A unique, new program from Compugen Finance offers Canadian businesses a novel and effective way to address increasingly problematic end-of-life asset disposition challenges, while enabling them to continue corporate donations programs in spite of difficult economic times.

The Charity Pool program is offered by Compugen Finance Inc. (CFI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Compugen that offers technology leasing and rental services, and ReCycleIT, a comprehensive end-of-life technology disposition service. The program–to which tax receipts do not apply–works as follows:

1. A donor Corporation agrees to donate decommissioned, end-of-life IT assets to its Charity of choice;
2. Compugen Finance reviews the list of assets being offered and buys them from the Corporation based on an appraised value;
3. Instead of giving the money to the Corporation, however, CFI gives the proceeds from the sale to the Charity, half in the form of cash that the Charity can use as it pleases, and half as 'credits' that the Charity can use to purchase new IT products and services from Compugen;
4. The donor Corporation gets full credit/visibility for the donation to the Charity (e.g., press release, etc.);
5. CFI processes the end-of-life assets in accordance with its ReCycleIT Asset Disposition Services:
   1. IT assets having residual value are data-wiped, refurbished and resold;
   2. IT assets having no value are recycled in accordance with stringent data security and environmental best practices and applicable legislation.

"We're getting great response from all the corporations and charities we've been speaking to," enthuses Steve Glover, senior vice-president, Compugen Finance Inc. "There is a need for the asset disposal service anyway, and it's allowing corporations to continue their charitable giving."

Glover goes on to say that when it comes to disposing of IT assets that have reached the end of their useful life, organizations have only two real concerns–data security and environmental responsibility. While the value of the assets may be significant to the charities, the potential monetary value of the old assets is inconsequential to donor organizations–from an accounting perspective, they have already fully depreciated the book value of these assets and have no desire to receive any income from the asset disposition.

Although charities appreciate the donations of end-of-life computer equipment they sometimes receive from corporate sponsors, the truth is that while older equipment might be useful for 'computers for schools' type programs, most charities don't really want to use three- or four-year old technology. The CFI Charity Pool program gives charities the flexibility to be able to buy new technology to help them run their businesses and have cash to fund various programs.

"This is really a win-win-win situation," exclaims Glover, explaining that: charities continue to get support from corporate sponsors; Compugen Finance gains whatever net revenue it can generate by reselling the decommissioned assets; and corporations can keep giving to their favourite charities, while getting rid of old equipment with the help of a reseller that knows the issues surrounding recycling and has a proven asset disposition process that meets all requirements for data security and environmental stewardship.

Glover and his team at Compugen Finance are also talking to Compugen's key product vendor partners to see if they want to join or contribute to this effort by becoming "Charity Pool Vendor of Choice" by offering discounts on products purchased by charities using Charity Pool funds or Compugen credits.

The Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness (CCAA) is one charitable agency that has recently joined CFI's Charity Pool program to offer corporate donors an effective way to keep on supporting the agency's Canada-wide efforts to give hope to abuse victims whose tragic circumstances and terror-filled lives have left them feeling helpless with nowhere to turn.

The CCAA is a national, non-profit, non-government charitable organization dedicated to eliminating child abuse through advocacy, education, public awareness and prevention programs. CCAA also provides accessible support, healing and individual empowerment for adult survivors, their families and caregivers through community and corporate partnerships. The CCAA, which offers a comprehensive array of program services, touches the lives of 200,000 child and adult victims of abuse every year.

CCAA sponsors include a 'who's who' list of leading Canadian businesses, including Hudson's Bay, Fedex, P&G, Haggar Canada, Hard Rock Café, Chevron, Toronto Police Association, Hasbro, AOL Canada, Toronto's Q107 radio and many more.

"In these somewhat difficult economic times, our partners want to keep up their giving," says Ellen Campbell, Founder and Executive Director, CCAA. "The Compugen Technology Charity Pool is a creative initiative that can absolutely be a 'win-win' solution."

Campbell goes on to say that she is truly excited about the Compugen program because it facilitates donations, while offering a much-needed service to CCAA's partner organizations that need to dispose of old equipment properly. It also allows partners to continue gaining positive public relations value from their donations.

The CCAA is looking at ways to build a new program based on the Charity Pool model so that sponsor organizations will know that when they contribute to this program, their donations are not just going into some big pot or being used to pay for administration costs, but rather are going into a specific program to help abuse victims reclaim their lives.

The agency is also looking to see if the model can be used to enhance any of its 21 existing programs. For example, Campbell suggests that while the agency is small and not likely to need to buy computers for its own internal use, their scholarship program might benefit from new computers.

"Abuse crosses all socio-economic lines and, whether well-to-do or not, many victims of abuse have little or no up-to-date training. We offer scholarships of up to $2,500 to help them return to the workforce," she explains. "We are hoping to be able to also include a new desktop or laptop PC as part of each scholarship."

Campbell concludes her comments by saying that, "Everyone I have spoken to on the corporate side about the Compugen program 'gets it'; but I haven't even begun to really promote this yet, so we expect the program to be a big success."

If you're part of any organization looking for a creative way to continue your donation program, or part of a charity that would benefit from continued sponsorship by Canada's business leaders, and you think the Charity Pool program just might be the right answer, contact Steve Glover for more information at sglover@compugen.com or 905-695-8237. Compugen Finance can also help you deal with the challenge of disposing of end-of-life IT assets in a secure, cost-effective and environmentally friendly way through their ReCycleIT Asset Disposition Service.