In December, a company wanted to donate some fairly high-quality computers to Caminos (www.caminossf.org). The company wanted the computers to go to individuals or nonprofits in the Latino community, but did not want to distribute them themselves. Caminos only had storage for 200 of them, but there were more available. Laura does not know how the company heard about Caminos or where the additional computers went.

Caminos purchased flat screen monitors and additional memory for the computers, added donated keyboards and mice and offered the complete system for $150. This covered the cost of the monitors, the memory and the labor for the upgrade and gave them a little profit. Caminos also donated three systems to a neighbor nonprofit at no cost.

The computers were offered to their current students, first. Caminos maintains a wait list for equipment and they were able to offer the opportunity to those folks, too. Their Board also reached out to other nonprofits in the community to promote the opportunity. People who were interested in purchasing the computer arranged payments directly with Eduardo, who runs the refurbishment training program. No one filled out an application. It was first-come, first-served. They had about one month to pay the entire $150. If someone couldn’t make the second payment, the computer would have gone to another person, but everyone paid the full amount. They sold all the computers for cash.

They are not providing a warranty, other than for the monitors, which are covered by their factory warranty for 30 days. People who purchased the computers will have to pay for additional tech support separately.

Because these systems were offered to Caminos students, the students were highly educated about what type of computer they wanted and how they could use it. They understood that they were getting a great deal.

One more reason, as Emy would suggest, for people to take advantage of local training programs – because they are more likely to get access to affordable equipment and technical support through the program.