February 11, 2005

11:13 AM

I have an old-ish Mac (Dual G4/500) I'd like to donate to a worthy cause. What's my best bet for doing so, and making sure that it's a valid 501(c)3 company who can provide a receipt? Also, how do I determine its worth as a contribution? I'm in NYC, and I don't want to be bothered contacting individual places- is there a central bulletin board for this kind of thing?
posted by mkultra to (8 comments total)

making sure that it's a valid 501(c)3 company who can provide a receipt?

www.guidestar.org (the italics command is not working).
posted by MLIS at 11:36 AM on February 11, 2005

If you sold it (to me), how much would you want for it?
posted by BlueTrain at 11:37 AM on February 11, 2005

I can't help with non-profits in NYC, but one way to get an idea of fair market value of something is to visit a popular auctioning service and search for your item.
posted by AlexReynolds at 11:37 AM on February 11, 2005

(I consult with a nonprofit in Minneapolis that would probably love to have this donation. Will contact you directly.)

I recently donated a similar machine to this same organization -- I estimated its value by looking at used boxes with similar specs at PowerMax.
posted by omnidrew at 11:39 AM on February 11, 2005

In NYC, when I had to get rid of my old macs I hit ebay for market value, and then craigslisted them. Some non-profit types seemed to be checking it frequently for tech goods they could aquire. By posting to craigslist, you do run the risk of outright selling it, of course. Obviously from the responses above you'll do fine with a machine like that, it took awhile for the G3 to go, and the SE/30 never did.
posted by safetyfork at 11:56 AM on February 11, 2005

FWIW, I'm looking for a slightly newish-G4...
posted by ParisParamus at 12:09 PM on February 11, 2005

I'd be interested in buying it as well. How much are you asking?
posted by bshort at 12:24 PM on February 11, 2005

FWIW I have a dual 450 G4 with 896 MB RAM and a Mac Edition Radeon 7000 32MB PCI card (and a bluetooth dongle, and a couple 30/40 gig hard drives) and I will almost definitely be looking to sell it after I get a PowerBook this summer. So, I dunno, write yourselves a stickie or something, or let me know and I'll put your name on a stickie myself.
posted by cyrusdogstar at 5:47 PM on February 11, 2005