Scott Belford is on a mission.
The lanky Savannah, Ga., native recently donated a revamped PC to Lama Wangchuk, who uses it to surf the Web, communicate with his family in India, and operate a Tibetan Buddhist nonprofit organization out of his tiny Kaimuki apartment.
The lama is not the lone beneficiary of Belford's largesse. Belford's organization, the Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation, refurbishes and gives away hundreds of computers a year to schools and homeless shelters, as well as the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation.
Software designer Curtis J. Kropar, founder of Hawaiian Hope, also specializes in recycled technology, in particular by building computer labs in homeless shelters on Oahu. Kropar says he encourages the homeless to keep the computers once they move out of the shelter.
Another long time IT philanthropist is Ken Goldstein, founder of Hawaii Computers for Kids, who recycles computer gear and distributes it to grade schools and high schools statewide.
Also, Kevin Hughes, of software startup Sprout, has long contributed used hardware to nonprofits, and encourages others to do the same.
He says he's found it easy to coordinate his tech philanthropy through Tech Hui, a nonprofit composed of IT and life sciences entrepreneurs.
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