DurhamCares

2012 Total Operating Budget: $320,000

What
Kramden Institute, Inc., is a 501(c)(3)not-for-profit charitable institution whose mission is to empower hardworking, less-advantaged students by giving them home computers, allowing them to bridge the digital divide and advance their achievement, strengthening their contribution to the community.

Why
Our vision is that students nationwide will have access to resources they need to achieve their academic potential. Kramden Institute will serve as the innovator and teacher of a process that recycles surplus equipment to donate to less advantaged students, one community at a time.

Kramden Institute was begun as a father-son project in a basement in Durham, NC, and now has the support of over 4,500 volunteers, generous donors, and thousands of corporate and personal equipment donations.
We have created a process called the Geek-A-Thon® where 200-250 volunteers work in shifts over a weekend to refurbish approximately 200 computers. Our first Geek-A-Thon® was held in August 2005 and, to date, over 8,600 computers have been refurbished through volunteer efforts at our Geek-A-Thons and at our headquarters.

These computers are now in the hands of deserving students, known as Kramden Scholars. We are proud of the children we serve and of what they are able to achieve by crossing over the digital divide!
As we grow, we hope to bring the Geek-A-Thon® process to other communities around North Carolina and throughout the United States.

We are proud of Kramden’s Process and our Impact on our community and our environment.

Kramden Institute has a basic mission of getting as many PCs in the homes of in-need school children as possible. To do so, we have three major types of efforts:

1. Geek-a-Thons®
These one, two and three-day events allow us to prepare PCs in quantity for the kids. Typically, we can complete between 100 (1-day) and 250 (over 3 days) PCs by having our volunteers (lovingly called ‘Geeks’) work in 4-hr shifts doing many tasks including triage, software load, testing, etc, and also non-Geek-y things like cleaning monitors and keyboards.

2. Kramden Worknights.
Every Wednesday evening between the hours of 5:00 to 9:00, about 30-40 people come to Kramden’s headquarters in Durham to help… in a wide variety of ways. The atmosphere is electric and the result is more equipment readied for school give-aways, or for the kids.

3. Kramden Award Days.

Where 15-25 Kramden volunteers help up to 100 Kramden Scholars and their families get their new PCs. We help set the computers up, demonstrate briefly their use and help load them into recipients’ cars. They leave with smiles. And, with each family having no PC at home and an average of 4.2 people in the house, we estimate that we have already taken over 16,000 people across the digital divide. Some award days are held at schools. Typically our recipients are selected by their schools and teachers. We have also given out over 250 PCs to sons and daughters of American enlisted men and women out of Ft. Bragg serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, with another 250 scheduled for this summer, have made sure every Durham Habitat for Humanity home with school kids had a computer in it (91 did not), donated computers to the NC Communities in Schools learning centers in Durham and elsewhere, etc.

Kramden Institute has three full-time paid employees, a management team of volunteers who are professionals who donate their time to run various aspects of the program, and thousands of volunteers every year.

Kramden Staff
Michael Abensour
Excutive Director

Michael joined Kramden Institute August 2011 to lead the organization as it grows and expands in fulfilling its core mission from the Triangle region across to the rest of the 100 counties of North Carolina. He recently relocated back to Cary after more than twelve years living and working in Washington, DC acquiring a wide background of political experience as a former campaign manager, fundraising and political consultant and most recently, in international government relations. Michael received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.A. in Political Management from the George Washington University. Despite a thoroughly non-tech background, he can still assemble and repair a computer if forced to though he’d much rather spend time rooting for his beloved Tarheels. mabensour@kramden.org

Cari DelMariani

Director of Events and Education

Kramden welcomed Cari to the Management Team in February 2010. Following her undergraduate studies at Grand Valley State University Cari served two years as an AmeriCorps member in the communities of Elkhart Indiana and Grand Rapids Michigan. Cari continued her education at Grand Valley State University receiving her Master of Education in 2009. Cari’s graduate and professional work offers valuable experience in the areas of volunteer management, program development and grant writing. cdelmariani@kramden.org

Nicole Redford
Program Administrator

Nicole helps plan programs, runs daily operations, and heads up development. Nicole received her B.A. in French from the University of North Carolina at Asheville (2006) and her M.S. in Global Affairs and Human Rights from New York University (2008). Nicole has many years’ experience working with children, resettled refugee communities, and economically disadvantaged people. Prior to joining Kramden, she worked for the YWCA of Asheville, the Institute of International Education, and as a middle school teacher’s assistant in one of New York City’s public schools. In addition, she has previously worked for Art for Refugees in Transition as its US Program Manager developing its programs, donor database, and volunteer program.  nredford@kramden.org

Board of Directors

Mark D. Dibner, Ph.D., MBA, Founder and Board Chairman
William N. Wofford, esq., Vice Chairman and Secretary
Peter Adams, CPA., Treasurer
Karen Ondrick, Board Member
Michael Rosenberg, MD, MPH, Board Member
Rubestene Fisher Potter, Board Member
Jim Kitchen, Board Member
Bob McCarthy, Board Member

Kramden_2011_Final Report.pdf

Kramden_2010 Final Report.pdf

Kramden 2009 Final Report.pdf