BatteryClerk has worked with and for a lot of nonprofit organizations (and for that matter not-for-profit and charities) and certainly the biggest things we’ve learned about them through the years is that they require a lot to run their operations. Staff is often spread pretty thin with many people wearing many different hats and budgets are always tight. As a result, we find ourselves really wanting to help make their lives easier and especially looking to help keep costs down.
The biggest replacement battery need we see for nonprofit organizations is most certainly related to technology and UPS replacement batteries are most often their biggest purchase, even with many moving to remote work and cloud-based technologies. But there are plenty of other requirements depending on the type of services these organizations provide. One of the biggest nonprofit organizations we supply to has a huge campus with education and medical facilities all of which have significant and unique requirements. Just because they are a designated nonprofit, certainly doesn’t mean that they don’t have to comply with standards of operations and for most they have even greater compliance requirements and with staff often operating out of their comfort zone.
So, while technology is often the biggest driver of replacement battery requirements, facility infrastructure can be a big need as alarm systems, emergency lights and exit signs, generators, lawn and tractors, golf carts, mobility scooters plus a variety of powersports equipment. In fact, supplying items to nonprofits does run the full extent of our inventory.
“Our infrastructure needs at our organization are as comprehensive as any company, though for us it also means we don’t have a very extensive budget to work with. Being able to make bulk replacement battery purchases has meant we always have backups on hand plus we get significant savings”
Through the years we’ve donated replacement batteries for mobility scooter refurbishment and we’re happy to support where we can but most certainly, we encourage as many nonprofits to sign up for our wholesale battery replacement program which truly offers significant savings for those who qualify. We look to keep our own costs down by limiting our marketing spend and keeping operations as efficient as possible and can then pass those savings on to our customers.
Certainly, supply chain frustrations plus general increased costs in recent years have put some strains on our own business model and we have had to raise prices a little to accommodate but with further streamlining, we’ve been able to wear some of those pricing increases. A big impetus for doing so is to keep allowing our nonprofit customers to provide the type of important services many of them do without having to worry about whether or not they can afford to keep their operations running and maintain compliance.