Flora Family Foundation Final Report

Introduction

In 2003 Free Geek received it's largest grant ever, $185,000 from the Meyer Memorial Trust. Combined with $75,000 in grants from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Collins Foundation and the Yuan Joung Trust, Free Geek embarked on a very ampitious expansion of the entire program. The goal of the expansion was to make Free Geek a self-sustaining organization by the end of 2005. This goal has been mostly acheived, but not without some substantial setbacks along the way. It was during the aftermath of the problems that we had experienced that a member of the Flora Family Foundation approached us and quite simply asked "how can we help?". Free Geek received $10,000 in August of 2004 and applied the money to our general operating costs that were still in the red, giving the organization crucial additional time in which to further increase income. As the end of 2005 approached, Free Geek began operating in the black and the first quarter of 2006 was an entirely self-funded quarter. We believe that this is the beginning of a trend that will make Free Geek somewhat unique amongst non-profits - sustainable.

The Program Expansion

Free Geek planned a large organizational expansion project designed to increase our impact in the community and increase our operational income to the point that all of our core programs are financially stable and self-sustaining. Four grants were obtained totaling $250,000 (Meyer Memorial Trust - $185,000, Collins Foundation - $35,000, Oregon DEQ - $20,000, Juan Young Trust - $10,000.

PHASE I: Facility Expansion – increasing capacity for all major programs by improving the existing facility, adding additional classroom space, expanding recycling, production space and the thrift store (This phase funded by Oregon DEQ and the Meyer Memorial Trust).

PHASE II: Long Term Capacity Building - stabilizing and expanding our current programs to take advantage of increased facilities and increase revenue generation to the point of self-reliance (This phase funded by the Collins Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust).

PHASE III: Programs Expansion - funding two new projects that will help distribute the increased production of refurbished computer systems in ways that increase both our impact on the local community and our income stream.

1. Collaborative Technology Project - Provides consulting services so that local non-profits can access to Open Source technology and training, reducing their technology costs (This phase funded by the Meyer Memorial Trust).

2. Computers For Kids - Provides computers and education to "At-risk" youth in the Portland Metropolitan Area (This phase partially funded by the Juan Young Trust).

Impact on the Community

Increased capacity has meant more volunteers can participate in our programs. We increased the total number of volunteers in our core programs by 145% (2,123 in previous 12 month period vs. 3,071 during program period). over the previous 12 month period. The number of Adoption Program participants increased by 131% (1,438 to 1,890) and the number of Build Program participants increased by an impressive 172% over the previous 12 month period (685 to 1,181). Please refer to Appendix A for more detailed data.

The production of computers has also increased as predicted. Production numbers meet the needs of the increased Adoption Program need and produced the expected surplus for non-profit hardware grants. This program has exceeded all expectations. We are able to grant a significant amount of hardware to non-profits every month. Key factor was the implementation of Request Ticket software that helps keep the project organized and responses to requests timely and professional. The Hardware Grants group averages 35 computers each month to non-profit organizations. Please refer to Appendix A for more detailed data.

APPENDIX A

Adoption and Build Volunteers

Number of new adoption and build volunteers each year 2000 to 2005.

Click on the chart to the right to enlarge it.

The raw data from the chart is as follows:

Year	Adoption Volunteers	Build Volunteers
2000	45	7
2001	1062	209
2002	1160	244
2003	1269	768
2004	1557	825
2005	1985	1400

Prior to 2003, the Build Program was much more informal. For this reason, we have smaller numbers of builders during these early years. As the program's curriculum became more formalized, word got out that volunteers could come to Free Geek to receive quality learning in the hardware and Linux software areas, and the Build Program grew. In 2005, we saw a huge leap in Build Program volunteers: new Build volunteer signup numbers increased 70% over those in 2004.

Volunteer Hours

Number of volunteer hours each year 2000 to 2005.

Click on the chart to the right to enlarge it.

The raw data from the chart is as follows:

Year	Volunteer Hours
2000	1002
2001	16614
2002	16161
2003	34682
2004	47789
2005	52618

The chart includes hours volunteered by all volunteers, including those not signed up for the Build or Adoption Programs.

Donors and Thriftstore Customers

Number of thrift store transactions and donations at the front desk from 2000 to 2005.

Click on the chart to the right to see a larger version.

The raw data from the chart is below:

Year	Store Transactions	Gizmo Donations
2000	N/A	48
2001	1	1877
2002	2776	3130
2003	6102	4795
2004	8471	7651
2005	11315	9917

Our thrift store began in earnest in 2002, so no thrift store transactions were recorded before then.

Website Traffic

www.freegeek.org hits through 2005.

Click on the chart to the right to see a larger version.

The raw data from the chart is below:

Year	Hits
2000	7,612
2001	32,496
2002	48,267
2003	75,525
2004	147,195
2005	207,004
Total	518,099

Our web appeal is steadily growing, as is the popularity of the Internet. This speaks to the growing popularity of the organization and the effectiveness of our outreach efforts.

Our website holds lots of useful, easy-to-understand information about our organization. We're beginning to put more energy into the website so that it can be even more informative for those interested in Free Geek without sacrificing accessibility and ease of use.

Recycling

This page contains materials that shows how much electronic scrap (i.e. e-scrap) we've recycled throughout the years, as well as approximately how many systems, monitors, and printers we've reused and recycled in sum.

Tons of material recycled by year, broken down by type.

Click on the chart to make it larger.

The raw data from the chart (numbers are in tons):

Year	Mixed	Monitors	Steel	Copper- Bearing	Plastic	Gold- Bearing	Other Non- Ferrous	Total Tonnage
2000	2.22	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.22
2001	59.92	11.13	0	0	0	2.74	0	73.79
2002	20.68	32.78	24.45	6.86	2.14	2.78	0	89.69
2003	40.31	22.50	40.33	19.44	8.92	6.66	0.68	138.84
2004	41.70	38.02	74.65	46.14	11.70	11.56	2.20	225.97
2005	46.20	126.90	140.30	71.70	16.60	13.80	2.20	417.70

Some clarifications about what comprises the items in some of the above categories:

Mixed

printers, keyboards, and otherwise whole components that are ground up to recover materials such as steel, plastic, etc. In the early days of 2000 and 2001 we used to huck whole computers into a box for recycling, starting in 2002 we began to break everything we could down into the materials listed below.

Copper-Bearing Material

an item from which we can salvage some copper, generally from a small motor or wiring buried in its workings. Mice, stereos, telephones, and miscellaneous adapters go in this category.

Gold-Bearing Material

processors, memory, and circuit boards are included in this category.

Some fun, additional stats for you:

• Over the life of the organization through 2005, Free Geek recycled, or "recovered", 948.21 tons of e-scrap.
• In the year 2005, Free Geek recycled about the same amount of steel as it had recycled during all of the previous 4 years combined.
• At the end of 2005, Free Geek was recycling over 35 tons per month through its facility.

Operational Income and Expenses

Operational income and expenses for each year 2000 to 2005.

Click on the chart to the right to enlarge it.

The chart's raw data is below:

Year	Operational Income	Operational Expense	Operational Profit/Loss
2000	$1,639	$31,513	-$29,874
2001	$20,709	$74,238	-$53,529
2002	$78,488	$102,241	-$23,752
2003	$158,201	$226,673	-$68,436
2004	$348,346	$490,950	-$142,604
2005	$439,305	$458,649	-$19,334

The income and expenses gained and lost by way of our normal operations are tracked in the chart to the right. This would include income through sales, monetary donations collected at the front desk, and recycling income, and expenses such as staff salaries and rent. This would not include income through grants. Tracking our operational income and expenses gives an indication of how self-sustaining we are.

Overall Income and Expenses

Overall income and expenses for each year 2000 to 2005.

Click on the chart to the right to enlarge it.

The chart's raw data is below:

Year	Total Income	Total Expense	Profit/Loss
2000	$36,550	$31,513	$5,037
2001	$68,439	$74,238	-$5,799
2002	$95,072	$102,241	-$7,169
2003	$305,558	$251,839	$53,719
2004	$444,932	$502,648	-$57,716
2005	$476,202	$458,649	$17,553

Overall income is our total income over the year, including grants, fundraisers as well as all daily operatonal income. Total expenses is the total amount of money we spent over the year including remodeling expenses as well as operational expenses such as rent and staff.