Hardware Grants Eligibility

This is a page for brainstorming ideas about improving the grants approval process.

Options For Verifying Grants

There are two parts to verifying an grant's eligibility. The first is to verify the eligibility of the organization. Options for doing this are:

• Check business registry.
• Check website. (What do we look for?)
• Check contacts from website: like board members, other people in positions of leadership.
• Ask for paperwork like brochures, etc.
• Ask to see organizational plan.
• Interview them about projects, past, present, and future. (Other questions?)
• Ask them about what they intend to use the equipment for
• Check in Guidestar or Charity Navigator
• Ask them to produce their Certificate showing that they are a 501(c)3 organization (only works if you are a 501(c)3 organization)

The second is to verify the contact's association with the eligible organization.

• Do they have an organizational e-mail?
• Is their name on the website?
• Call another contact from the website if possible. Can they vouch for the person who contacted Free Geek?

Red Flags

These signs should make us look more closely at a grant. They do *not* mean that a grant is in ineligible.

• Non-organizational e-mail
• No extra contacts provided
• Not in the business registry or not listed as "Public Benefit"
• Shipping materials overseas
• Vague purpose for equipment
• Vague purpose of organization

Potential Ways To Improve The Grant Approval Process

• Make verifying the association of the contact with the organization mandatory
• Have a clear process for organizations that are not in the business registry
• Add questions about organizational projects, impacts, and those served to grant application. (Concern: this could make the grant process unnecessarily complicated).
• Make it clear that we need to know specifically what they are going to use the computers for. (Concern: this could make it difficult for non-technical grant writers to write grants).