FreeIT - Stafford.

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Can anyone recommend a local print firm who can produce some sticky labels for us at a good price? Maybe even pop a few extra free in if we order a stack?
We had paid for some from a seller on a well known auction website but they have arrived with shocking cut alignment as you can see in the second photo.
We'll take that up with the seller but we're going to need more and would sooner get it right this time.

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Not every interaction we have is caught on camera or added to our blog, whether that's because of safeguarding concerns, or camera shyness, or the fact that we plain forget.

However we can tell you that in the last few weeks we have provided free equipment to several more deprived families, through referrals made by our new found friends at:

-Wolverhampton City Council (Adult education)
-Staffordshire County Council (Family support)
-Newcastle & Stafford College group (Student services)
-Spring Housing (Homelessness mentors)
-Making Space (Supported care)
-Sickle Cell Family Support Wolverhampton

We thank you all again for your continued donations of equipment and financial help towards our running costs and spare parts :)
 
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Matt_S

A few posts under my belt
Just got rid of a bunch of old kit at the radio :(

Will keep you in mind if we upgrade anything else.
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Can you help us buy some parts?
Each one of these red stickers represents a part we need to buy to restore these laptops to former glory and then give them a new home where they are desperately needed.
We're happy to provide the skills to repair these for free, but we depend on your kind help to fund the bits and bobs that we can't escape paying for.
You can find our secure payment link at www.paypal.me/freeitstafford
In total there's around £150 of parts needed for these 6 laptops, but we promise even the smallest donation will go to good use as pennies make pounds

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Always a pleasure to link up with Georgia and the team at Wolverhampton City Council's adult education service, where we've been able to provide devices to help their clients get online when they would have had no other way to manage their online affairs.
It's thanks to your kind donations of unwanted kit and help towards our running costs and spare parts that we are able to do all this for free, and help so many families with equipment where it's desperately needed
🙂


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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Due to some ongoing technical issues we've had to suspend all pre-arranged appointments for this week.
We can continue to take applications for help but it may be some time before those can be approved and fulfilled.
We're also temporarily limiting the donations of equipment that we can accept.
We'll let you know once normal service is resumed :)
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Free IT received our first christmas card yesterday. Much as we appreciate the sentiment, we do ask that nobody else includes us on their list.
We consider cards a massive waste of money and paper, and we'd prefer that if anyone does particularly feel the need to be festive, let us know which local charity you donated a quid to instead, and we'll match it in return
🙂
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks all for your patience over the last week while we dealt with some hurdles, we're back to normality now.
We've a couple more visits to make this week but we are slowly 'wrapping up' for the year.
We thought you might like to know that between 16th January, and today, and with your kind help, we've been able to reallocate 320 internet ready devices back into the community where they are desperately needed, for free
🙂

Here's to another successful year in 2022!

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
Don't forget, if you upgraded your laptop, PC, iPad, or tablet over the festive season...
We'll take your old one, in any condition, and give it a new lease of life where it's desperately needed
🙂

We can still make it to 365, one for every day of the year, by the time we hit our first year anniversary on January 18th!
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
We've been alerted to an issue with our phone number which has meant callers are currently having conversations with a voicemail as opposed to a real person, we're sorry this has happened and for not spotting it earlier.
We don't have a physical land line, our 01785 number is a diverting service which we were gifted for our first year and relies on a few factors to keep working, including the mobile phone which we use to receive those calls, which unfortunately is subject to the usual technical hitches with electronics.
We'll have this fixed by lunchtime, thanks for your patience
🙂
 
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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
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We depend on you!
All of the work we do is funded by you lovely people!
None of us are paid for the time we give, but the parts we use, the travelling we do, the batteries and pass labels for our PAT tester, cleaning wipes, cable ties, there are really too many odds and ends to list, those are all thanks to your kind donations, which are helping us to help so many others.
With the festivities out of the way we've had a little surge in equipment donations too and thus more costs, so if you are looking for a credible, local, non-profit organisation to support this year, we'd love to speak to you about sponsorship, but we're also super grateful for any help that anyone can offer through our secure methods:
- Buy us a brew at www.ko-fi.com/freeitstafford
- Make a 'friends and family' direct payment at www.paypal.me/freeitstafford
- Pay straight to our bank (Unity Trust), details on request
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
We're keen to speak to local businesses about ongoing sponsorship to pay for some of our parts and running costs. Your logo will be seen by hundreds, if not thousands of eyes, in homes and community venues
🙂

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
It's exactly a year ago today, that we delivered the first 3 refurbished laptops and tablets to the first local school.
Although we haven't quite met our target of one for every day since, we can boast a total to date of 352 devices which have been donated by you lovely people, carefully refurbished, and passed on to those who desperately need them :)

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FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
A huge thanks to the team at EU Automation of Beaconside, your donation of equipment has now gone through our comprehensive refurbishment process and already we've gifted 12 of those units to Priory Park Community School to furnish their new computer suite
🙂

If you are a local business upgrading your IT equipment, drop us a line if you're about to scrap the old stuff, we can provide free secure erase certificates and instead give your unwanted kit a new lease of life where it's desperately needed
🙂
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
We're in the process of transferring our email provider, and removing our reliance on Virgin Media. It's a free service to us, granted, but only borrowed as part of a consumer package paid for by a private sponsor, which we can't rely on forever.
For now, freeitstafford@virginmedia.com emails will still find their way to us, but we will be gradually renewing our services to instead use freeitstafford@engineer.com, if you could begin to update your own records to suit :)
 

FreeITstafford

Well-Known Forumite
We're keen to work with local businesses looking to support a credible non-profit as part of your Community Social Responsibility remits, or through sheer kindness. You'll be able to boast your support for an organisation that's so far helped hundreds of needy families and good causes.

All of our refurbished PC’s and laptops leave us for their new homes with a slideshow of desktop backgrounds which advances to the next image every 60 seconds, then restarts after all slides have displayed. Those backgrounds currently show a pretty picture and our own logo. We are looking to maximise on the value of this niche media, with sponsorship deals to advertisers. Your image will be seen by hundreds, if not thousands of eyes.



We can offer 3 levels of sponsorship:



Gold - £50 per month

A gold sponsorship will buy a full screen advertisement of your own composition and choice, as one full desktop background within a slideshow of 10 total, on every PC and laptop we refurbish while your payment is ongoing. We’ll also give you a huge plug on our social media on the day you sign up!



Silver - £30 per month

Silver sponsorship will buy a half screen advertisement and website entry and social media plug as above.



Bronze - £15 per month

Bronze sponsorship will buy a quarter screen advertisement and website entry and social media plug as above.



On all counts we’d offer to share our allocations spreadsheet with you, with redactions for recipients who ask for anonymity, so that you can visualise where your advertisement is being seen.

There’s no contracts, no small print, if you decide to end your sponsorship just cease your payment, we’ll choose a new picture to fill the gap, and move on amicably, while offering our sincere thanks for any contribution up to that point.

We will also point out that we don’t place any customisation limits on devices, so the end user is free to change the sequence or the images. In reality, we find that the graphics we’ve chosen are well received, and have remained on display in many cases after months of use. Of course, we would continue to install your advertisement on new refurbishments. Please keep in mind we try to keep the left side of the image uncluttered as program icons fill that space, making them difficult to see and your image obstructed.

You can see an example slideshow (sped up) on our YouTube channel by clicking here:



To be involved, get in touch with your artwork and let us know how much you'll be pledging :)
 
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