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September 24, 2007, 03:32 PM ET
Laptop Campaign Lets Individuals Make Charitable Donations
Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child has already confounded some skeptical expectations: The nonprofit project is churning out plenty of machines, and it has managed to keep production costs down. But despite reaching a number of handshake agreements, Mr. Negroponte hasn’t managed to get many developing nations to actually pay for his products.
“I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a check written,” he told The New York Times. Mr. Negroponte isn’t about to stop chatting up foreign heads of state, but now he’s also appealing to a group that seems more willing to sign on the dotted line: American and Canadian consumers.
Today One Laptop Per Child unveiled a new marketing effort, called “Give 1 Get 1,” that will let people purchase the computers as individual charitable donations. A $399 order will buy two machines — one that will be shipped to a child in a developing nation, and one that will arrive at the buyer’s doorstep by Christmas.
It’s easy to imagine the program succeeding because the purchases will be tax-deductible and the colorful OLPC machines have real novelty value. Whether philanthropists will find any use for the low-cost laptops remains to be seen. —Brock Read
Categories: Teaching
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