Prefer to send a check, set up a recurring gift, or donate stock? Email hi@techempower.org.
Thank you.
Or give gear instead
💻🔋🛴🤖🚗
Donate your old electronics
If it plugs in, charges up, or ever did — we want it. Working or dead, ancient or brand new, one phone or a barn full. We’re a repair-and-reuse shop, not a recycler: working gear gets wiped, refurbished, and handed to a family that needs it; broken gear gets fixed, or becomes the parts that fix the next one. Only what’s truly left over gets recycled, properly. Nothing goes to the landfill.
🖥️Screens & TVsMonitors, flat-screen TVs, projectors. Yes, even the old tube kind.
🔌Cables, chargers & gadgetsRouters, printers, speakers, cameras, keyboards, that drawer of cords.
🤖Robots, drones & toysGame consoles, robot vacuums, drones, RC cars, anything with a battery inside.
🛴E-bikes, scooters & hoverboardsThe whole ride or just the battery pack. Dead packs too.
🔋Lithium batteries — every kindPhone, laptop, power-tool and e-bike packs, portable chargers, loose lithium cells, dead or alive. No alkaline, NiCad, NiMH or lead-acid, please.
⚡Solar & power gearPanels, inverters, portable power stations, UPS backups, generators.
🔧Wire, electrical & lightingCopper wire, electrical panels, breakers, conduit, enclosures, switches, outlets and other electrical supplies, motors, smart bulbs and LED fixtures. No fluorescent tubes or CFLs, please.
🛠️Tools of all kindsPower tools and their batteries, hand tools, meters and test gear, shop equipment. Working or not.
💿Software, media & accountsLicense keys, boxed software, CDs, DVDs, floppies, tape, transferable subscriptions and accounts, domains, cloud credits. If it helps a family or our shop, why not?
🚗Electric vehiclesCars, golf carts, mobility scooters. Running or not — we handle the DMV and IRS paperwork.
Not sure if something counts? It probably does. Ask.
How it works
Tell us what you’ve got. One email is plenty — a rough list and a photo if it’s easy.
We arrange a drop-off or a free pickup anywhere in Nevada County. Larger loads and vehicles are always picked up.
You get a written receipt for your taxes, and we get to work repairing.
Back up anything you want to keep. We wipe every drive and phone before reuse and can send you a data-destruction confirmation on request — but once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Sign out of your accounts. On iPhones and iPads, turn off Find My; on Android, remove your Google account; on Macs and Windows PCs, sign out of iCloud or Microsoft. A locked device can’t be reused for anyone.
Pull SIM cards and memory cards if you want them. Chargers and cables are a huge help — toss them in.
🔋 Battery safety
Never put a lithium battery in the trash or recycling bin. It’s illegal in California and it starts truck and landfill fires.
Tape over the terminals of loose batteries (or drop each one in its own zip bag) and keep them out of a jumbled pile of metal.
Swollen, leaking, crushed, or burned batteries: don’t bring those to us. Set the item on concrete away from anything flammable and take it to the McCourtney Road Transfer Station household hazardous waste drop-off (14741 Wolf Mountain Rd, Grass Valley). Free for households; call (530) 274-3090 to confirm hours before you go.
Your tax receipt
TechEMPOWER.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 92-2581940). We’ll give you a written acknowledgment describing what you donated. The IRS has you, the donor, set the value — what it would sell for used today. A few thresholds worth knowing:
Over $500 in donated items for the year: attach IRS Form 8283 to your return.
A single item or group over $5,000: you need a qualified appraisal, and we sign Section B of your 8283.
Vehicles (cars, golf carts, anything titled): we send you IRS Form 1098-C within 30 days, and we walk you through the DMV release of liability so the car is fully off your hands.
🏢 Businesses, schools, offices & agencies
Clearing out a closet of old laptops or a fleet of monitors? We’ll pick up in bulk, provide an itemized receipt, and certify NIST 800-88 data destruction for every drive and SSD — serial numbers listed, certificate of destruction included. Email hi@techempower.org.
🛍️ Thrift stores & fellow nonprofits
Electronics pile up in the back room: untested, unwiped, and illegal to toss if there’s a battery inside. We’ll pick them up on a regular run, test and wipe the ones you can sell, and repair or reuse the rest — free. Email hi@techempower.org to set up a pickup schedule.
