This month Computers for Kids marks 25 years. In that time we have refurbished and donated more than 60,000 computers to students and nonprofits across Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Utah, on an operating budget that has never included a dollar of government funding.
It started with two pallets
In 2001 Molli Wingert was a home-based bookkeeper in Boise who needed a computer for a new employee, and heard the school district was unloading surplus machines. She came back with twenty of them. She and her nine-year-old son got eleven of them working together. They each kept one, and the rest went to his friends.
Then the district offered her fifteen hundred more.
Computers for Kids began donating computer systems to kids that year, staffed by volunteers, and grew 700 percent over its first six years. Molli still leads it today.
What we do today
We take in retired computers from businesses, schools and individuals, rebuild them, and place them in the homes of K–14 students. Every machine goes out with a licensed copy of the latest version of Windows and a full year of technical support. The all-in cost is $65, and families on the school lunch program receive a credit that covers it.
The program is not income based. Any K–14 student may apply, and no student is turned away over money.
We now place about 3,500 computers with students each year. In our 2025 fiscal year we received 7,299 donated units valued at $729,900. We operate on $936,420 a year and receive no government funding.
For rural families far from Boise, we mail the computer directly. There is no distribution hub to drive to, a model that has carried machines to students in towns with no nearby nonprofit of any kind.
One family's story
Marissa's son starts fourth grade this year. A new computer was beyond what the family could spend, and she expected a refurbished one to show it. It didn't. The machine arrived with the latest version of Windows and a year of technical support behind it, for $65. Because every student can apply each year, she intends to come back every other year and move him up to a newer one as he grows.
"Twenty-five years ago I was trying to solve one small problem and ended up with a garage full of computers," said Molli Wingert, founder and CEO. "Sixty thousand machines later, the need hasn't gone away — it has changed shape. A student without a computer at home today isn't behind on one assignment. They're behind on all of them."
25 years by the numbers
Together, Computers for Kids and our sister company Secure Erase have taken in more than 440,000 computer systems over 25 years. More than 60,000 have been refurbished and donated to students and nonprofits, and more than 380,000 have been responsibly recycled.
Laid out at about four square feet each, the recycled systems alone would cover the field at Boise State's Albertsons Stadium more than 26 times. At roughly 27 pounds per system, that's more than 10 million pounds, over 5,100 tons, of electronics kept out of Idaho landfills. In our early years, when companies had nowhere to send their surplus computers, full semi-loads of equipment arrived from the City of Boise, Micron and the IRS. The 60,000 donated computers would cover the famous blue turf more than four times over.
Our Utah work has grown alongside the Idaho program, with three distributions near Salt Lake City delivering roughly 1,800 computers in partnership with local manufacturers. A fourth is in the works.
Trusted with your equipment
Computers for Kids is a Registered Microsoft Refurbisher. We hold Candid's 2026 Platinum Seal of Transparency, the highest of four levels, earned by publishing our financial, governance and program results in full for public review. Data destruction on donated equipment is handled by our sister company, Secure Erase, LLC, which is NAID AAA certified, so every donation is verified clean and ready for the program.
Be part of the next 25 years
Students can apply, businesses can donate retired equipment, and anyone can give at cfkid.org. Our warehouse at 8540 W. Elisa St., Boise, accepts equipment donations Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thank you to every donor, volunteer, school and family who has been part of the first 25 years.