How it started
During the school holidays, Jono (in tech) walked his dog Takkie through Whangaparāoa College. Takkie often played with another dog, Shire, who happened to belong to another Jono, who happened to teach at the college. As happens with dogs, they played and the Jonos talked.
One day the conversation turned to tech in schools, and how students were struggling because their devices couldn't run the software their courses needed. Jono (in tech) decided to see if he could help. That week he emailed three companies. Mark Heine from EROAD replied offering to help, and a week or two later Jono (teacher) had four laptops for his design students.
Jono (in tech) thought, “That was easy!”, and sent more emails, and more laptops came. Eventually enough people told him to set up a website. Aaron Ward from AskNicely came up with the name, and here we are.
How it works today
Schools register a project describing what their students need. Companies tell us about laptops they're retiring, wipe them, and we normally arrange pickup and drop-off at the school. That's it.
Where we're heading
Our long-term goal is a “reverse marketplace”, where teachers post requests for technology and companies donate their retired equipment directly. We're not there yet, but every week another tech company gets an email or a call.
Who pays for it
We're not a registered charity and we never ask for money. The website and fixed costs are funded by the team at ResolvePay.
