IT & Not for Profits

[Mercutio]

A couple of weeks ago I did a quick and dirty "data recovery" job for the local women's shelter.

No charge; it was only about 5 minutes of work restoring the data off a ZIP disk that someone accidently formatted. After I fixed the disk, I spent 10 minutes showing the lady who brought me the disk how to use a CD-R drive to store files. Safer than ZIP and no more stupid Iomega products. A good deal all around.

I've helped them out over the phone a couple more times since, but the upshot of all this is that the shelter's director has asked if I'd like to step in as a technology coordinator.

They have no money. They have donated PCs of Windows 98-appropriate vintage. They have no network, no shared printers. Only one CD-RW drive.

How would I get money for their computers? I'd have to write grant proposals.

I've written informal grants, but these are formal sorts of things to government agencies, national-level charities and benevolent foundations of various sorts. I'm thinking that's a slightly different ball game.

Also, I have no idea what the rules are for donated hardware (Microsoft says donated PCs have to come with a real Windows license... even if they didn't have Windows to begin with) or software licensing for not-for-profits.

Does anyone have any experience or deal with any of that sort of thing?

 

[mubs]

I hope you're doing this on the side (not quitting your day job and your side-business).

I do remember reading a few years back that MS had gotten a sudden attack of magnanimity and had offered to sell Windows at cut-rates directly to non-profits / charities. You may want to look into that.

There's probably templates available somewhere on the net that will help you write proper requests for grants.

 

[ddrueding]

I did some of this, but wasn't part of the grant process. The shelter had coordinated with some non-profit firm who was submitting federal grants for them. They specalised in grants and purchasing; I would tell them approx. what I needed, and they would set up non-profit business acounts, apply for grants, and use the cash to make the purchases. Otherwise I suspect there is a whole lot of red tape.

 

[sechs]

If he's not doing this on the side, he'd have no income to write it off against!

Do they really need a lot of work? Grants are really only necessary for chunks of money. Little things can often be begged/borrowed/stolen far more easily.

The key to this is, of course, networking. Asking someone who could take a write off and has what you need usually works.

 

[mubs]

If he's not doing this on the side, he'd have no income to write it off against!

Merc's a strange guy with a unique value system. He marches to the beat of a different drummer. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of those left in a world filled with lemmings.

 

[sechs]

Ahh, but he must still pay for porn.

 

[Tea]

Ahh, but he must still pay for porn.

Cheaper than all thse girlfriendsssssssssssssssssssses like a certain person who visits here that I had better not name.

(Hint: his initials are "David During".)

 

[Mercutio]

This would be in addition to other employment opportunities. Volunteering.

There is a need for newer equipment. I'm not talking about the BS upgrade cycle that most businesses are in, but the honest reality of dealing with nothing but seven or eight year old PCs. They don't have internet access or a network. From what I've been told, most of their PCs don't even have USB ports.

$20,000 or so would go a long way to fixing those kinds of problems. Hence, grants.

I guess no one has dealt with the nonprofit world, though. Too bad, 'cause I have not even the foggiest idea where to go from here.

WRT my porno consumption: I pay about $40 in a typical month to access various depths of filth. I could drop that in a heartbeat; I'd estimate the amount of stuff I have already, between DVDs, CDs and online storage to something on the order of 20TB (the bulk of it is 15 250 disc binders, all full of DVDs), which is probably a bit more than I need.

 

[sechs]

I've never worked with an organization that needed money to take care of this kind of thing.

Are there no individuals or companies around who might be willing to donate what you need?

 

[Adcadet]

Does the shelter already have somebody who writes grants for other things? If so, this person would be tremendously helpful. Otherwise, I'm sure you could learn how to do it with enough time and effort.

 

[Mercutio]

14 Computers.
Zero network.

The fastest PC is an HP Vomit Box, a Celeron 2.8GHz with 256MB RAM.
The second-fastest is a Compaq P4/1300 with 128MB. I have thrown away better PCs than the second best system they have.
There are six PCs of Pentium-class, four of them P54Cs (non-MMX). Staggeringly, two of those Pentium machines have Windows XP on them (and take 22 minutes apiece to boot).

Two machines have dialup capabilities. They use AOL.

There are 12 printers, 10 of which are inkjets. Two of them are Deskjet 520s, which are 12 or 13 years old. Three of their printers can't be used; they don't have enough computers with both Windows2000/XP and USB ports on them.

I realize that in an organization like that, computers aren't anything like a priority in the way that many other things must be. Still, the reality of seeing people trying to use those machines (especially when someone has loaded XP and NAV2006 on them) is extremely depressing.

 

[Tannin]

You certainly have the job in front of you. A huge task!

 

[paugie]

You certainly have the job in front of you. A huge task!

fully concur.
but wait, how hard is it to chuck half of the equipment into the dumpster? hah just kidding. In our country, we have a lot of the same thing going on.

old old printers with clogged nozzles. old slot 1 machines just begging to be upgraded/trashed.

huh, just realized I'm talking about my own office.

 

[Tannin]

At my place, the dumpster is full, so I just have to keep using the old stuff!

 

[ddrueding]

Sounds like a network is in dire need. The take one of the decent machines with USB ports and make it a part time/full time server, put all the printers off it and pool them (not to handle load, just in case they break - unplug the offending printer and try again). Hit up the local ISP for a comp'ed DSL broadband connection, and hit up the local comp shop for a network switch. See if the local telephony company will do the wiring for free. Get a book of those non-profit "donation" receipts and let these people know you aren't afarid to use it at *whatever* rate they may choose to bill at.