This often leaves the donation process up to chance and the individual whim of those who know that equipment is being disposed of. Jan Viles, for example, says that a Nationsbank employee who was volunteering with the Visiting Nurse Association of Texas knew that the non-profit needed computers and mentioned that the bank was redoing their system. The two information systems offices then got together to compare notes and develop a system. Mahnaz Javid, president of the Mona Foundation in Edmonds, Wash., also benefited from a volunteer's watchful eye. Half of the Pentiums were distributed to a high school in Swaziland, creating the first such computer lab in the country.
Some corporations do prove to have a bit more forethought when it comes to making donations.
Tracey Marie Allen, acting director of Project F.I.R.S.T., says the program they came up with met IBM's satisfaction, which then provided money and computers to get the program rolling. In addition to training teachers, volunteers with Project F.I.R.S.T. also provide computer training for parents of children in NYC public schools. Parents who complete training are often eligible for donated computers, such as the 433 MHz Compaqs with three years of bundled Internet service that Project F.I.R.S.T. recently received more than a hundred of. In addition to gifts of chance and unexpected corporate largesse, non-profits create proposals for programs and present them to corporations that have donated to similar programs in the past. As a donation broker, The Lazarus Foundation operates a little differently.