Donate Your Old Hardware To Help Needy Children

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The Philadelphia Children's Foundation has a new program called Computers in Hand that gives donated computers to needy school children. Do you have old computers, laptops or parts lying around? Why not throw them in a box and send it to send it to these guys? You'll feel better and the donation is tax deductible. ;)

We are in constant need of things like monitors, mice, keyboards, pretty much anything that your average PC enthusiast has laying around collecting dust. We accept any working laptop or non-working desktop with a P4 processor or better, the non-working systems are parceled out for parts or sold to a local scrapyard, any working peripherals, ram, hard drives, etc., and of course monetary donations so we can continue to afford refurbisher XP licenses.

The cause is a very worthy one, it's a registered 501(c)(3) charity so any donations are tax deductible, and the people there are pretty much the best you'll meet. Currently our demand far exceeds our supply, and we've got a waitlist of people trying to get computers for their kids.
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You can deduct an unlimited amount when you give donations like this; it basically factors against your income. In terms of the IRS, if you donate $500, you treat it as though you made $500 less that year. It can save you a bit on your taxes if you have stuff to donate that's just sitting around, and if you're right on the edge of your tax bracket it can bump you down a level and wind up saving quite a bit.

BTW, the IRS really has no idea what computers and their parts are worth, so there's a fair bit of leeway in declaring what donations are worth provided you say it's worth some amount less than it was worth new.

If anyone has anything to donate, make sure to ask for a receipt for anything you intend to write off. A few small cash or item donations are fine, but if you're writing off more than $250 you should have receipts.
 
Well yeah, don't go crazy.

As I told Steve & Kyle, any donations of computers we get we request thank-you cards from the kids involved, so if you include your address there's a good old warm fuzzy, and the [H] will also get a copy of the letter if they wanna put it up on the site.

I've only been involved with Computers in Hand for a few months now, and it's already pretty much the best thing I've done with myself except for my wife and son.

Think about it; we take stuff you don't want and turn it into something that might mean the difference between a kid staying in school or flunking out. Pretty much a universal good thing happening there.
 
Anything like this in Texas? I have an attic full of old CRTs and computers, and I would really like to see someone benefit from them.
 
In Canada there is a an organization called reBOOT Canada that takes donations of old computer equipment, refurbishes them using volunteers, then makes it available to charities and non-profits across Canada. www.rebootcanada.ca for more info.

NB: I work for reBOOT as the senior tech in the head office in Toronto.
 
Yeah there are quite a few around the country, but a lot of us are running on pretty much zero budget so getting the word out and getting donations can be a lot of legwork. I'd dearly love to see something happen more nationwide, but that'd require a bigger budget and more volunteers than we have available.

My lovely wife has been trying her hand at grant writing, trying to secure us some funding and support, but that's pretty much a crap shoot. If anyone knows of grants that might apply to us, that'd be excellent. (The Gates Foundation only donates to educational stuff in the Pacific Northwest or the third world, Cisco does some good stuff which we're applying for, and there's a few government grants we might qualify for.)
 
Melon said:
Who cares? It's not about notoriety, there can never be too many charities like this. :rolleyes:
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My point was that there are tons of charities that do this, not just the one being singled-out in this post, many of which may very well exist in your very own community. Perhaps I should have been that more clear.
 
Maybe we should compile a list of similar charities so people can see what is available in their area.
 
DW-UK said:
http://rubbishgifts.com/images/products/detail/Screenshot20110330at16.55.19.png

I know a guy who wants to donate 2 dozen of these.:eek:
I am not sure where you supposed to plug it.:confused:
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fu bro no way.

and im fit and aesthetic** enough to stuff * of that on you bro

* SQL meaning ALL
**might as well look good while doing it
3. im all fucking drunk.
 
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jpm100 said:
This thread does not have NSFW in the title.

Remove that crap.
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Dr_Evil.jpg
 
Well, I hate to bring the thread back on topic, but it really would be great to get a list of charities that take that kind of stuff. I have a shit ton of computers I wouldn't mind donating, but I really want to find a legit charity that can actually use it.
 
If you know anyone in the IT field, particularly data destruction, they'd be the ones to ask. Small computer boutiques also find themselves in possession of a bunch of old computers that the owners don't want to pay to fix, so a lot of them have relationships with charities like this.
 
Hmm and I just junked a lot of old hardware a month or two ago that no one had any use for... it's now resting in a landfill somewhere for generations to come! Such a shame.
 
I am interested in this because I have about 50 sticks of DDR2 512mb RAM sticks I have no use for. But, I got it all from where I work so I have no documentation on any of it. How would I go about writing any of it off?
 
For those who are looking for local ways to do something like this I would suggest using one or both of these sites.

http://www.serve.gov/

http://www.volunteermatch.org/


You can go through the listing looking for local charity organizations (just search in your local area) who need computers and computer hardware. Also some need some time from those with computer knowledge to help teach others. Consider giving up a couple of hours a week or month as well as any "old" hardware you have to help others who need it. :)
 
Finally I can offload my 50 486DX computers in my basement. Hope they get good use out of them.
 
I already donate. Hand-me-downs go to my parents and my sister's family who are not gamers. Spare systems beyond that I donate to my church for the academy.
 
I have several spare P4 systems in the closet that I would love to donate, but holy crap they are heavy (old dells) and would cost a mint to ship across country. Maybe I will try to find somewhere local that could use them.
 
nephilim said:
You can deduct an unlimited amount when you give donations like this; it basically factors against your income. In terms of the IRS, if you donate $500, you treat it as though you made $500 less that year. It can save you a bit on your taxes if you have stuff to donate that's just sitting around, and if you're right on the edge of your tax bracket it can bump you down a level and wind up saving quite a bit
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Everything here is true, except dropping a bracket won't show you a significant decline. The way the marginal tax system works is you pay for what you make. For example if an individual made $35000 you pay 10% on the first 8,500, 15% on 8500-34500 + the $850, etc. Deductions reduce your taxable income and are directly related to the bracket that money is in. So if you go down a bracket it's still only a deduction for the amount in each bracket.
 
nephilim said:
...if you're right on the edge of your tax bracket it can bump you down a level and wind up saving quite a bit.
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I used to think that this was the case, then I learned that this isn't how taxes work.

you only pay taxes at on the amount that is each bracket. Here's the breakdown of how it works for a single person with no dependants:

10% $0 to $8,700
15% $8,700 to $35,350
25% $35,350 to $85,650
28% $85,650 to $178,650
(If you make more than that, you already know all the details :)

So let's say you make $8,701 a year (yeah, life sucks). You only pay 15% tax on $1, and 10% tax on $8,700, meaning your actual tax rate is... 10.000574646592345707389955177566%, or $870.15

With all that said, I think this is a great thing that they're doing, I'm going to go home tonight and see what all I can round up.
 
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