Need laptops for charity

fiestafantastic

I work for a disabled childrens charity. We have a new extension and people have donated for it along with computers for the children. The problem is we dont have any spare money for the laptops for the paperwork that carers need to do to keep the required files up to date. I am going to give freecycle a try and wondered if anyone had suggestions of other places I could try. It just needs to work and be able to handle word processing.
Thanks

Sabato

I work in an IT Department at a college and we sometimes donate our old stock of laptops/PCs to charity.

Might be worth contacting any local schools or colleges to see whether they have anything you could have. With the end of term close they might be getting new kit over the summer, freeing up their older kit.

Savvy_Sue

fiestafantastic wrote: »

It just needs to work and be able to handle word processing.

Needs a bit more than that: needs to be checked to ensure it's not virus ridden etc ... needs to have some kind of security / encryption so that details of the clients are secure etc.

ntb1

I know you can often get cheap ones through Inkind Direct and Microsoft Sofrtware via the CTX program which means you pay £20.00 for Office.

Dell also have a charity program but they tend to be higher spec laptops for lower costs.

also worth looking at BT, they used to do a computer & broadband package for small charities

Savvy_Sue

I haven't seen actual computers on InKind for a while (not that I've been looking), and I thought the Microsoft CTX offering was software not hardware.

I've just bought a refurbished model from Asus, just downloading the last (I hope!) of the updates. That was sub £250 for a more than generous spec for just wordprocessing ...

ntb1

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I haven't seen actual computers on InKind for a while (not that I've been looking), and I thought the Microsoft CTX offering was software not hardware.

I've just bought a refurbished model from Asus, just downloading the last (I hope!) of the updates. That was sub £250 for a more than generous spec for just wordprocessing ...

They come up every now and again on Inkind, and yes the CTX is for software hence the reference to Office, but if they get a 2nd hand pc, they can wipe it and get all the legal software for next to nowt.

fiestafantastic

We have an IT department that can do the virus checking and load OS, encryption etc. We are a separate service and need to provide the hardware for them to do that, which we dont have the money for Sue at the moment.

Will have a look at that site though and get on to the local college.
Thanks

oldtoolie

You might be better off to raise some extra money to buy new or second hand laptops. You can buy new for about £300 and used for £100. The new ones would come with a 1 year guarantee and the used with a 30-90 guarantee. These would be much easier to set-up than cast-offs from Freecycle. It can be a real headache to mess with old computers of unknown history.

elf198

http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-pcs/19968/£24-pc-scheme-help-uk-charities-and-benefit-claimants#ixzz2WBssDYQl

Savvy_Sue

elf198 wrote: »

http://www.itpro.co.uk/desktop-pcs/19968/£24-pc-scheme-help-uk-charities-and-benefit-claimants#ixzz2WBssDYQl

I saw that story at work last week, but absolutely failed to find a link to the actual scheme. Do you have one? The Get Online website is less than friendly ...

Jenna_Appleseed

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I saw that story at work last week, but absolutely failed to find a link to the actual scheme. Do you have one? The Get Online website is less than friendly ...

There was a thread earlier - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4644225

They're not that cheap & opinion's mixed on how good/worth buying they actually are. Martin wasn't keen last year.