OLPCorps Fundraising

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Welcome to OLPCorps Fundraising.
This page serves as the primary financial resource for OLPCorps Africa. In order to sustain OLPCorps, university teams should document their fundraising and grant processes in order to support fellow teams and future teams from the same university. Many universities have established foundations and grant programs to support individual student travel abroad, philanthropic causes, financial assistance for student organizations, etc. By documenting where a team accesses its resources, students provide more opportunities for future XO deployments.

OLPCorps Finances & Fundraising Processes with 501c3 Status

OLPCorps provides student teams with a substantial amount of financial assistance, resources, and support to initiate a 100 XO deployment. OLPCorps teams are provided with 100 XO laptops, a server, and up to $10,000 for operating costs--total value $30,000+. In the project proposal, student teams must specify the amount of operating cost they require. Teams who request $10,000 but do not specify how the money will be spent will be asked to provide further documentation. Each deployment is different. Factors which differentiate deployment costs include rural v. urban, off-grid v. existing power source, specific project costs, proximity to Kigali workshop and international hub, flight costs, etc. Because of this, teams might incur costs beyond the operating grant, which they should cover. OLPCorps teams are expected to sustain their deployment (post-August) through technical support, know-how, and financial support (when needed). Teams are expected to work with their parterning entity to appropriately manage these costs. Costs may include:

• gas for a generator
• a specific learning project which requies funding (e.g. transportation, materials, etc)
• repair and maintanence costs
• monthly internet connections

In order to reduce long-term costs, teams should strive toward sustainability from the beginning. By investing in more expensive items initially (e.g. solar instead of a generator), teams might increase the project's probability of long-term success. In addition, all teams should work with local organizations to sustain the deployment. For instance, partner with a local internet company: leverage your deployment's non-profit status or your partnering organization's social capital to receive reduced costs.

Fundraising Processes & 501c3 Tax-exempt Status

Student teams should raise money for their projects using the One Laptop per Child Foundation's 501c3 status. In doing so, donations are considered tax-exempt, giving donors more incentive to financially support projects. For an organization to be considered 501c3, it must operate exclusively for charitable purposes, as in OLPC's case. Please note: the use of funds is limited by the donor's restrictions. That is, if a donor specifies that his or her donation fund Internet or power, for example, then the money must be reserved for that purpose - no exceptions. We recommend that the donor specify nothing so that the funds may be used to support any expense the core team will incur.

The OLPC Foundation tax ID number should be used in return (i.e. as a receipt) for any donations: (To be provided to teams upon acceptance). You should provide the donor with this so that they can specify their donation as tax-exempt when filing their taxes. After receiving a donation, the team's financial manager must send the donation to OLPC's office in Cambridge in order for the donor to receive a tax-exemption. The funds will be processed in Cambridge and immediately returned to the team. A return address, name of the student team member in which the check should be addressed to, and stamp must accompany the donation in order to return your team's donation.

Donations should be sent to: One Laptop per Child P.O. Box 425087 Cambridge, MA 02142USA

Finally, students teams will have to provide a detailed account of their expenditures, to allow for proper accounting on the foundation’s books. As donations will be collected in the name of the foundation, the corresponding expenses will have to be booked the same way.

General Fundraising Tips & Ideas

• Post your ideas here!
• Post what has worked in the past!
• When have you failed? Let's not let fellow teams make the same mistakes.

Our team is searching and discussing with donors to raise fund.Evenif there a long step (beurocratic procedure) to come up to the agreement but we are trying to reach the final stage. one of our donor specify that the money should be used for transportation cost. so, does this money should be pass according to OLPCorps Fundraising principles?

Tesfa Dagmawi Sebsibie from team of http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_DKTH_ETHIO_PROPOSAL

Grants & Foundations

University Grants

Indiana University

• Hutton Honors Undergraduate Grant Program
  • HHC has funded thousands of dollars toward supporting university students working in OLPC deployments. The following grants have funded individual OLPC initiatives: International Experience Program, Research Grant, Professional Experience Grant, and Travel Grant.
• Metz Foundation
  • $5,000 (USD) has been awarded to fund IU's student organization supporting XO deployments. The grant was written to support alternative power resources for an XO deployment in an off-grid environment.
• Indiana University Student Association Aid
  • $9,900 (USD)has been awarded from IUSAaid to fund IU students' travel expenses incurred while developing XO deployments.

General Grant Programs

Africa Grantmaker's Affinity Group

• Africa Grantmaker's Affinity Group
• 437 Madison Avenue 37th Floor New York, NY 10022

Country-specific Foundations

Your Deployment Country here!

Logos & Media

• One Laptop per Child Flickr Account

Insert links to OLPCorps logos here! Insert links to OLPC logos here! Insert links to media

Example Donation Letters