Hardware Grant Development Day

FreeGeek Columbus is getting ready to open it's first round of hardware grants for 2009! The hardware grant process allows us to make donations to local non-profits with computing needs, be it a computer lab for a community center, or network switch for a small office. The process can be a little clumsy for some, so we're hosting a Grant Development Day on Thursday June 11th. FreeGeek Columbus will host morning and early evening grant training sessions, along with an open lab. Employees and volunteers from organizations in need can get help preparing a grant application, or check out our facilities. As a volunteer organization, FreeGeek Columbus must budget our human resources. We don't have the capacity to be the IT department for the organizations receiving hardware grants. The significant limitation for many organizations applying for a hardware grant is having a "shepherd" in the organization who will be responsible for handling basic administration and helping users in the organization. If an organization lacks a shepherd, they don't meet the criteria to qualify for a grant. Although the application asks who will serve in the shepherd role, most applicants don't understand the significance of the question. The Grant Development Day will allow organizations to get hands-on help preparing their grant applications.