• Donated Computers for Nonprofits
• Hosting Online Events
• Structuring A Successful Volunteer Project

Donated Computers for Nonprofits:

Donated and refurbished computers can be a boon to cash-strapped nonprofits, schools, and technology programs that serve low-income communities. Pentium-level computers are now over five years old, and millions of them are being disposed of. But organizations should still be cautious about accepting just any computer that is offered to them.

Direct donations from individuals or companies can be a tempting option, but organizations should be wary. If you aren't absolutely sure the computers will run your necessary software -- and that the machines are in good working order -- consider referring your would-be donors to computer refurbishers or recyclers, which have the expertise to fix many machines or harvest their working parts. Otherwise, you might be stuck with computers you can't use and you'll need to recycle, which can cost time and money.

Your best bet for acquiring recycled computers is a computer refurbisher. The number of nonprofit computer refurbishers has grown quickly. Consider carefully what kind of a computer you need before you go. You may think an older computer will fulfill your needs, but consider exactly what programs (and what versions of these programs) you need to run. Check the minimum system requirements first, and don't accept any computers that don't meet or exceed these requirements.

Even if you find an older computer acceptable, you might have a difficult time finding the software that will run on it. Software makers do not typically sell older versions of their software. In fact, older software can be near-impossible to find. Be sure you can find the software you'll need before accepting an older computer. Remember that older computers need older software; new software just won't work.

Many refurbishers will charge for their machines. They may spend $100 upgrading an older PC so that it can run available software, and they need to recoup their costs. Still, a working machine that runs current software is a valuable thing. Many nonprofits that balk at paying for older equipment won't hesitate to spend hundreds of hours trying to find free donated computers. Staff time is valuable, and even nonprofits that find donated computers often discover later that they need to spend money to upgrade them. You may be able to find a 150 MHz computer for free, but a 350 MHz computer in good working order that you get for a nominal cost may be more useful to you, and it will be useful for longer.

Whenever possible, ask refurbishers for a return policy or guarantee. Although refurbished machines are usually tested, it is possible that they will fail once you get them back to your workplace. Be sure you can return or exchange your machine for one that works.

These tips will help you determine when to accept a direct donation, and when to direct donations to a recycler or refurbisher.

1. Before you consider accepting a donation, understand what kind of computer you need. It's hard to turn down a free computer. However, it can only be of use to your organization if it fits into your computer system or network and can run the programs or applications you need it to run. CompuMentor has found that it is better to place more recent computers in offices (Pentium 300s and above), while it's often okay to have older computers in training labs. CompuMentor also recommends that you don't accept equipment unless you're sure it's in good working order (unless you are certain you can repair it), or you want to use it in a training program geared towards fixing computers.
   
2. If you accept direct donations, expect upgrade costs. That older computer may work fine, but you might need to upgrade its memory (RAM) or hard drive in order to operate your organization's software. And while a more recent Pentium II may be working, it might be missing some components that are necessary to you, such as a networking card. Don't assume that a "free" computer will really be free once you get it working the way you need it to.
   
3. If you are unsure if a donated computer is useful to you, refer donors to a refurbisher or recycler. Refurbishers usually handle newer equipment that they fix up for re-use. Recyclers accept older equipment and take out useful parts and break down the rest for materials recovery. If you can't accept a computer equipment donation, provide people with alternatives to properly dispose of it.
   
4. Whenever possible, seek donations from a reputable refurbisher. Rather than soliciting or accepting donations directly from individuals or businesses, it is often wise to apply to refurbishers for older equipment. This gives you a better chance of getting good equipment in working order, and it can save you time. Share The Technology's online database matches donors with recipients by locale. The National Safety Council has state-by-state listings. Find other listings of refurbishers on TechSoup.
   
5. If you accept a donation, try to get the software that goes with the donated computer. A four-year-old computer runs best with four-year-old software. It often runs much slower on new software, or it won't run at all. If the computer came with Windows 98, make sure that you get the media (the CD or disks), and the manual that usually contains the Certificate of Authenticity. But even a working computer with a working operating system is no good to you if you don't have software that will run on it. Find out what software you'll need to run, and check the minimum system requirements to be sure donated computers can run it. If the machine can't run current software, it may be impossible to find the older versions you'll need.
   
6. Try to get the original media and documentation that came with the PC when it was purchased. This may include the operating system proof of license, which will help ensure the legal transfer of the operating system. Original software disks also usually have device drivers necessary to make the computer run properly and the operating and technical manuals needed for fixing the machine.
   
7. Remember the accessories. Don't forget about the keyboard, monitor, mouse, printer, modem, or any other accessories that you'll need for the donated PC. Ask for any packaged software that donors might be willing to part with. An office suite such as MS Office or Lotus SmartSuite is the most useful software to have.
   
8. If you accept a donated computer, and your organization is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit, you can offer a tax receipt. The IRS doesn't permit nonprofits to provide a valuation of the donated equipment. You can describe the donation and that it helps your organization, but not assign a dollar value to it.
   
9. Delete personal information. If the donor did not do this ahead of time, delete Internet cookies, e-mail, personal applications, temporary Internet files, etc.
   
   Copyright Tech Soup, 2003
   Used with Permission

• Donated Computers for Nonprofits
• Hosting Online Events
• Structuring A Successful Volunteer Project
• Back To Top

Hosting Online Events

So you have a message board on your organization's site, but are you doing anything to promote it? A message board can be a wonderful tool for building relationships and increasing your organization's credibility. But your boards will likely be a pretty lonely place if you don't put some effort into proper planning and marketing. (For more about planning and marketing, see "Using Message Boards to Build Community" on TechSoup.)
Hosting online events can be a great way to get new people involved in your community, remind past users why they should come back, and encourage those already participating often.

Online events are much like other events: you'll need an over-arching topic; "speakers," experts in the topic who host the discussions; smaller sub-topics for hosts to discuss; and marketing to get the word out and generate interest. An online event lasts for a specific amount of time, and it takes place in a specific place -- a page on your message boards.

Online events give your users a chance to interact with an expert in a specific topic area. They also provide you, the community manager, with a reason to remind them that you are around. They are useful for renewing interest in your community by reminding occasional visitors that the community exists and giving them a reason to return. They can also be a great way to pull in new users who might specialize in some aspect of your event topic.

Events can also facilitate collaboration with other organizations as they provide a platform for networking and sharing ideas. You can ask members of other organizations to serve as hosts, generating publicity for your boards and for their work. And you can involve members of other groups with whom you've never before communicated.

Online events take careful planning, and hosting regular events will make your users come to expect announcements of future events. These events can be a fun way to renew interest in your community, partner with other organizations, and create a buzz on an ongoing basis. They also provide your hosts with an additional opportunity to shine, allowing them to take the stage and lead a conversation for a week.

At TechSoup, we've found that the entire event planning process takes approximately four weeks. It can be broken down into three sections: planning, marketing and promotion, and host communication and support.

The Online Events worksheet breaks down these tasks into a checklist you can use as you work on your event.

The planning phase should take place one month before the event is scheduled to occur. This phase includes identifying a topic, finding a host (preferably one with numerous contacts to help promote the event), reviewing roles and responsibilities with the host, and researching organizations that work within the topic area to find additional participants for the event.

Planning and scheduling online events is an ongoing task. Keep the business cards of people you meet at conferences and events, and keep them in mind for future event hosting. Remember, most people welcome the opportunity to talk about their organization's mission, so you will be doing them a favor as well.

It helps to have a few events in mind for future months, in case things need to get switched around at the last moment. Here at TechSoup, we generally schedule monthly events, skipping a few months for holidays. Some events we have held here include: Spammers and Scammers, e-Riding, Web Site Building, Wireless Internet Access, and Digital Storytelling. A successful topic tends to be one that is broad enough to reach a wide audience and timely enough to create a buzz.

Online events can only be successful if they are properly promoted. The marketing phase involves the host and the event producer or community owner. Together, they pick the event sub-topics are picked (usually picking one for each day works well for week-long events) and craft the e-mail announcement for the event promotion. The announcement should include the topic and sub-topics, and it should identify the host. By creating a text-only announcement with links and no attachements, you'll ensure that it is accessible to users with different browsers, e-mail clients, and connection speeds. After everyone has agreed on the announcement, the hosts and community owner should compare their recipient lists to avoid sending multiple announcements to the same contacts. They should also decide who will post the announcement to various listservs, and identify the listservs. If you won't be using your standard announcement for everything, you should still agree on a consistent message regarding the topic of your event and what will be discussed.

Producing an online event gives you a legitimate reason to promote your community to various listservs, as you'll have a topical focus and a specific reason to ask people to visit. Even when your community is more established, you will need to remind your users that you are around and open for business.

While it is easy for the average user to forget that your message board exists, advertising your online community just for its own sake is considered tacky. You can use this to your advantage. Most users find it difficult to remember to participate regularly in an online community, but the time-limited nature of a week-long event creates a sense of urgency. If users know that they can only have access to a certain expert for a week, they will be more inclined to participate, especially if you provide a link directly to the discussion in your announcement.

In addition to the tasks outlined in the Online Events worksheet, here are some other simple steps you should follow to market your online event:

• Two days before the event, send a personal message to your short list of contacts to give them advance notice of your event and tell them you will remind them again.
• On the first day of the event, send that reminder to them, and ask them to forward it to their friends and colleagues.
• On that same morning, send the announcement to as many listservs as possible. Ask other members of your organization to send notices to their lists. It is important that you already have a credible presence on these listservs so you are not perceived to be a spammer. This is why involving others from your organization can be helpful; nobody can maintain a credible presence on every relevant list.
• Advertise your event all over your site, in your newsletter (if you have one), and on your message board in the form of (tasteful) banner ads and spotlights. Allowing the Stars to Shine

In the course of running a message board, you'll find that some users make an extra effort to participate and keep the community alive. It's important to encourage them so that they continue to act as star members. Let them know you acknowledge and appreciate their work.

While recognizing your star members through special titles or by highlighting their profiles is helpful, you'll find no better way to engage them than asking them to use their skills to host an online event. When your hosts are engaged and challenged, they will take the event -- and the community as a whole -- more seriously and the event will be more successful. This also means that the hosts will expect you to communicate their roles and responsibilities effectively.

Host communication and support involves setting realistic expectations for your hosts. You must inform them of the level of commitment that you expect from them. This includes the number of times you expect them to check in with the event, the number of posts you expect each day, any summaries of discussions you want them to write as a mid-week check-in, and whether you expect them to help procure other experts to assist in the event discussion. The more commitment you require and obtain from your host, the more successful an event will be.

A successful event plan requires an initial e-mail invitation to host, a follow-up e-mail to confirm, a meeting in which both parties agree on roles and responsibilities, a merging of contacts to prevent overlap, and a pre-approved announcement with the event agenda.

Finally, I find that it helps both parties involved to host a wrap-up session after the event where everyone discusses the lessons learned in the course of the event and reviews the participation statistics.

It is often difficult to measure the success of an event, as the definition of success can subjective. The success rate of an event can be determined by the sheer number of posts, although we at TechSoup tend to judge by a few different criteria. The level of the host's involvement and the variety of participants is also a way to judge a successful event. It is also a sign of success if your event yields new active participants and offers to host other events. If you take the time to adequately prepare and promote your event, and to communicate with your hosts, you will have a successful online event that can lead to a successful community.

Find more information about nurturing online communities on TechSoup and around the Web:

TechSoup's list of nonprofit technology online communities
TechSoup's article on options for online discussions
TechSoup's article, "Virtual Community Building for Nonprofit Organizations"
Examples of successful Virtual Communities:
WebJunction
The TechSoup Community (our message board)
Online Moderator Guidelines and Community-Building Tips
Companion site to Amy Jo Kim's book, Community Building on the Web
Brainstorms
Howard Rheingold's invitation-only community, Brainstorms, is very useful. The Life Online forum deals specifically with issues that pertain to managing an online community. You will need to write Howard a note telling him why you want to join the community. (Tell him Susan from TechSoup sent you.)

Author: Susan Tenby
Source: TechSoup
Copyright 2001-2003, CompuMentor. All Rights Reserved. TechSoup.org is a registered service of CompuMentor

• Donated Computers for Nonprofits
• Hosting Online Events
• Structuring A Successful Volunteer Project
• Back To Top

Structuring A Successful Volunteer Project

Getting the most from your technical volunteer

Here are some guidelines to developing successful technical volunteer projects:

Commitment: The volunteer will take cues from you and the organization about how committed you are to the project, and how important the project is to your organization. If the organization is not 100% behind the project, then the volunteer won't feel inspired to be either.

Sustainability: The most important aspect in the success of mentoring projects is the commitment of the nonprofit to becoming self-sufficient. Nonprofits shouldn't rely on volunteers to be available on a long-term basis for on-call troubleshooting. The volunteer will not be around forever, and the reason you are asking a technical volunteer to help you out is because s/he has more knowledge than you about the particular issue. Take the opportunity to learn from the volunteer, so that you are incorporating a level of sustainability into the project.

Flexibility: Volunteers have limited time, especially during school or business hours. The best projects are ones that have flexible time-schedules. Delays are sometimes unavoidable; but also be aware if the volunteer is losing interest, because the early these issues are addressed, the sooner you can get back on track.

Workplan: The core of your volunteer project is a work plan that you and your volunteer agree on. The work plan is similar to the contract you would sign with a consultant, just shorter and more informal. Even if you are one of the lucky organizations with an ongoing relationship with a volunteer, you will still find it useful to create work plans for specific projects. A work plan will help you reach a shared understanding of the volunteer's work. It will also help you make sure you aren't placing too many demands on him/her or requesting conflicting timelines. The essential elements of a work plan are:

• A list of specific tasks to be accomplished. What will it take to finish the project? Listing out the tasks will clarify expectations for the volunteer and also for yourself.
• A plan for training and sustainability of the project. Training and sustainability should be part of any project for the volunteer's work to have a lasting effect. For example, if your volunteer is configuring a network, make sure that training staff on how to make changes to the network is a part of the work plan. Similarly, if your volunteer is installing new database software, make sure that training on how to use the software is part of the plan.
• A timeline. How long does the volunteer have to finish the project? In CompuMentor's experience, it is best to limit the project to approximately three months, since volunteers' schedules can be variable. Include the weekly schedule for work on the project. What hours are both the staff contact and the volunteer available?
  
  Author: TechSoup, copyright 2003_Used with permission

• Donated Computers for Nonprofits
• Hosting Online Events
• Structuring A Successful Volunteer Project
• Back To Top