Hi everyone, I've been in talks with several people about a potentially very big, exciting charity project that would involve putting used Macs into the hands of underprivileged people, both here in Canada and abroad in 3rd World countries. There's already been a pilot project, that went really well.

I'm REALLY excited about this on how both ehMac that community and myself personally can get involved.

We're just in preliminary stages of talking / planning this all, and some bright, like-minded individuals are getting together to discuss further plans. I'll have more details and will share successes of the pilot project soon, but for now, I wanted to gauge interest on one particular area...

A lot of us upgrade our Macs after 2-4 years of use. I'm wondering, what would it take for ehMacians to donate their used Mac to a very good cause? (Assuming once you had all the details, you agreed it was a good cause)

Please fill out the attached Poll with the ideas that most resonate with you.

Please post any comments, ideas or questions below!

This may not be useful data. but any Mac I've owned has been in heavy use 2 to 4 years after purchase. The next purchase is financed through a sale of older equipment that is not going to circulate to other family members. At this point, the only Apple equipment I would have available to donate would be in G4 territory--useless to most charities. It's only still here because it was in use up to a year ago.

I was looking at doing something similar before I had moved last June on Vancouver Island, I was looking at getting all computers for underprivileged kids and installing edubuntu and giving the computers away.

I chose #3. About 95% of the stuff I get rid of goes to organizations that come to the house.

This may not be useful data. but any Mac I've owned has been in heavy use 2 to 4 years after purchase. The next purchase is financed through a sale of older equipment that is not going to circulate to other family members. At this point, the only Apple equipment I would have available to donate would be in G4 territory--useless to most charities. It's only still here because it was in use up to a year ago.

This usually has been the case for myself and I'm guessing for quite a number of people as well. Hoping if ehMacians who are in this boat, and see the project as a good one, will perhaps still donate a few dollars to it.

I'm wondering if some good incentives were offered, like a tax receipt for the full real current value of the equipment (Giving I believe about 40% of the value through tax savings) or any of the other things mentioned, how much interest there would be to donate 2-4 year old Macs. Or at least... which of the ones mentioned would provide the most incentive.

It would be great if this could happen, and of course that it worked well :)

In my experience people (and most especially corporations) aren't looking for an incentive. People are more interested in the convience. Macs are becoming e-waste too unfortunetly. I have worked with some organizations locally and when their programs don't make it easy for people to donate then they don't.

I recently got offered an entire office's worth of G4 Lampside imacs (50+) and I had to refuse them. The cost to move them and store them was prohibitave. I did take 4 though.

Your concern about scrubbing data is a concern though organizations who do recycle care about. Heck the government pays dedicated "recyclers" to collect their machines and scrub them. All in the name of convience.

Anyways, I would be interested in contributing. Time, promotion of the program, whatever I can.

Personally, since it would be too costly to ship Macs from NL, I personally just clean up the hard drive and donate them, along with my education software, to local schools and pre-schools. I have my Apple IIgs and loads of educational software, donated to a local elementary school, an old Apple IIe which was given to me (although I had one and will NOT part with that), which I gave to a local pre-school along with some early childhood educational software, and my MacLC II to a local immigrant group, along with my printer. All are still in use, which makes me glad.

Most of my old equipment makes its way down the family tree and amongst friends in need. What doesn't go there is given to local charities or at least charitables located locally where i also donate my time to support those machines and their users. After that there is pretty much nothing left. Personally I prefer to donate locally or in my 'circle' where I can see the results and get a tangible feel for what I am doing.

Same here. I always donate my old Macs to people I know or more often want to convert from troublesome PCs. It's a good idea for those who can use it, but it doesn't fit my situation at all. I prefer to keep my local programs going.

Most of my old equipment makes its way down the family tree and amongst friends in need. What doesn't go there is given to local charities or at least charitables located locally where i also donate my time to support those machines and their users. After that there is pretty much nothing left. Personally I prefer to donate locally or in my 'circle' where I can see the results and get a tangible feel for what I am doing.

Same here. I always donate my old Macs to people I know or more often want to convert from troublesome PCs. It's a good idea for those who can use it, but it doesn't fit my situation at all. I prefer to keep my local programs going.

Thanks, that's great feedback. I'll put that mentally in the category of "Supporting local programs"

Makes me think of an idea of finding ehMacians to help facilitate local programs as well, in situations if there isn't a program already established, or maybe helping bring attention to reputable local program already established.

#1 and # 2 will never happen so I voted for #3. By this I mean the government accepting the donation of a used computer as a tax write off.


I don't have anything right now in terms of a "computer" worth donating but I have a couple of used peripheral devices that I would happily give away if someone were to come by and pick them up.

Thanks, that's great feedback. I'll put that mentally in the category of "Supporting local programs"

Makes me think of an idea of finding ehMacians to help facilitate local programs as well, in situations if there isn't a program already established, or maybe helping bring attention to reputable local program already established.

Good luck with your program and I'm sure there are those for whom it will work. I just wanted to go on record as supportive, but in my own ugly way. :D

I voted for #3 but I do tend to donate my machines to either family/friends that are in need or to local services that can use them. I used to volunteer doing linux installs on old used equipment to go out to school (but they don't seem to run that program ay longer). It would be great to have the older/used equipment going to help local causes.

Good luck with your program and I'm sure there are those for whom it will work. I just wanted to go on record as supportive, but in my own ugly way. :D

I didn't think there was anything ugly about your response at all. :)

I'd like to pick more than one option, but can't.

In any case:

- If I still got some payment for my used Mac (Say, 50% of "street value")
- Worry free disposal: If the Mac was picked up at my home or work

No trouble for me and I get some $$ out of it? Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Mind you, all I have is an iBook G4.

Whenever I get a new Mac, the equipment it replaces 'trickles down' through a number of other levels, before finally becoming redundant. So while I do tend to get myself a new iMac every 2 years, what I would have available to donate is going to be much more than 2 years old.

My newest gear goes to my home. Then what I have at home goes to my office. What I have at my office might go to someone else at work, or a family member, or friend. And finally, what winds up being available to donate, is 4, 6, or more years old. Like Macfury said, that's G4 territory - and that's what I have that could be on offer. A G4 Mac Mini right now, and maybe in a few months, a G4 iMac.

Still functional, maybe still useful if you want to run an older Mac OS on them. I honestly don't know if that's the sort of thing that would be useful in the 3rd world or to local charities.

On the other hand, I'm not worried about tax receipts, I don't want to try and sell the old gear, and I'm not interested in the social side of things, so I voted 'Other'. If the old gear can be put to good use (instead of a landfill or just gathering dust in a closet) then that is enough motivation for me.

Two or three years ago, I gave a couple G3 iMacs away to friends-of-a-friends' teenage kids, and from what I heard, they were happy to have them. Maybe G4 Macs still have some life left in them too?

A propos the topic of this thread, i found this item on MacStories - Apple: Donate Your Old iPads to Teach For America (http://www.macstories.net/links/apple-donate-your-old-ipads-to-teach-for-america/).

A propos the topic of this thread, i found this item on MacStories - Apple: Donate Your Old iPads to Teach For America (http://www.macstories.net/links/apple-donate-your-old-ipads-to-teach-for-america/).

Very interesting program! Neat, thanks for posting that link.

Interesting that this comes up. I am currently attempting to gather interest from the Capital Regional District (CRD) of Victoria BC that manages many programs including low cost housing. I have emailed them a few weeks ago but yet to get a response.

Currently there is no official system for donating old systems here in Victoria besides selling it.

I inquired a while ago and there was some interest from a few local charities but I was unable to follow through due to life events.

Eventually I end up working a 'very part time' donation of G3/G4 Macs to the less fortunate...which at this point are mostly seniors with little/no income due to various life events they have experienced.

I have found anything newer than G3/G4 are hard to get people to donate without any tax receipt. Often we get others junk that is 'working' which is unfortunate, but you have to just gut and recycle the bits.

That's my story anyway. I am going to pursue this further as I would like to see some kind of program setup here in Victoria.


Back onto topic a bit, I voted for 4 regarding data as I have found that almost everyone who was willing to donate their equipment questioned me about the data on the drive (if there was any). I had to assure each that the data would be securely wiped and a fresh OS installed.

After some incidents a few years ago (i.e. ebay HD with FBI data on it) it is generally one of the primary concerns of anyone selling/donating their used computer. Often people just remove the drive or recycle the whole machine to make sure their data does not get in the wrong hands.

I'm sure that you'd get newer units when people have a better idea where the computers are going. One thing I have been thinking about is the best way to get the right machine to the right person is to have a checklist of what people do with the computer.

For example, if someone just does email, light surfing, and some basic WP. Then they would be fine with a well upgraded G3 with 10.4 but a family with young kids would need something newer like a G5 or early intel. Any kind of program like this would be the most successful using some variation of this strategy.

Hope that all helps in your goal ehMax

I should be happy if the surplus equipment is "free cycled." I am not that hung up on the concept of underprivileged, if there's a need and the equipment will passed on to others after using it, I'm cool with that.

Five years ago I gave away a G3 desktop computer, monitor, printer, scanner and Syquest on craigslist because no charity would take it, even if I delivered. They wanted something as fast as my then-current computer or faster. Like Big DL, I'm just happy to see it used by anyone.

Great feedback people. Still monitoring this thread and progressing with plans. Please continue to post any feedback, comments or ideas!

Y'know what would really work for me, EhMax? A deal whereby I could donate a piece of equipment and receive credit for a purchase at an Apple retailer. Even a small real-world credit would make it feel like instant gratification.

I have an older mac mini that is getting re-installed as I type and being setup for my nephew (10 years old). He's gonna love it!

Yep, most of mine gets passed down the pipe. Only rarely do I have a piece, like G5 tower, that gets orphaned.

Thanks again for feedback everyone.

Meeting some people tonight to talk about this project further. Feedback is very valuable.

Doing work for a charity, I can say that anything G4 or above would be of value. In the case of my scout troop we have a tag sale once a year and Macs always sell for a good amount. I think many nonprofits limit the Macs they take because they are use to dealing with windows boxes which louse their value vary fast. For educational use even G3s or older could do if they were loaded up with some software, internet access would not be necessary or wanted for the younger grades.

Thanks again for feedback everyone.

Meeting some people tonight to talk about this project further. Feedback is very valuable.

Any direction as of yet?

Because I selected "Other", I will post here that I would be happy if there was simply a place for me to drop-off and donate my old Apple gear, but I don't require free pick-up.
I'd be happy to deliver and drop-off myself.
(This probably reflects the fact that Ottawa is a small city, and distances here aren't as intimidating as in a sprawl city, like Toronto.)