GRAPEVINE, Texas — DonateIT LLC (Donate Information Technology, www.donateit.us) is a start-up with a special mission. The company turns used technology donations – computers, servers, printers, ink jet cartridges, media players and cell phones – into cash for non-profits, churches and schools.
The company came from the experiences of its founders Cathi Coan and Barry Crossno. Ms. Coan is the owner of Techway Services, a national provider of computer recycling and data destruction services. Mr. Crossno is a former fundraiser for non-profit causes and is currently a marketing consultant to Techway Services. While talking about the direction of Techway, they realized that certain clients kept telling them the same story. They liked to donate a portion of their IT equipment to charity, but the donation process was sometimes difficult. The problem was many charities didn’t have the expertise to process the equipment. As a result, many charities only wanted the newer equipment, didn’t know what to do with the broken equipment, and didn’t know how to properly erase the data on the donated hard-drives.
“It meant companies had to solve these problems before donating. It was a barrier,” said Barry Crossno. DonateIT was created to solve these problems.
DonateIT has been operating in earnest since September and has signed up a number of charity partners (http://www.donateit.us/drop-off-events-announcements/). A few of these new charity partners are already collecting equipment and receiving checks. Interest in the program has been strong, because charities are looking for new ways to increase donations from their existing givers and DonateIT makes this possible. Also, DonateIT charges no fees for charities to participate. DonateIT makes money if their charity partners are making money. “We succeed if our charity partners succeed. That’s our focus,” says Barry Crossno.
The DonateIT program works by having charity partners ask for and accumulate donations. DonateIT then picks up the collected equipment, destroys the data, recycles the unusable items and sells the rest. When the process is over, the charity receives a check.
From Cathi Coan, “We’re really proud of this company. With DonateIT, everyone wins-the charities, the donors and the environment.”
Why It Works – By the Numbers
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* 3/4 of all computers ever bought in the USA are stored in homes and warehouses. (National Safety Council Study, 2002)
* Only 11% of computers retired during 2001 were recycled. (IAER Report)
* In 2003, 58 million computers were sold in the United States alone. (Gartner Research)
* As of 2005, 500 million cell phones in the USA were estimated to be stockpiled by consumers waiting for recycling. (INFORM Study)
* In the next five years, consumers in the USA are expected to discard roughly 500 million PCs, 1.5 Billion inkjet cartridges, and 750 million used cell phones. (various sources).
About DonateIT (Donate Information Technology)
DonateIT is an innovative fundraising company that helps charities and schools turn a wide range of used technology donations like computers, cell phones and printer cartridges into cash to fulfill their missions.
For additional information, contact Barry Crossno toll free 888-364-8804 ext. 801 or visit: http://www.donateit.us
[tags]DonateIT, Donate Information Technology, Texas recycling, Techway Services[/tags]
