We can use your help
Donate Bikes
Donate Time and Skills
Donate Time and Skills
We will take nearly any bicycle, bike parts and bike accessories. The best time to bring them in is Thursday, between 3 and 7. Note that some donated bikes may be sold to help finance Gate City Bike Co-op, or transferred to organizations serving communities outside the Greater Nashua area.
Donate Time and Skills
Donate Time and Skills
Donate Time and Skills
We can use all the help we can get. You don't have to be a skilled bike mechanic to help us out. We need volunteers for all parts of our operation, including managing bike distribution and receiving donations, inventory management, shop organization and more. And we will teach you how to repair bikes if you want to learn!
Show up during Open Shop hours or contact us.
Donate Cash
Donate Time and Skills
Donate Cash
We use cash donations for parts, accessories, tools, safety items, educational materials and more. We are volunteer run so all donations go into putting people on bikes.
Please make checks out to NSKS and put Gate City Bike Coop in the memo space.
Note: you may have to turn off private browsing on your device when making a donation via PayPal.
Donating Bikes
We Accept Most Bikes
We prefer to accept donations on Thursdays between 3 PM and 6:30 PM. That's when we have a crew on site and ready to greet you, help you with the bikes, and do an initial assessment of the bike.
If you cannot drop off bikes at that time, please email us at gatecitybikecoop@gmail.com or use the contact form on this website to see if we can make alternate arrangements that fit your schedule.
We generally do not pick up bikes, but for multiple high quality bikes we may make an exception. Again, please contact us via email or through this website if there is no way for you to bring the bikes to us.
Our own clients are mostly adults, so we take all kinds of adult bikes. We also accept kid bikes, and when we have more than we can use ourselves, we find ways to get as many of them as possible into the hands of school districts or other organizations who will get them to kids who need bikes.
We also accept many bike accessories, but we cannot accept used helmets or child seats.
We cannot accept e-bikes.
We do not give receipts with a monetary value for most donations, but on request we can give you an written acknowledgement of the number of bikes you have donated.
We want to thank the greater Nashua community for your continued support. The old bikes that you bring us get new lives helping our clients get their own new lives. We could not do this without you!
Volunteering
There Are Lots Of Ways To Help Us
Bike Mechanics The industry term is “Wrenches”. Obviously, this is an
essential role. Experience fixing bikes is great, but not necessary. We will
teach volunteers. You will work on a team at first. With experience, you
will have the ability to come in and work on your own. And, by the way,
you are allowed to use our facilities to work on your own bikes.
Client Service Our volunteers aim to create a safe, welcoming, nonjudgmental
environment for our clients. We help them select a bike,
make sure they are comfortable with the bike, do a final check on the
bike, set up their combination locks, teach them about the lights, and
help them create a record of the bike on their phone. Spanish or other
language skills are a plus.
Shop Support We are an all-volunteer shop that processed more
than 500 donated bikes last year. Keeping the shop well-stocked,
organized, and clean is important to our continued success. We
have made great strides in this area lately, and would like to make
more, so we can increase our numbers even more.
Information Technology We have Wi-Fi, a Chromebook, and a
printer. We have this website. We have an online tool for appointment
scheduling. We are taking baby steps toward having an inventory
system. We have volunteers, including Richard, with deep tech
backgrounds, but we could really use some additional volunteers to
help us with entering data, not to mention building the systems in
the first place.
PR and Community Relations Volunteers have done a great job raising our profile in the community. Awareness brings us…
• Relationships with other service-oriented organizations, which in turn brings us clients who
need bikes.
• The donated bikes that we give away.
• The funding that pays for our supplies and other expenses.
• Customers for our annual bike sale.
• Relationships with businesses and local “VIPs” that build community good will.
• And new volunteers, who bring new skills and ideas.
New volunteers who know our community, who have good communication skills – and
are a little bit fearless — will help keep that awareness strong.
Records and Accounting As an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) public charity, we have to
track our funds and other things properly, and make sure we do all the necessary
filings on time.
Make a donation/make a difference
Your kind gift will help us put people on bikes. $35 sponsors a bike, lock, helmet, and lights for a low income resident of greater Nashua. $350 will cover all our bike give-a-ways for a week.