by evil means. I think it was Augustine who said, "God's work must be done in God's way." Software companies (quite rightly) refuse to provide manuals or customer support to people who do not have legally registered copies of their software. With modern, complex software packages, you may never fully learn how to utilise the features available without the manuals and customer service help. As well, pirated copies of software are seldom the latest versions, and may contain bugs. (Besides all which, you can find lots of free software in Appendix B. Why pirate software when you can use other software for free, with a clear conscience and no worries about putting your charity at risk?) Unless the donor is providing the software new in its original packaging, make sure that you get the original distribution disks and manuals, and that the donor writes a letter to the software company transferring their software license to the church. Otherwise, do not accept gifts of software.

In spite of the hazards, obtaining even part of your computer system as a gift can take a tremendous strain off a charity's budget. Do not dismiss the possibility out of hand. Check that the gift machine is repairable, that you will be able to secure the software you need, but do not dismiss the idea using used computers out of hand.

Notes:

1. This article is revised from a piece which originally appeared in CAMsoc Update. (Volume 2, Number 8.)

2. There are exceptions to this rule. For instance, for the past few years, video games place such an intense demand upon a computer's video and sound subsystems that the best computer to run this week's hottest game won't come out until next week. But there are some serious tasks which are processor-intensive, such as sound, graphic, or video editing. People doing this kind of work do need the fastest computers they can get. However, in my experience, most workers in Christian organisations spend most of their time using E-mail, word processors, databases, spreadsheets, and accounting programs. None of those applications are particularly processor-intensive, and thus will work perfectly well with processors which are two or three generations behind currently shipping models.

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[Introduction] [Part II: Receiving Donated Computer Gear] [Part III: Donating Computer Gear]
[Appendix A: Organisations] [Appendix B: Software] [Appendix C: Resources] [Appendix D: Bibliography] [Appendix E: Computer Vendors] [Appendix F: Sample Documents] [Appendix G: Media Links]