Buy one Give one

[adlambert]

I remember way back in the early days when these forums were buzzing with anticipation before we got our hands on the first Pis, there was some discussion about the charitable aims.

I recall that some suggested that there could be a buy one give one scheme (forum members ideas, not the foundation).
Did anything ever happen or is there a means by which a buyer could buy 2 and give one somewhere that was guaranteed to go to a needy user?

Thanks.

[liz]

It's something we looked into, but the cost of implementing such a program - people to run it, warehousing, distribution, sorting through grantees, deciding who gets them - was so high that it's not really feasible, and it's not an economical way for us to spend the charity's funds. So instead we encourage people who want to donate a Pi to a good cause to do so themselves: buy one for a local school, or a local Code Club or similar - or just buy one for a kid you know who you think would do great things with it.

[adlambert]

OK, thanks.
Just need to get my local schools interested enough. I've been trying!

[W. H. Heydt]

It's something we looked into, but the cost of implementing such a program - people to run it, warehousing, distribution, sorting through grantees, deciding who gets them - was so high that it's not really feasible, and it's not an economical way for us to spend the charity's funds. So instead we encourage people who want to donate a Pi to a good cause to do so themselves: buy one for a local school, or a local Code Club or similar - or just buy one for a kid you know who you think would do great things with it.

I kind of did that a couple of years ago....I got one for my grandson's cousins.

[cptdodgerm]

It is a shame the re-sellers of the Pi, like RS Components do not have a 'donation' button like Ebay does when your making a purchase. This 'donation' button would only be specific to Pi purchases and anyone clicking on the 'donation' button would mean a second Pi is purchased but it's destination is pre-determined by the re-seller and the Pi foundation. That way, many of the obstacles like warehousing and distribution is already handled by the re-seller.

Many people give to charities and worthwhile causes that are close to their hearts. Computers has been a big part of my life and it would be nice to be able to give others the chance to do so to. Non of my family, young or old are deeply interested in computers like i was as a child and now as an adult so I do not have the luxury of being able to buy one for a family member because I know they would just not be interested. This means I am missing out on allowing others to enjoy the things i love doing, Computers . It would be nice if the Pi foundation could re-think their decision into Buy one, get one free because it would allow people like me to donate something that is very close to my heart, Computers

Rog

[liz]

The good news is that because we are a not-for-profit, just by buying a Pi for yourself you're helping fund our educational mission. We use it to train teachers (not just in using the Pi, but in all kinds of stuff they need to teach computing), to grow our suite of educational resources, to employ people like Clive, Carrie, Dave, Rachel and Ben to do amazing outreach work with kids, and to fund this sort of thing. So if you want to help us do that, there's an easy way to do it: buy more Pis!

[jamesh]

It is a shame the re-sellers of the Pi, like RS Components do not have a 'donation' button like Ebay does when your making a purchase. This 'donation' button would only be specific to Pi purchases and anyone clicking on the 'donation' button would mean a second Pi is purchased but it's destination is pre-determined by the re-seller and the Pi foundation. That way, many of the obstacles like warehousing and distribution is already handled by the re-seller.

Many people give to charities and worthwhile causes that are close to their hearts. Computers has been a big part of my life and it would be nice to be able to give others the chance to do so to. Non of my family, young or old are deeply interested in computers like i was as a child and now as an adult so I do not have the luxury of being able to buy one for a family member because I know they would just not be interested. This means I am missing out on allowing others to enjoy the things i love doing, Computers . It would be nice if the Pi foundation could re-think their decision into Buy one, get one free because it would allow people like me to donate something that is very close to my heart, Computers

Rog

It's really a cost thing. If implementing the scheme costs more that the benefits (i.e. takes more away money from the outreach programme than what you see as benefits in donating a Pi) then its better not to have it. And I believe that is actually the case.

[scidata]

I've seen this in other organizations, but honestly, the RPF is the best model I've yet seen. Open, cheap, and most of all, a vast and generous community of users and forum posters. We don't need to focus so much on the actual platform (let the RPF and big players like Google and Microsoft worry about that), but rather on pervasive computational literacy and the spirit of learning.