Good Works for a Good Earth: The Case for The Virtual Scavengers Project

In the fall, a single working mother comes to Virtual Scavengers on the city's east side. Enthusiastic and determined, she signs on for a program through which people who cannot afford to buy a computer can earn one. For four consecutive Saturdays, she works five hours in the Virtual Scavengers warehouse; the organization provides her a hot lunch. On the fifth Saturday, she receives a free computer and instruction on how to set it up and operate it. The woman considers the enormity of this Christmas gift for her son - and cries.

Workers at an Indianapolis food bank learn that one of their clients, a legally blind man, has solid computer skills. They send him to Virtual Scavengers, where he purchases a computer for $25. It is equipped with a 25-inch monitor that allows him to use his limited vision to provide medical transcription services.

An accountant flees political turmoil in his African homeland. He and his family arrive in Indianapolis through the Catholic Social Services Refugee Resettlement Program. He immediately looks for work, but language and cultural barriers prove overwhelming. He enrolls in Virtual Scavengers' hands-on apprenticeship program where he can receive certifications in A-Plus, MCSE and Network Plus. He excels, and maps out a two-year plan to open his own business offering computer support to other small businesses.

The Virtual Scavengers Project is a nonprofit 501c(3) organization located in Indianapolis. Since its founding in 1997, it has become the model national program for handling "e-waste," the astonishing volume of unwanted computers and related technology in this country.

Two principles guide Virtual Scavengers operations: Reuse everything, if possible; and do not allow anything go to a landfill.

VSP collects and refurbishes computers for domestic and international reuse. The organization sells computers, on a cost-recovery basis, to nonprofit organizations and their clients locally, nationally and internationally. Virtual Scavengers has distributed computers across the United States from New Mexico to North Carolina, and has refurbished computers sent by mission organizations to Central America, South America, Africa and several Caribbean countries. Virtual Scavengers’ starting cost for a full Pentium I system is as low as $25. The staff has learned that people with even limited resources would rather buy a computer than be given one.

Computers that cannot be reused as whole units are demanufactured and the component parts reused. Parts that cannot be reused are either recycled or reused in Virtual Scavengers’ unique Geeks “R” Us program. Creative volunteers and students use the parts to build anything except a computer. They have created a range of amazing products, from “Hacker-Hip” jewelry and decorative items to robots and GPS tracking devices.

Virtual Scavengers is a training program as well as a reuse organization. Its facilities include two classrooms and a library. Some individuals who learned computer skills through the training program work as computer technicians in retail outlets or corporations or as self-employed service technicians. Their success inspired Virtual Scavengers to develop a formalized apprenticeship training program.

Virtual Scavengers trains more than 100 unemployed and low-income Indianapolis residents each year. A new training center has capacity for up to 18 students per class. Overall, approximately 60 percent of students are African American, 25 percent are Hispanic and 15 percent are Caucasian; they are 63 percent female and 37 percent male. The hands-on training uses all their senses: People who in the past have been labeled as “lazy” or “stupid” can work hard and productively in such a setting.

Although Virtual Scavengers’ primary focus is on computers and computer-related equipment like printers, the organization is somewhat controversial in accepting any electronic equipment. Most manufacturers, retailers, and end users do not take responsibility for unwanted electronics. Virtual Scavengers’ leadership believes that in the paralysis of ongoing debate about who should take responsibility for this “historical waste,” a grassroots movement needs to keep it out of landfills.

Connecting business and charity

Virtual Scavengers is the brainchild of its first and only executive director, John Crooks. Crooks became aware of both the daunting problem and unlimited potential of "e-scrap management" in 1997, when Indiana National Bank loaned his church eight computers for a church exhibit. When he tried to return the computers, the bank asked Crooks to dispose of them on its behalf. He realized that the bank was the tip of a computer-laden iceberg; companies citywide likely needed to unload computers that were functional but (to their thinking) dated. Crooks himself had three computers in his garage that he didn't know what to do with.

He pondered. He recalled a program he'd seen on a mission trip in El Salvador that helped children of the civil war salvage old bicycles and bike parts to make new ones; their sale funded the purchase of schoolbooks.

Crooks thought about connecting business and charity. He considered the serious ramifications of a growing "technology gap," the inaccessibility to computers among certain underserved populations. His eight surplus bank computers gave him the idea of taking older, unwanted computers and giving them to people who would otherwise have no access to such knowledge. At the same time, he figured he could teach people computer skills.

Crooks placed an ad in his church bulletin: "Hey, buddy, can you spare a computer?" Virtual Scavengers was born in the fifty-plus machines that rolled in that first week. It started as a joint project between the St. Vincent de Paul Society groups at two churches: St Pius X, on the north side of Indianapolis; and St. Philip Neri, on the near east side of Indianapolis. It became Crooks' life's work.

Crooks worked full-time to sustain Virtual Scavengers for its first five years, with help from his wife and brother. Then several events in 2002 affected his organization's evolution. The first was that Virtual Scavengers became a hands-on training center for two programs: Training Inc. and the Hoosier Veterans Assistance Foundation. Training Inc. provides job skills and job-seeking skills training for unemployed and underemployed workers. Hoosier Vets provides workforce reentry programs for disabled veterans.

Then a local TV station featured Virtual Scavengers and its Saturday Open Warehouse program, in which an individual works four Saturdays in the warehouse to earn a free computer and instruction on the fifth Saturday. These two events provided Virtual Scavengers with willing, long-term volunteers.

The organization further raised its profile through its partnership with the Indiana Recycling Coalition's E-Scrap Action Program (ESAP). ESAP increased general awareness of Virtual Scavengers throughout the state, which helped lead to funding support, best practices guidance and more.

Virtual Scavengers outgrew Crooks' garage, a storage unit, and then a second storage unit in its first year of operation. It was then relocated to an empty storefront and a garage at St. Philip Neri Church. The organization moved to its current factory, warehouse and training center at 754 N. Sherman Drive in August 2002. Virtual Scavengers occupies approximately 10,000 square feet of Sherman Park Small Business Center, the former site of the RCA/Thompson Electronics plant. The staff lauds landlord Cliff Rubenstein for his constant support, which has included allowing Virtual Scavengers to occupy the space rent-free until fall 2004. The organization now pays $500 monthly.

Crooks and three key administrative staff members handle daily operations. All are minimally supported; in the truest sense, Virtual Scavengers is a labor of love and a ministry of grace. Four other full-time volunteers have managerial and technical duties. Their work is supported by four regular part-time volunteers, about a dozen intermittent volunteers, and from five to twenty "drop-in" volunteers on any given day.

Financial overview

Virtual Scavengers' goal from the start it has been to meet operating costs from earned revenue rather than grants. It was important for the organization to demonstrate - counter to widely publicized notions that computer reuse is prohibitively expensive - that reuse is not only less costly than disposal but can actually be profitable. Virtual Scavengers also wanted to show its low-income and disadvantaged clientele the possibilities inherent in becoming self-sustaining, as an organization or as an individual.

Virtual Scavengers' 2004 budget of $36,000 reflects the organization's absence of payroll or rent obligations. The income that pays operating expenses comes entirely from earned revenue - sales, service and training. The organization generates enough revenue to cover operating expenses only because it has a highly skilled and deeply committed volunteer staff.

Virtual Scavengers has historically accepted all materials free of charge. Recently, it began to charge a nominal fee to pick up quantities of items up from businesses (as low as $10, depending on the size of the load). The fee barely covers the volunteers' fuel costs. Given the organization's limited human and other resources, it prefers that materials be dropped off, which remains a free service. Virtual Scavengers may initiate a small fee for non-working items beginning mid-year 2005. The organization also charges for some training programs and collects small fees for refurbished computers.

Virtual Scavengers has received grants from the Mervis Family Foundation for general operating expenses; the Hoover Family Foundation to set up workstations for hands-on training; SBC Excelerator Grant for technology training and marketing; a matching grant from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management for capacity building; and the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, which funds the apprenticeship program.

Looking toward future growth, the organization will need to initiate a salary structure. Virtual Scavengers will seek grants, corporate contributions and individual donations to build its capacity, expand current successful programs and develop new projects. The best estimate for a paid staff to run the organization is about $350,000 per year.

Current facilities meet the organization's needs and until recently, have been rent-free. Beginning this fall, Virtual Scavengers pays $500 per month in rent. While the figure is more than reasonable, it represents a substantial increase in annual expenses. Virtual Scavengers also is in dire need of a box truck.

A model for communities across the state and nation

Virtual Scavengers is among the ten largest computer reuse programs in the nation in both scale and volume. Yet prospective donors, volunteers and potential clients learn about its programs, products and services primarily through word of mouth and some occasional local media coverage. More recently, Virtual Scavengers' partnership with the ESAP raised its profile considerably.

Crooks designed Virtual Scavengers to be replicated and scaled to the size of any community it serves. Part of the organizational mission to see reuse programs of some size in all of Indiana's 92 counties. To achieve this, more statewide outreach needs to occur. Virtual Scavengers has an affiliate program in Chicago and works with existing programs in three other Hoosier cities. Its leadership would like to see a statewide network of programs sharing knowledge, materials and resources, with Virtual Scavengers as the hub. In the way that Goodwill has established itself as a national a model for clothing reuse, Virtual Scavengers will become the model for technology.

* obtaining a steady supply of computers
* having enough manpower to keep things moving
* finding adequate storage space for computer equipment until it is processed
* finding an outlet for computers and parts that cannot be processed
* collecting enough money to keep the doors open
* acquiring software licenses to reuse software on computers

The organization quickly overcame the challenge of securing unwanted computers. Once word got out, the supply flowed in. Staffing continues to be a challenge, because Virtual Scavengers operates an all-volunteer organization; the ability to pay staff would help overcome this. Virtual Scavengers has benefited from having its primary warehousing, training and operations space donated until recently; it also has been able to secure donated storage for large donations of equipment.

Finding outlets for the computers and parts that Virtual Scavengers cannot reuse has been a bigger challenge. It is costly to find a recycler to manage the material responsibly. As a result, Virtual Scavengers stockpiled materials. In 2004, however, Virtual Scavengers began working with several recycling partners that will pay for some items and reuse or recycle all materials responsibly. Given the volatility of this market, however, Virtual Scavengers will continue to face this challenge at some level. For the first several years of the program, Virtual Scavengers was able to reuse over 90 percent of the material that came in; less than 10 percent had to go to recycling outlets. With growth and older technology entering the stream, reuse today is estimated at 85 percent.

Most nonprofit organizations share Virtual Scavengers' funding challenge. Virtual Scavengers has been successful in securing more grants during the past two years, and has found ways to increase revenue. While this challenge is not completely solved, the organization's financial outlook is improving.

Finally, the issue of the legality of reusing software licenses has long been a problem for Virtual Scavengers and other reuse organizations. As a result, many reuse organizations used pirated software. That all changed last year, when part of the settlement of the government's anti-monopoly suit against Microsoft Corporation created the Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers Program, which allows nonprofit refurbishers to buy batches of licenses for Windows 98 and Windows 2000 for $5 each.

Virtual Scavengers has gained valuable insight in "best practices" through its ESAP stakeholder participation and involvement in the Best Practices and Reuse committees. The organization also worked with two student teams from Purdue University's School of Industrial Engineering to gain information on how to recreate work space and processes. Virtual Scavengers has focused on rebuilding warehouse and production areas based on these findings and moved out the huge amount of excess materials accumulated in storage.

Conclusion

Virtual Scavengers is at a pivotal point. In its young existence, the staff has learned some crucial lessons, not the least of which is that a nonprofit business is still a business and must be managed accordingly. In the immediate future, that means creating a new budget by cost center, outlining a staffing plan, writing job descriptions for new positions, soliciting public relations guidance, clearly defining the market and launching a marketing program. These endeavors both require and encourage dependable funding sources.

Virtual Scavengers is charting an ambitious course. It will provide more extensive training programs, increase international distribution, expand demanufacturing capacity to provide low-cost services for commercial reuse companies, and work more with large corporations as sources of inventory. The organization will forge a cooperative arrangement with a data security software company that enables it to offer corporations cutting-edge data removal services.

The simplest measure of success is the number of computers that Virtual Scavengers collects, refurbishes and redistributes - estimated to be more than 10,000 since 1997. Its realistic goal is to process 5,000 computers per month. (Although the figure is impressive, it represents merely 5 percent of what's out there; Indiana alone has 1.2 million unused, unwanted computers destined for landfills.) About 300 people have completed training programs; 30 or so have found gainful employment in the technology and computer field as a result of their training.

Virtual Scavengers benefits a number of people: disadvantaged persons who acquire job skills and confidence; individuals and business owners who find a second outlet for no-longer-needed technology; recipients of computers locally and abroad. The ultimate beneficiary of Virtual Scavengers programs, however, is the next generation, who will be spared the danger of contaminated water, air and land due to poor electronics management.

This unique organization offers a win-win-win approach to daunting environmental, technological and social issues in an environment of quiet faith and steady productivity. It warrants our admiration and more importantly, our financial support.

John Crooks, Executive Director
754 N. Sherman Dr. Suite 216, Indianapolis, IN 46201
317/917-9111 or 317/797-4320
Fax :( 317) 917-9911