The founders and owners of MacMan, Inc., Julianne and Michael Ohren, knew the value of Apple devices in education. Both of their kids, Tianna and Nicolas learned to use a computer at a very young age. Tianna was only one year old and caught on quickly. As the internet developed, the computer quickly became a tool and source of information that was leveraged by both Tianna and Nicholas to expand their knowledge. Knowing the value of having a computer at home lead to the idea of a donation based program.

 

In December 2019 the Giving Mac program was created as something MacMan did. The initial focus was to help K-12 students that could use an Apple device but did not have the means to obtain one. Donated computers were refurbished and given away. Since the beginning of the program, several very nice used Macs were given away. The program gained local momentum as both TV18 and Volume One did stories on the program.

 

When computer donations started to come in from across Wisconsin as well as other states from coast to coast, the program had to grow. 

In order to take the program to the next level and provide donation receipts, the Ohren family turned the program into its own entity, Giving Mac, Inc.

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Giving Mac is now a non-profit (501(c)(3) pending, accepting monetary donations and equipment donations. Equipment donations can still be dropped off at MacMan (for refurbishing) while monetary donations can be made online. All donations go directly to Giving Mac. Inc. If you are a business or school with a large number of items to recycle or donate, please contact info@givingmac.org.

 

Monetary donations will be used to obtain parts to fix up older computers, used to purchase new computers, and to run the program. Proceeds from the sale of refurbished computers will be used to buy new computers to give away. 

 

Giving away new computers will have a longer lasting value to those that need them. That being said, we will open up the program to more than just K-12 students. We will consider others as well as organizations that need help too. The key use has to be education. 

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If you would like to volunteer to help with the program, please contact info@givingmac.org.