Serious Good Contest: A Love Pandemic

Wow! It is gratifying to know how many people really want to help others! Is it the season, or for any reason? (I intend to find out during the next few months!)

Wednesday night we concluded our Serious Good™ Contest, which provided a chance for anyone and everyone to vote for 1 out of 10 nonprofits nominated by the public for their organizations good works. After a few days of voting and tens of thousands of votes, there are five winners who will soon receive computer systems from Redemtech to help them scale their wonderful humanitarian efforts. The five runners-up were lucky too, and will receive fewer computers than the others, but who I’m sure are energized by how many supporters they have in the community!

The idea for the contest came from our role in helping major corporations manage their computer systems responsibly. In this role, we see that hundreds of thousands of computers are retired from businesses prematurely, with lots of life left to give. With professional care and efficiency, Redemtech refurbishes each piece to enable its continued productive use by others, and reduce the mountains of electronic trash that ends up in our waste stream. We call these refurbished computers Red Rabbitts, and we hope thousands of these critters jump across the Digital Divide into the waiting hands of people and organizations just like the ones who were nominated for our Serious Good contest.

From our experience in helping corporations bridge the digital divide through technology donations, we know that non-profit organizations often lack basic technology to expand services, mobilize volunteers and more. Free and low-cost refurbished computers help them make significant strides in modernizing operations so they can scale their impact and help more people.

Based on the appreciation and excitement we’ve experienced in working with non-profits on donation programs, we thought we might get a strong response to our Serious Good Contest. Still, when we kicked off the contest in November by opening nominations on Twitter, we weren’t sure exactly what to expect. By the time voting closed on Wednesday, December 16, we had our answer.

The week-long voting vastly exceeded our expectations, with our 10 Finalists attracting nearly 130,000 votes on our blog. What does that response tell us? First, the participating finalists really (really!) need computers to further their cause – and those needs are diverse:

• To help homeless people and victims of domestic violence look for jobs.
• To help children and families cope with serious life-threatening illnesses.
• To significantly increase the number of pet adoptions each year.
• To help senior citizens enjoy better quality of life.

The overwhelming voter turnout also shows that these organizations have loads of supporters – who understand the need, and the benefits that can come from additional computers, and were willing to take time out to cast a vote.

Thank you to everyone who participated in doing some “Serious Good,” whether by nominating a nonprofit, helping spread the word about the contest by re-tweeting our contest updates or voting for your favorite organization. Thank you to all our finalists – a great group or non-profit organizations from communities all over the country (see more details about them here). Finally, thank you to all of the organizations that were nominated for your commitment to serving the needs of your community.

So what do you think – what role can computers play in helping organizations you know about? What more can companies do to help support the technology needs of nonprofits? We look forward to your comments – and hearing more about how these computers are helping you do “Serious Good” in serving your communities!

---

Serious Good Contest Results

Top 5 Finalists:
Will receive five Red Rabbitt refurbished computer packages.

The Gathering Inn Roseville, CA
(23%; 30,120 votes)
The homeless at the Gathering Inn would use the computers to find jobs, update resumes and keep in touch with family and friends.

Columbus Ronald McDonald House Columbus, OH
(20%; 25,890 votes)
Computers will help them to better provide a home-away-from-home for families with hospitalized children.

Rose Agency Birmingham, AL
(20%; 25,721 votes)
Computers would be used in a new senior center to help seniors with learning and memory retention.

Dane County Humane Society Madison, WI
(14%; 17,716 votes)
Computers would allow them to more effectively facilitate approximately 7,000 pet adoptions per year.

South Dakota Head Start Association Pierre, SD
(13%; 17,045 votes)
Computers would be donated to low-income families in the poorest counties in the nation, including a number of Native American reservations. 

---

Remaining Finalists:
Will receive two Red Rabbitt refurbished computer packages.

AmericaSCORES New York, NY
Computers would support fundraising to empower students in urban communities using soccer, creative expression, and service-learning.

Boston Learning Center Boston, MA
Needs computers to help 500 to 1,000 at-risk youth “go from F's to A's.”

KINfolk Wilmington, DE
Computers would go to children whose lives have been disrupted by disease and injury.

Lydia’s House Omaha, NE
Computers would be used by the women who are victims of domestic violence to look for jobs and update their resumes.

Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central & Western North Carolina Charlotte, NC
Computers would help facilitate logistics of granting the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.

---

Serious Good Contest Awards

The awards will be Microsoft Authorized Refurbished desktop computers from Red Rabbitt, reconditioned, repaired, upgraded and professionally packaged to provide a like-new experience. The Serious Good prize packages include:

• Desktop computers from Hewlett-Packard (D530 and DC5000) and IBM (ThinkCentre S50) with minimum 2.8GHz processor, 1GB memory and 40GB hard drive
• 19” Dell LCD monitors
• Certified genuine Windows® XP Professional operating system
• Microsoft Office 2003 including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Publisher and more
• New keyboards and mice

Redemtech’s donations also include free asset recovery and recycling service, helping to ensure charities responsibly recycle the computer equipment at end of the lifecycle.

Comments

[Rose Agency]

Thank you to everyone that voted and Redemtech for making our dreams come true! We wanted a computer lab for the seniors and children. However, we didn't have the money to purchase computers. How awesome to have a company like Redemtech care enough to give us such a gift! All of our volunteers and community partners are extremely excited about the center and our new computers. The computer lab will impact the old, new and generations to come!

[Cory Neeley]

On behalf of the animals and people at Dane County Humane Society, I want to thank Redemtech for allowing us to be a part of the Serious Good Contest. Without the kindness of businesses like Redemtech, we would not be able to provide such great care for local homeless animals. These five new computers will replace the old donated machines that had been working hard, but failed to meet our needs. We are extremely grateful for the volunteers and supporters that helped make DCHS a top five finalist in a competition with such great and worthy causes.

Sincerely,
Cory Neeley

Fundraising and Event Specialist

[South Dakota Head Start Association]

Thanks to everyone who voted for our association! We are about to do some serious good for five families in South Dakota. Special thanks should also go out to REDEMTECH for taking the initiative to do some serious good for this country! You are a great organization and should be commended for your efforts. Thank you!

[Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Ohio]

Thank you Redemtech for the generosity of your Serious Good Contest. We are thrilled to be receiving 5 Red Rabbitt computer packages for the Columbus Ronald McDonald House!