Hardware Grants Summary

Hardware Grants Summary
A hardware grant begins when an organization requests a grant using an online form. As soon, as it is completed the coordinator and volunteers are alerted to its existence. Grants are usually processed within a week, though the outside limit is two weeks. The vast majority of hardware grants are approved. For a grant to be rejected, there has to be a good reason: it was a for-profit organization or an individual, we don't have or don't grant the technology that they need, they are located abroad, or something seems really off. Grants are approved by an individual, either the coordinator or a volunteer, and not by committee as I believe was done in the past. All incoming grants are screened by the coordinator, who looks for fishy stuff and makes sure to take those grants before volunteers can take them. If volunteers ever have questions about a grant, the coordinator is either present or locatable somewhere else in the building. There are two main steps to our screening process: the first is to verify that the organization is legitimate and the second is to verify that the contact is associated with the organization. The second is a recent addition after a few problems with unauthorized people using an organization's name to acquire hardware. One thing that is noticeably absent from our screening process is that we don't judge organizations based on their political or social values. This allows us to serve a diverse population, but it also seems like somewhere we would have to draw the line. (For example, would we grant to Exodus International

Once a Hardware Grant is approved, it is tracked using RT and a paper system. Some of the older volunteers don't use the paper system, but all new volunteers are trained and expected to use it. It makes disbursing grants easier, particularly if you are not the grant shepherd.