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We Stepped In When It Mattered
Now We Need Help To Stay Standing
During the pandemic, families were told to learn from home.
Many had nothing.
No laptop.
No tablet.
No way to access school.
But it was not only families with no money.
It was families with one device.
Parents needed it for home working.
Children needed it for online lessons.
Everyone needed to be connected at the same time.
One device does not stretch that far.
We stepped in.
We sourced machines. Repaired them. Replaced failing hard drives with SSDs. Installed RAM upgrades. Cleaned and rebuilt systems properly. Delivered them to families who needed them.
In many cases, we gave them away completely free.
We did not wait for grants.
We did not wait for funding approval.
We used personal loans and savings.
Today, more than £10,000 of that pandemic response is still sitting on personal loans taken out by our volunteer team.
Those volunteers are still paying interest.
They are paying interest because they chose to make sure children could attend school and parents could continue to work from home. They chose to keep our community connected during unprecedented circumstances.
And we did not stop there.
Even while carrying that debt, we continue to fund and run summer STEM scavenger hunts so children have something positive and educational during the holidays.
We continue to run a weekly Repair Café, helping people fix rather than replace.
Each Christmas, we fund and deliver our 12 Days of Kindness, culminating in a child who would otherwise never have access to a computer receiving one on Christmas Eve.
One of our team developed an online interactive STEM adventure embedded directly into our website, featuring 30 structured challenges in cryptography and coding.
It was a monumental effort. Weeks of development. Many sleepless nights writing code, designing puzzles, testing logic paths and refining the experience so it would genuinely teach, not just entertain.
That is the level of dedication our volunteers bring.
They do not clock in.
They build.
They create.
They stay up late solving problems so children can solve them the next day.
When donations do not cover the cost, volunteers cover it personally.
This is the dedication of our volunteers.
But dedication alone does not pay hosting fees, hardware costs or loan interest.
We keep showing up.
But carrying debt while continuing to give has a limit.
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The Pressure Has Not Stopped
We are now facing a second wave of financial pressure.
There is global strain on DDR4, DDR5 and NAND flash supply. RAM and SSD prices have surged across the supply chain.
Refurbishment depends on those parts.
When component prices rise, our costs rise immediately.
At the same time, donations are falling.
Fewer people carry cash.
Our charity pots and Repair Café donations are at an all-time low.
Corporate donations have dropped sharply.
As businesses tighten their belts, regular supporters are falling away.
People are donating less for services.
In some cases, not donating at all.
We understand that many people genuinely cannot afford to give. That is exactly why we exist and why we continue to subsidise what we can.
But there are limits.
We cannot fund community digital infrastructure on personal loans forever.
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Let’s Talk About Laptops
There is often confusion about how our laptops work.
Store Laptops
The laptops in our store are modern, business-grade devices purchased in bulk from corporate suppliers.
We refurbish them properly.
That includes:
• Replacing failing hard drives with SSDs
• Installing additional RAM
• Replacing worn batteries
• Full cleaning, testing and rebuild
The price you see is:
What we paid for the device
• The cost of parts
• The cost of refurbishment
That is it.
If you buy a laptop from us, we break even.
The small gadgets, bags and accessories in our store generate a modest surplus that helps keep the workshop running.
Hardware sales are not a profit stream for us.
Donated Devices
Most donated laptops are very old and cannot realistically be upgraded for modern daily use.
Those machines are not wasted.
They become:
• Linux learning systems
• Embedded signage machines
• STEM education builds
• Entertainment and retro projects
When high-quality modern devices are donated, they go through the same refurbishment process as purchased stock.
They either:
• Enter our donation pool for families and good causes
• Or go into clearance at the sole value of refurbishment cost
Again, no profit margin.
When RAM and SSD prices surge, the impact lands directly on us. We either absorb the cost, raise prices and reduce affordability, or refurbish fewer machines.
None of those outcomes help the community.
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The Reality of the Services We Provide
Some of our services carry significant unseen cost.
Data Recovery
Commercial providers regularly charge hundreds, and in complex cases thousands, of pounds to retrieve lost files, photos and documents.
We often spend hours recovering irreplaceable memories at a fraction of that cost.
It requires specialist tools, replacement drives, secure handling and experienced volunteers.
Accessibility still carries real cost.
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The Media Lab – The Real Economics
Let’s look at the numbers clearly.
A single four-hour tape can require up to twelve hours of lab capture time, plus additional volunteer time to review, process, export and securely store the files.
When someone brings in 30 tapes, that can represent well over 300 hours of lab capture time.
That is close to a full month of lab capacity.
Commercial companies commonly charge around £60 per tape for transfer alone.
For 30 tapes, that would be:
30 × £60 = £1,800
That figure is just for the transfer.
Storage is usually additional. Many commercial providers charge £200 or more for a suitable external drive to hold the converted media.
So the realistic commercial total for 30 tapes is often £2,000 or more.
Our charge is £65.
That £65 is simply the cost of the external hard drive the footage is delivered on.
It does not cover:
• Capture time
• Volunteer monitoring
• Processing and export
• Equipment wear
• Calibration and cleaning
• Electricity
• Secure storage infrastructure
All of that labour and overhead is absorbed by us.
When 300 hours of work results in a £10 donation, the funding gap is not marginal. It is measured in thousands of pounds.
We are not trying to match corporate pricing.
We are trying to make memory preservation accessible.
But a gap of £2,000 versus £10 cannot be sustained indefinitely by volunteers already carrying personal debt.
We are proud of this service.
It has to be viable.
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Websites and Email Are Not Free
There is a common assumption that websites and email cost nothing.
They do.
Servers cost money.
Backups cost money.
Security costs money.
Reliable uptime costs money.
We currently spend around £50 per month just to keep our infrastructure running. That provides 99.99 percent uptime for websites and email services hosted with us.
When clients donate appropriately, that cost is covered.
When they cannot, volunteers cover the difference personally.
It is another quiet overhead most people never see.
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What We Are Asking For
We are asking for help to:
• Clear £10,000+ of pandemic-related personal debt
• Stop volunteers paying interest for doing the right thing
• Secure essential RAM and SSD stock before prices rise further
• Keep refurbished laptops affordable
• Protect our Repair Café, STEM library and outreach work
• Stabilise core infrastructure costs
We are not asking for profit.
We are asking for sustainability.
If The Nerd Herd has ever helped you, your family, or someone in your community, please consider supporting this campaign.
Every pound reduces debt and goes straight back into hardware, education and access.
Community run.
Not for profit.
Still here.
Still building.