London Laptop Donation Drive
Find a local organisation you can donate a laptop to, or contribute your skills or cash.
This page can help you find out where to help across London, and in the following boroughs: Hammersmith and Fulham, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton and Kingston, Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Westminster.
And to supercharge local efforts at a community level, The Restart Project is mobilising its London repair volunteers to help. Find out more
We’re also building a list of projects across the UK that are collecting devices to give to local people in need.
The response has been great but there are currently still thousands of children in Lewisham doing their homework on smartphones. We desperately need donated laptops.Damian Griffiths, Catbytes CIC
Catbytes (Lewisham)
Catbytes started in 2014 to run Techy Tea Clubs where people get help using their electronic devices. In March 2020, they turned towards hardware: By collecting donations and running the Lewisham Device Library, they want to help local residents.
Community Laptops (Islington and Haringey)
Through connection with local communities and social justice groups, Community Laptops saw a huge need for devices locally. In spite of donations from individuals and businesses and endorsements from local politicians, they still have hundreds of people waiting for devices
Don's Local Action (Wandsworth, Merton and Kingston)
Keep Kids Connected is part of Dons Local Action Group, an organisation that started in March 2020 to help supply food, furniture and tech to people in need. Since then, they have distributed over 1000 devices in Wandsworth, Merton and Kingston.
Lambeth Tech Aid (Lambeth)
Lambeth Tech Aid have started in 2020 to supply devices to Lambeth residents in need. Since, they've grown to work with 25 volunteers and have supplied over 250 laptops.
Little Lives UK (London-wide)
Little Lives UK is a charity supporting disabled and disadvantaged children in London. In the last year, they collected over 200 devices that are now being used by children to follow their education.
Mer-IT (Islington)
Mer-IT started in 2013 to help bridge the digital divide by runing general and vocational trainings. Since the first lockdown, they are collecting laptop donations for people in need.
Power to Connect (Wandsworth)
Power 2 Connect is a campaign that emerged at Battersea Power Station with support from Wandsworth Council. They have already supplied over 500 devices to students and people in need.
Ready Tech Go (Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster)
Ready Tech Go started last year, after noticing how many people are unable to stay connected as they don't have functioning devices. They help by redistributing donations in Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster.
Tech Inclusion UK (Tower Hamlets)
Tech Inclusion UK is helping people in and around Tower Hamlets stay connected. They have since grown to become a social enterprise.
How Restart is helping
Restart has volunteers with years of experience who can help speed up laptop reuse. We can help supercharge the work of these community-based projects by taking more challenging laptops and readying them for reuse, in a Covid-safe way. Our target is 240 laptops by summer.
We ran a crowdfunding campaign to fund Restart’s Laptop Repair Team, and 60 of you generously donated. Thank you!
And thanks to eSpares, who agreed to match fund your contributions, the campaign has come to a successful close.
Any unused funds not used for transport or spare parts will be donated to reuse partners.
Thanks to support from London Waste and Recycling Board for making this campaign possible.
Photos credit to Mark Phillips
