What We Need That Isn’t Money

Not every useful gift is a cheque.

A sewing machine sitting unused in a back room is worth more to us than its resale value is to you. A camera body you replaced eighteen months ago will train thirty students before it dies. Half a roll of fabric left over from a production run is a term’s worth of practice pieces.

If you have been meaning to support Delight Technical College but the cash timing has never worked, this is the article for you. Here is precisely what we need, in what condition, and how to get it to us.

Why in-kind matters here specifically

Delight runs a competency-based curriculum: seventy to eighty per cent of every programme is practical. That model is only as good as the equipment behind it.

The gap is real and it is specific. When a class of twenty-five shares eight working machines, students rotate rather than practise. When a photography class shares three camera bodies, most of the session is spent waiting. Equipment does not improve the curriculum at the margins it determines how much of the curriculum can actually be delivered.

Every item on the list below removes a queue.

Priority list- School of Tailoring, Fashion and Design

Highest need

• Industrial sewing machines– (Juki or equivalent, straight-stitch or overlock). The single most valuable donation we can receive. Industrial machines are what students will meet in employment, and we cannot have enough of them.
• Overlockers and interlock machines
• Domestic sewing machines– in working order, or repairable
• Cutting tables and large flat work surfaces

Consistently needed

• Dress forms and mannequins, all sizes, including plus-size and menswear forms
• Steam irons, industrial irons and ironing boards
• Fabric in usable lengths- cotton, tetron, calico, linings, interfacing. Ends of rolls, surplus stock and discontinued lines are all welcome.
• Threads, zips, buttons, fasteners, elastic, bias binding, trims
• Fabric and paper scissors, rotary cutters, cutting mats
• Tape measures, pattern-making rulers, French curves, set squares
• Pattern paper, tracing paper, manila for blocks
• Knitting machines and knitting supplies
• Embroidery and beading materials

Priority list- School of Media and Artificial Intelligence

Highest need

• Laptops and desktop workstations capable of running editing and design software. Even four- or five-year-old machines with a discrete graphics card are transformative here.
• DSLR and mirrorless camera bodies, working, with or without lenses
• Lenses– any mount, prime or zoom
• Software licences like Adobe Creative Cloud, CLO3D, editing suites, or education-tier allocations your organisation is not using

Consistently needed

• Tripods, monopods, gimbals and stabilisers
• Studio lighting, softboxes, reflectors, backdrops, C-stands
• Audio recorders, shotgun and lavalier microphones, boom poles, headphones
• External monitors, colour-calibration tools, graphics tablets
• SD cards, card readers, external drives, USB hubs
• Projectors and presentation screens
• Green screens and set-building materials

General college needs

• Books and reference material on fashion, textiles, film, photography, design, AI and entrepreneurship
• Classroom furniture- chairs, desks, storage, lockers, shelving
• Networking equipment and routers
• Stationery in bulk- notebooks, pens, files, printer paper, toner
• Hostel furnishings- beds, mattresses, bedding, wardrobes
• First aid supplies and fire safety equipment

Condition- what we can and cannot use

We accept equipment that is working, or repairable at reasonable cost– We have technical staff who can service machines and a workshop to do it in. A sewing machine with a seized motor is often worth taking; a sewing machine missing half its assembly usually is not.

We cannot accept: equipment beyond economic repair, obsolete formats with no working playback path, computers too old to run current software, or anything requiring consumables that are no longer manufactured. We would rather decline politely than accept something that becomes a disposal problem.

Software licences must be transferable– Please check the terms before offering; we cannot accept licences we are not entitled to run.

Fabric and materials should be clean, dry and free of mould. Offcuts and remnants are genuinely useful (our sustainability policy is built around upcycling and zero-waste practice, and small pieces feed directly into that).

How the process works

Step 1- Tell us what you have.

-Email [email protected] with the subject “In-Kind Donation”, or WhatsApp +254 722 533 771. A list and a few photographs is all we need. Do not worry about being precise on model numbers.

Step 2- We confirm within three working days.

-We will tell you plainly whether we can use it, which department it goes to, and roughly how many students it will reach. If we cannot use something we will say so, and where we can, suggest another institution that can.

Step 3- Delivery or collection.

-You may deliver to the campus on Muindi Mbingu Street, opposite Jevanjee Gardens. For larger consignments in and around Nairobi we can usually arrange collection. Tell us if the items need to move by a particular date; we will work to it.

Step 4- Documentation.

-You receive a signed acknowledgement listing every item received, its condition and its assigned department. If your finance or CSR team needs a valuation for reporting, tell us and we will structure the paperwork accordingly.

Step 5- You find out what happened to it.

-Six months later we send you a short note: where the equipment sits, which programme uses it, how many students have worked on it. Photographs where consent allows. This is the part most donors say they never get anywhere else.

Recognition

In-kind donors are recognised on the same footing as cash donors. Equipment donations at scale carry naming rights eg a workshop, a studio, a lab or a bay may be named for a donor or in memory of someone, for an agreed term.

Smaller donations are acknowledged on the donor board and in the annual impact report. If you would rather give anonymously, say so and we will honour it without argument.

Individuals, please read this part

Most of this article speaks to organisations, but a large share of what we receive comes from individuals: a tailor closing a workshop, a photographer upgrading a kit, a family clearing a home, a graduate replacing their first machine.

One machine matters. One camera matters. If you have a single item and are wondering whether it is worth the message, it is. Send the message.

Look around your store room. Something in it is a student’s entire year.

Delight Technical College, A TVETA-accredited institution (TVETA/PRIVATE/TVC/0080/2022)

Muindi Mbingu Street, opposite Jevanjee Gardens, Nairobi CBD | P.O. Box 12988-00100 GPO Nairobi

[email protected] | +254 722 533 771 / +254 724 566 088 | www.delight.ac.ke

M-PESA Paybill 522533, Account 8023637#YourSurname | KCB Bank Kenya, Biashara Street, Delight Technical College, A/C 1296930947