Question I was asked recently that I thought would be good for the community to answer:
What are some of the best online retailers and websites for purchasing IT equipment for your ministry?
Let the community discussion begin! Thanks in advance for dropping your suggestion!
JayCaruso says
PC Connection. Great customer service and great prices. Don’t order online. Call them. They will give you a better price over the phone. They’re a great company because if you build a relationship with them, they’ll give you a dedicated account manager and you can bet you’ll get the most competitive pricing, particularly if you’re buying for the church and want organization pricing.
John Saddington says
sweet!
JayCaruso says
Yes it is. In fact, if anybody here needs anything, let me know. I will get them in touch with my account manager. The economy is affecting them as well and I try to pass him as much business as I can. This will allow anybody making purchases to work from an already established relationship. He’ll certainly appreciate it and work with you.
John Saddington says
word. thanks jay.
Frank says
I love both Newegg.com and Tigerdirect.com
I recently have been using Monoprice.com. Monoprice doesn’t sell any computers or OS or major components. However, they do have wholesale prices (or seems like it) on just about every accessory for you tech needs. I just bought a few ceiling hanging mounts for some lcd screens in our youth room. They were so inexpensive I thought they would be cheaply made, I was proved wrong. So for all your cable and other small needs check them out.
Matt Phelps says
My past pastor actually got me using TigerDirect several years ago, and we ended up getting a majority of the IT and about 2/3 of the A/V equipment from them.
Travis Fish says
I’m not part of my church’s IT department. But personally my experience with monoprice.com has been awesome!
Travis Fish says
Monoprice.com is a great website for cables and a/v adapters. They are going through some maintenance right now but they are the best deal.
Travis Fish says
Monoprice.com has the best deals on cables.
John Saddington says
newegg is an old fav.
RevRod says
Our ministry works with the guys (and gals) over at Consistent Computer Bargains, Inc. (ccbnonprofits.com and ccbministries.com). They’ve got our tax exempt certificate on file and are well-versed in discounts for non-profits like Microsoft’s OLA. It’s their specialty. They are not our sole vendor; it’s always good to shop around. We have a great relationship with them.
John Saddington says
word. thanks for that!
Nick Shoemaker says
MacMall.com for Apple products and accessories.
Willow Creek Association members get pretty good discounts of a lot of stuff- check it out: http://www.willowcreek.com/
For Podcast hosting: PodBean.com offers a 20% discount for non-profits. You have to fax (yeah- what’s that?) them your state paperwork and they give you a discount for the service you select. I like PodBean for their backdoor area- it’s run on WordPress (or something really really similar), so there’s some familiarity for a lot of people there. I also like them for Video Podcasting.
Dreamhost offers FREE web hosting for non-profits. It’s a similar process as PodBean- get them proof of your status in your state and they hook you up. I haven’t tested the limits here- as in bandwidth and all that. So definitely check it out before you build an entire site there.
That’s all I’ve got. I think. π
John Saddington says
omg. macmall. i ahven’t used them in a long time.
Nick Shoemaker says
MacMall.com for Apple products and accessories.
Willow Creek Association members get pretty good discounts of a lot of stuff- check it out: http://www.willowcreek.com/
For Podcast hosting: PodBean.com offers a 20% discount for non-profits. You have to fax (yeah- what’s that?) them your state paperwork and they give you a discount for the service you select. I like PodBean for their backdoor area- it’s run on WordPress (or something really really similar), so there’s some familiarity for a lot of people there. I also like them for Video Podcasting.
Dreamhost offers FREE web hosting for non-profits. It’s a similar process as PodBean- get them proof of your status in your state and they hook you up. I haven’t tested the limits here- as in bandwidth and all that. So definitely check it out before you build an entire site there.
That’s all I’ve got. I think. π
Nick Shoemaker says
MacMall.com for Apple products and accessories.
Willow Creek Association members get pretty good discounts of a lot of stuff- check it out: http://www.willowcreek.com/
For Podcast hosting: PodBean.com offers a 20% discount for non-profits. You have to fax (yeah- what’s that?) them your state paperwork and they give you a discount for the service you select. I like PodBean for their backdoor area- it’s run on WordPress (or something really really similar), so there’s some familiarity for a lot of people there. I also like them for Video Podcasting.
Dreamhost offers FREE web hosting for non-profits. It’s a similar process as PodBean- get them proof of your status in your state and they hook you up. I haven’t tested the limits here- as in bandwidth and all that. So definitely check it out before you build an entire site there.
tcg says
As others have mentioned: TigerDirect and NewEgg for PCs/Parts, and have consistently heard great things about Monoprice for cabling, etc.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a specific local retailer that *I* know of, or that we consistently use.
Good to hear about Consistent Computer Bargains and PC Connection. I’ll have to check them out.
John Saddington says
tigerdirect is great too.
Nick Shoemaker says
MacMall.com for everything Apple is a good place.
For podcasts:
PodBean.com offers a 20% discount to nonprofits. You sign up, send (I think it’s fax- what’s that?) them proof of your status as a non-profit and they send you a promo code. Sweet. I also like PodBean because their UI is similar to WordPress- so there may some familiarity there for some of the peeps around here.
And for hosting:
Dreamhost offers free hosting for life for non-profits. You gotta prove it- a lot like you do for PodBean. I haven’t looked too much into this- so IDK about bandwidth limits, et cetera. But it’s there, eh?
And yes Jay- PC Connection is sweet. π
Kevin says
We use CDW. They have a special non-profit division. It’s really cool. We have our own account manager (and he has a team of specialists) and we get discounts on everything they sell and naturally, since we’re non-profit, it’s all tax free. They don’t force you to use a credit card either- they’ll send you a bill instead π
John Saddington says
cdw is great!