Hardware Grants

Free Geek has a hardware grants program in which we give hardware to organizations who request it. Our emphasis is on computers, but we are able to grant out other things as well. See the grants page on Free Geek's website for more info.

Who receives hardware grants?

Grants are made to the following organizations:

• Non-profit organizations
• Schools
• Churches
• Community centers
• Social change organizations
• Worker collectives

We cannot grant to the following groups:

• For-profit organizations that are not on the above list
• Partisan organizations

We can't grant to partisan organizations due to our 501(c)3 status.

• Individuals

Our policy on individual grants was formed in response to past experiences with "passthrough" grants (which are essentially grants that we give to organizations so they can in turn give them to someone else). We stopped doing those because of the technical support issues involved with providing people computers when they hadn't been adequately taught to use the operating system that we provide with them. We instead focus our grants program on providing infrastructure for organizations (computers for an office, for example, or for a public lab setting). Additionally, we feel that giving individuals the opportunity to earn their computers, rather than simply giving them computers, can provide them with a sense of empowerment and responsible ownership that is oftentimes infinitely more valuable than the physical product itself.

What we grant out

The items we are able to grant out depend on our supply, which changes from time to time.

What we grant out easily

• PCs
• Monitors
• Keyboards
• Mice
• Power cords
• Network cables
• Printers
• Mousepads
• Short to medium length networking cable
• Headphones

Uncommon items

These items need to be requested from area supervisors, such as in advanced testing or in Mac build.

• Network devices
• Mac systems
• IDE Hard drives with greater than 20GB capacity
• SDRAM and RAMBUS

Limited Items

As of 11/3/2009, the RAD committee decided to reimpose limits to LCDs and laptops.

• LCDs
• Laptops

What we do not grant out

We do not get enough of these items to grant out.

• Projectors
• Speakers
• Long network cables

Does the organization's location matter?

Yes and no. We simply don't have the means to ship the types of hardware typically requested in grants, so we are limited to providing hardware grants to organizations that are able to pick up grants from us. However, we are more than willing to provide hardware to organizations in any location of the world as long as they can provide a local contact that can pick up hardware from us and handle the rest.

How are grants approved/denied?

In general, if an organization does not fit into one of the types listed above (e.g. an average for-profit business), its grant request will be denied. However, sometimes we receive grant requests from qualifying organizations that ask for more than we can provide in a given month, or have a need on an ongoing basis. In that case, it is necessary to contact the requester to discuss the details of the request and bring down the amount of requested hardware to a reasonable level.

Hardware grants volunteers, interns, and Free Geek staff members work together to approve and deny grants. One "grant shepherd" is responsible for contacting and disbursing equipment to each organization.

Can I get involved?

Yes! Free Geek is always looking for reliable volunteers interested in facilitating hardware grants. You will play the role of grant shepherd. Please see the Hardware Grants Volunteer Intern job description for qualifications and responsibilities.

If you're already involved, please see the Hardware Grants Manual.