Hardware Grants Group

The hardware grants group reviews, approves, and fills grant requests for hardware. Nonprofit and social change organizations may apply for equipment using the form on the [FREE GEEK website].

This group is open to anyone who is interested in helping FREE GEEK with this aspect of its mission. Staff members involved in production are involved with the grants group so that we may know what we have available for granting and because they are nice people.

RT Use
Grant applications come to us via RT, and we use the HardwareGrants queue to track them. There are special fields we use for grant status and granted equipment. Volunteers interested in helping with filling grants should get an RT account.

Meetings
The grants group meets on a monthly basis to review applications and decide which we can fill. Much of the meeting consists of reviewing two lists: status reports on previously approved, still open grants, and decisions on new grants. While reviewing new grants, we evaluate whether: Each grant that we approve gets a "shepherd" - a member of the group who will notify the organization of our decision and follow through on getting the equipment to them. If no one volunteers to shepherd a grant, we cannot fill it.
 * the organization appears to be eligable
 * what they want is clear
 * we have the equipment
 * it's possible to get the equipment to them
 * someone in the grants group is willing to coordinate filling the grant.

Feedback and followup
The shepherd of the grant has to claim the ticket in RT and notify the requestor. Communication should be tracked on RT so that people can look it up and take care of things if the shepherd is not around. Occasionally, shepherds will need to