What is the value of a Hardware Grant from Free Geek? Current tax code does not allow us to assign monetary value to computers we disburse to nonprofits, schools and community change organizations through our Hardware Grants program. However, a staff person at one of our recent grant recipient organizations did take it upon himself to sum up the value of our hardware grants in terms of additional teaching capacity. Paul Shearer was working as the IBM School Mentor in the Lake Oswego School District when he received a large assortment of computers for his program:
“Five (5) Free Geek grant computers per month can provide sixty (60) computers in 12 months which can provide a school with two (2) student labs of thirty (30) computers each and save the school $42,000 cash. That can be enough savings to help fund one teacher for a full year.
Free Geek has provided over two hundred (200) grant computers to LOSD in the past three years and that has provided a savings of $140,000 cash which is enough to fund two master high school teachers for one full year and at some schools could help fund up to three starting teachers for a full year.”
Lake Oswego is not the only educational institution to have benefited from Free Geek’s Hardware Grants program. So far in 2012, we have granted out free laptops and computers (along with monitors, keyboards and mouses) to over 45 educational programs. Included in these disbursements were over 526 systems and 69 laptops! That can translate to thousands of saved dollars that, rather than being spent on technical infrastructure, can go directly to educating the youth of the greater Portland area. It’s also a whole lot of computers being reused instead of recycled, or worse, improperly discarded.
Recipients of Free Geek hardware grants this year include (but certainly aren’t limited to):
Agia Sophia Academy
Ano’s Art Academy
Astor K-8 school
Atlas Immersion Academy
Ballston Community School
Bethel Christian School
Childswork Learning Center Inc.
Conestoga Middle School
Emmanuel Christian Academy
Escuela Viva
FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1432
Forest Grove High School Speech and Debate
Grandhaven Elementary
Hope Chinese Charter School
Lanai High And Elementary
Leadership and Entrepreneurship Public Charter High School
Lewis and Clark High School
Mount Adams School District
Northwest Children’s Theater and School
Pioneer Montessori School
Portland Public Schools
Portland Village School
Portland Youth Builders
Reynolds Learning Academy: East Campus
Sunstone Montessori School
Tucker-Maxon Oral School
Village Free School
Wahkiakum School District
