After you finish marveling at your iPhone 5’s larger screen and longer-lasting battery, don’t turn your older model into a paperweight. Consider donating it to one of the following charities that will embrace its heavy weight and slow-ass Internet and put it to good use.
Help Soldiers Call Home
Staying in touch with loved ones is key to surviving deployment. But the high-price of calling home from Afghanistan or Iraq often keeps servicemen and servicewomen from connecting with friends and family. That’s where Cell Phones For Soldiers steps in. When you give over your used phone, the nonprofit's partner recycles the device and pays Cell Phones For Soldiers enough money to provide an hour of talk time. The nonprofit has donated more than 150 million minutes to troops since 2004.
Help Seniors And Abused Women Dial 911
For seniors living alone and women who are at risk for abuse, having access to a 911-emergency phone is a critical life-saving tool. To make sure that those in need have phones that can make emergency calls, Secure The Call collects old cell phones (even ones that have taken a serious beating) and sorts, tests and doles them out to local distributing centers.
Benefit Your Favorite Charity
Phones 4 Charity makes sure to find a purpose for any discarded phone, regardless of its condition. Fully functional cells are sold to local businesses and a portion of the proceeds go to a range of charities, from the American Red Cross to local football teams in need of new uniforms. Devices that don’t boast any market value are donated to women’s shelters and elder care facilties, so that residents will have access to a 911-emergency phone of their own. Unusable phones are properly recycled and their salvageable parts are reused.
Teach At-Risk Students New Technology
The United Nations mandated University for Peace brings old cell phones to students and humanitarian workers living in at-risk communities. Once students in Costa Rica, Ethiopia and Washington D.C receive the phones, they will learn the latest in peer-to peer learning, gaming, and Smartphone technology to teach them conflict prevention and help develop cross cultural relationships, according to Change.org. The phones will also be used to train aid workers, local journalists, educators and election monitors.