Maybe Lan and Pina can help me out

**Piña** · August 23rd, 2004, 08:16 PM

Sluggs

Whoa, back up there, firecracker. I don't want you to apologize for anything. I was joking. Say hell all you want.

I'm curious. Since you wouldn't "pay" a charity to help defray the cost of disposing of broken or worthless computers and electronics then how should they pay for the inevitable dumping of trash that happens?

If they don't ask for a small amount of cash with these kinds of donations then they have to pay for it themselves. I think expecting them to act as garbage dumps is a bit much, don't you?

**Sluggo** · August 23rd, 2004, 09:21 PM

Pina - I knew you were joking. YOU, obviously, do not know when I am joking.

But, to get back to the donating things. I had assumed that they could use the things I donate. I am talking about TV's and toasters and stuff like that. Even when you (speaking generally) try to donate a perfectly good computer they expect you to pay them to take it. And I will be damned if I pay to donate workable stuff to anyone.

**Piña** · August 23rd, 2004, 09:47 PM

Sluggs

Let's look at it from a non-profit's point of view.

You have people wanting to donate computer equipment to your organization. Good, so far.

Because you are financially strapped like most non-profits you don't have the people nor likely the expertise to be able to determine if a computer is, or is not, going to be usable in your organization or, for that matter, if it actually works at all. That's the first lump of coal in their stocking.

You also know that if it doesn't work, or just isn't usable for any number of reasons, that you are going to have to pay to have it disposed of. This gift is starting to look a bit tarnished.

Add in the time and effort involved in handling, testing and getting it to the dump and the "donation" is suddenly looking less and less beneficial.

Now consider that there is a glut of computers and other electronics looking for a dump site to call their own. These items are becoming harder to get rid of due to the toxic materials that they're made from. (This became a major issue around here a while back.)

So now you have everyone and their sister trying to get rid of computers. Many of them, and a few thousand of thier friends, are going to say, "Hey, I know, such and such a charity can use them."

Not neceassarily true. They may see them as a potential liability rather than a boon.

Say for instance: If twenty people offered you possibly obsolete or broken computers or just really old ones and you knew that they would be hard to get rid of if you had to, would you take them?

**Piña** · August 23rd, 2004, 10:38 PM

Sluggo

They probably have it set so that you can edit but only moderators can delete.

A workaround is to edit the post and just delete everything in it. You get a blank posting but it looks better than duplicates.