IT Donations Aren’t Always Free

Is that offer of ten used PCs worth it? A new article from McKinsey & Company can help you decide.

The article “In-kind donations for nonprofits” (registration required—it’s worth it) presents a nice framework for assessing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for in-kind gifts. This is particularly important for technology donations like computers, printers, monitors, etc. These donations often come with a mishmash of software packages, operating systems and internal components, and this means that you may be in for more than you bargained for.

As an example, let’s compare the lowest-cost, simplest Dell small business desktop to a theoretical donated computer that a company phased out after four years of service. While the donated PC does not have any upfront cost, there are significant time and labor costs associated with getting the older machine up to today’s working conditions (see table below). And the costs for the donated PC may be even higher—the McKinsey model does not address additional cost s that may occur over the lifetime of the donated item. In our example, the new Dell comes with three years of service included; with a donated computer you’re on your own. So unless you expect the donated PC to work flawlessly for three years, buying new may be better on your tech budget.

We’re not suggesting that you should never accept a donated used PC. Just look at the real TCO first.

*Maintenance, repairs, and extra hours include upgrading the operating system, adding extra RAM, a network card, a antivirus and spyware detection software, and Microsoft Office, and integrating the new PC into the organization’s network. We got our prices from Dell, TechSoup’s Stock, and Consistent Computer Bargains

Get in touch

Do you have questions? Comments? We’d love to hear from you.
email: ccts@ubalt.edu
phone: (410) 837-6741