Donum Student Laptop Draw

This is a planned project. Applications are not open. They open only after Uganda's National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board confirms in writing that the draw is allowed under Uganda's law, and the rest of the preparation in section 4 is done. Tap Notify me to be told if they open. The first draw is planned for February 2027. Every amount is in US dollars.

A degree now assumes a laptop. One a month, to a university student, by a draw anyone can check. Any student at a university in Uganda with at least 12 months of study left can apply, free, directly to Donum. Our team confirms each applicant with their university. Every verified student gets a ticket that is in every monthly draw for 12 months. The winner is picked live by a public random number that nobody, Donum included, can know in advance, and anyone can check the result. The laptop is the student's to keep, and nobody asks for anything in return.

The case in brief

• Why a laptop. A degree now assumes a computer, but only 2.5% of households in Uganda own a working laptop ¹, and a new one costs about 8.1 months of what an average household spends ².
• Why university students. They have already done the hard part: a place at university, in a country where 5.3% of young people reach higher education ³. What many lack is the tool their course assumes.
• Why a draw. Need for a laptop cannot be proven fairly: a family that pays fees may have nothing left for a laptop. So every verified student has the same chance, and a public random number decides.
• Why it can be trusted. The list of tickets is fixed and published three days before the random number exists; the number comes from drand, not from Donum ⁴; the rule is published, and anyone can repeat it.
• What it costs. At most $1,500 a month, everything included. Its share of the Donum Endowment, $450,000, pays for one laptop a month for good; every laptop someone gives adds one more winner.
• What we do not promise. Trials of free computers show modest gains in passing and graduating for college students and none for schoolchildren's grades ^{5 6}. We promise access and fairness, and we publish what happens.

1. Why a laptop, and why now

• A degree in Uganda now assumes a computer: coursework is typed, research is online, and many courses use software that will not run on a phone. Yet in 2022 only 2.5% of households owned a working laptop, and 94% had no internet at home ¹.
• Students reach the internet mostly through their phones. In a survey of university students in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, 98.8% went online by smartphone and 30% by laptop ⁷.
• A new laptop costs about UGX 4,600,000 in Kampala ⁸: about 8.1 months of what an average household spends (UGX 566,862 a month) ², and more than a year's income per person (USD 1,020 in 2024) ⁹.
• The government has said it too. Launching a laptop scheme for students in July 2025, the minister said that many universities and schools continue to lack adequate computer access ¹⁰.

Read more: who the draw is for

• Uganda's universities and other degree-awarding institutions teach 227,127 students ¹¹. Participation in higher education fell from 5.9% to 5.3% between 2020/21 and 2021/22, against a sub-Saharan average of 9.4% ³. A student who has a university place has already done the hard part; the draw is about the tool, not the place.
• Refugee tertiary enrolment reached 11% worldwide in 2025, up from 9%, against a target of 15% by 2030 ¹². Refugee students at Uganda's universities apply like anyone else.
• Donum Centre will put 1,000 free computers near Makerere University, but not before 2030, and only in Kampala. The draw reaches students at every university, from its first month.
• Most students, even those whose families can pay fees, do not have a laptop good enough for their course. Whether a family could buy one cannot be proven fairly, so the draw does not try: every verified student has the same chance.

2. What the evidence says, honestly

• In a randomised trial at a US community college, students given a free computer were 2 percentage points more likely to pass their courses and 1.9 points more likely to graduate, with larger effects for students who worked or travelled far ⁵.
• The same students' earnings did not rise in the years measured ¹³, and trials giving computers to schoolchildren found no effect on grades or test scores ^{6 14}. So we do not promise better grades or higher pay.
• What a laptop does change is access: to the software a course uses, to online coursework, and to the digital skills employers ask for. The IFC expects 230 million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa to need digital skills by 2030 ¹⁵; in Kenya, half or more of all jobs will ¹⁶.

3. Why a draw

There will always be more students who need a laptop than laptops. Ranking them by need invites guesswork, favours and hurt, and need cannot be proven fairly. A draw among students who all qualify is honest about that.

• A draw is the fairest way to share something there is not enough of when need cannot be measured well: it keeps bad reasons out of the choice ¹⁷, and people see it as fair and open ¹⁸.
• The winning number is a public random number from drand, signed by independent organisations every 3 seconds, that nobody can know in advance and anyone can check ⁴. The list of tickets is fixed and published at least a day before that number exists.
• Nobody pays to enter, and nobody's chance depends on buying anything.

4. What is still to do before applications open

Until then, the Apply button leads to a page where you can ask to be told if applications open. We write to everyone on that list once, if they do.

1. Preparation. Written confirmation from Uganda's National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board that the draw is allowed under Uganda's law; Donum registered with the Personal Data Protection Office; the identity check and the private document store working; the first laptop given.
2. Applications open. The application page is live, the first applications are confirmed with their universities, and the first tickets are issued.
3. The first draw. The first list closed and published, the round drawn live, the winner reached, and the laptop handed over at their university.
4. For good. The draw's share of the Donum Endowment is in hand, so one laptop a month is paid for good, and every laptop given adds one more winner.

5. Who can apply

• A current student at a university in Uganda, any university on the list kept from the National Council for Higher Education's register, any course, any year.
• At least 12 months of study left on the day of applying, so a student is still enrolled whenever their ticket is drawn.
• 18 or over, with a Donum account, and the identity check passed with a national ID or passport.
• Not related to anyone who works for Donum Foundation.
• One live ticket per student, and one win per student, ever. A ticket that ends without a win can be followed by a new application.

6. How to apply

1. Make a Donum account and confirm you are 18 or over.
2. Pass the identity check on our identity partner's page, with your national ID or passport. Donum keeps only the result, the date and the partner's reference, never the document.
3. Send your application: your scanned university ID card, the full name of your course (for example, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, not BSCS), your university, your registration number, and when your course ends. Agree to what is published if you win (section 10), and read the notice (section 15).
4. We confirm you with your university. When it confirms you are a current student, your ticket is issued, in your account and by email.
5. Check your ticket any time on the public ticket list: in the draw, won, delivered, or ended.

7. Tickets that never repeat

A ticket looks like DLD-7K3Q-9XWM-2HPF-Y: twelve characters chosen at random by the database from 32 letters and digits (no I, L, O or U, so none can be misread), and a last check character that catches any single mistyped character before a code is looked up. That makes 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 possible codes, more than a million million million.

Every code ever issued is kept for good, samples included, and the database refuses any code it has issued before. Rows in that list can never be changed, deleted or emptied, by anyone. So a ticket number is never issued twice, whatever happens.

8. How the draw works

• The list closes 72 hours before the draw, at 19:00 on the Tuesday before the first Friday. Every valid ticket goes into it, in code order, and we publish the count, the full list of ticket codes, its SHA-256 fingerprint, how many laptops will be given, and the number of the public random round that will decide it.
• The round is the first drand quicknet round at or after the draw's time, 19:00 on the first Friday ⁴. drand is run by independent organisations; it publishes a new random number every 3 seconds, signed jointly, and nobody can know a round's number before its time.
• The draw is live on our channel. At the draw, our system fetches the round, checks its signature against drand's published key, and applies the rule below. Winners are picked first, then two reserves for each laptop, in order.
• Anyone can check it. With the published list and the round's number, the rule gives the same winners every time. Our draw page does the sum in your browser, and links to drand's own record of the round.

Read more: the rule, exactly

1. Put the tickets in code order, character by character.
2. For step k = 0, 1, 2, and so on: take the round's randomness (64 hexadecimal characters), add k as four bytes, and hash the whole with SHA-256.
3. Read that hash as a whole number and divide it by the number of tickets still in the list; the remainder, counting from 0, is the ticket picked. That ticket leaves the list.
4. The first picks are the winners, one for each laptop; the next are the reserves, in order.

The same rule is written three times and tested against itself: in the database that runs the draw, in the code that shows it, and in the page that lets you check it. In our tests, all three picked the same tickets in every draw.

9. If you win

• We write to you in your account and by email the same evening. You have 30 days to answer. If we cannot reach you in 30 days, you lose the laptop and the first reserve takes it, with their own 30 days.
• We confirm with your university that you are still enrolled.
• We hand the laptop over at your university. Our staff check your university ID card and the national ID or passport you used for the identity check, in person, you sign that you received it, and, as you agreed, we take a photo of you receiving it.
• If you are no longer enrolled, or the person at the handover is not the student on the ticket, the laptop goes to the next reserve. If no reserve is left, it goes into the next month's draw.
• The laptop is yours, with its warranty. Nobody asks for anything in return. Six and twelve months later we ask two short questions about your studies and work, never about how you use the laptop; answering is up to you.

10. What is published, and what is never published

Published, after the handover and once a second member of our team approves: your first name, your university, the month of the draw, your ticket number, and the photo of you receiving the laptop from our staff. You agree to this when you apply, in plain words, before you send anything.

Never published: your surname, phone number, email, hall or address, home district, course, registration number, ID numbers, or anything about why you need a laptop.

• A safety exception. If being shown could put you in danger, you can ask, when you apply, to be shown without your face. The university's written confirmation of the handover then stands in for the photo.
• Your photo can come down. Ask, and it is taken down; your first name, university, month and ticket stay on the record, so the draw stays checkable.
• Every month's draw stays public: the list, its fingerprint, the round, the random number and the winning tickets.

11. How your details are kept

• Your application is kept in Donum's database in Germany, never on any public page. Our team reads it, and checks your details with your university's office to confirm you are a current student.
• Your scanned ID card is stored privately, seen only through a link that works for ten minutes, and deleted 30 days after we decide on your application.
• Your name and registration number are deleted 30 days after your ticket ends, or after we refuse your application or you withdraw it. What stays is your university, course, ticket code and its status, and a one-way code made from your university and registration number, so that each student wins once.
• Our email service keeps a record of each email we send you, with your address, in the United States, for 30 days.
• To see or correct what we hold about you, write to support@donumfoundation.org. If you close your account, your ticket leaves the draw.

12. What it costs, and why

The whole programme costs at most $1,500 a month, everything included. Inside that ceiling:

• One laptop a month at $1,500 at most is $18,000 a year. At 4%, that needs a share of the Donum Endowment of $450,000.
• The laptop Donum has in mind costs about UGX 4,600,000 (about $1,260 at UGX 3,650) new in Kampala, with a two-year warranty ⁸. The rest of the $1,500 pays for what goes with it, and for the checks, the draw and the handover. A laptop that costs less leaves more for the next one; one that costs more is not bought.
• The first year's twelve laptops, $18,000, are the units on this page: each one given is one more winner in the next draw.

• The database refuses to record a laptop as delivered if its whole cost is more than the month's budget.

Read more: why an endowment, and how gifts work

• The Donum Endowment is one fund, never spent; only its returns, 4% a year of its average value, pay running costs. The draw's share, $450,000, pays $18,000 a year: a laptop a month, for good.
• Until the share is complete, each month's laptop is one that someone gives. A gift of one unit ($1,500) is one laptop: it goes into the next draw as one more winner.
• In a month with no laptop given, or no valid ticket, there is no draw, and the page says so. A laptop not given goes into the next draw.

13. How to give

Give one or more laptops on the draw's page in Open chances, or give to its share of the Donum Endowment. People can give in any currency, from any bank account or card anywhere in the world; Donum receives every gift in US dollars or Ugandan shillings. A gift of a laptop is never a promise to any one student: the draw decides who receives it.

14. Questions people ask

Who can apply?

Any student at a university in Uganda with at least 12 months of study left, who is 18 or over, has a Donum account, is verified, online or in person, with a national ID or passport, and is not related to anyone who works for Donum. Applying is free.

Can I apply now?

No. Applications open only after Uganda's National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board confirms in writing that the draw is allowed under Uganda's law, and the rest of the preparation in section 4 is done. Tap Notify me on this page and we will tell you, once, if they open.

Do I need to show that my family is poor?

No. Whether a family could buy a laptop cannot be proven fairly, so we do not ask. Every verified student has the same chance.

What do I send?

After the identity check: your scanned university ID card, the full name of your course (for example, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, not BSCS), and your university registration number. Our team then confirms with your university that you are a current student.

How long does my ticket last?

Twelve months from your application. It is in every monthly draw in that time, until you win, withdraw, or leave your university. You can check it any time on the ticket list.

How is the winner picked?

The list of valid tickets closes three days before the draw and is published with its fingerprint and the number of the public random round that will decide it. At the draw, live on our channel, that round's number picks the winner and two reserves for each laptop, by a rule anyone can repeat.

Can Donum choose the winner?

No. The list is fixed before the random number exists, the number comes from drand, not from us, and the rule is published. Anyone can check the result.

What happens if I win?

We write to you in your account and by email. You have 30 days to answer; if we cannot reach you, the laptop goes to the first reserve. We confirm with your university that you are still enrolled, and hand the laptop over at your university, where we check your university ID and the national ID or passport you used for the identity check, in person.

What is published if I win?

Your first name, your university, your ticket number, and a photo of you receiving the laptop from our staff. You agree to this when you apply. If you have a safety reason, you can ask, when you apply, to be shown without your face. You can later ask for the photo to come down.

Do I owe anything?

Nothing. The laptop is yours, and nobody asks for anything in return.

Can I win twice?

No. Each student wins once. You can apply again if your ticket ends without a win.

How are my documents kept?

Your ID card scan is seen only by our team, through a link that works for ten minutes, and deleted 30 days after we decide on your application. Your name and registration number are used to check your details with your university's office, and deleted 30 days after your ticket ends, or after we refuse your application or you withdraw it.

How can I give a laptop?

Give one unit on this page. Each laptop given adds one more winner to the next draw.

Can the draw end?

Yes. Donum Foundation may stop the draw at any time, without giving a reason, and nobody can claim a laptop or money from Donum because it stopped. Before it closes, every laptop someone has already paid for is drawn and handed over.

15. Notice

Donum Foundation may stop the Student Laptop Draw at any time, without giving a reason. A ticket is a place in the draw, not a promise of a laptop: if the draw stops, nobody can claim a laptop or money from Donum because of it. Before the draw closes, every laptop someone has already paid for is drawn and handed over.

This notice is shown on the application form, on the Notify me page, and beside every gift to the draw.

Sources

1. 2.5% of households owned at least one working laptop; 94% had no internet access at all; 10% of people had used the internet in the previous three months. NITA-U, National IT Survey 2022, Final Report.pdf), 2022-09. ↩ ↩
2. Average household monthly consumption expenditure: UGX 566,862 (Uganda National Household Survey 2023/24). CPAR Uganda, summary of the Uganda National Household Survey 2023/24, 2025-08-19. ↩ ↩
3. Enrolment in higher education fell from 5.9% in 2020/2021 to 5.3% in 2021/2022, against a sub-Saharan average of 9.4%. PML Daily, Access to higher education remains a big challenge, says NCHE boss, 2024-04-13. ↩ ↩
4. drand quicknet: a public random number every 3 seconds, signed jointly by independent organisations; anyone can check each round against its public key. drand, quicknet beacon information, 2026-10-05. ↩ ↩ ↩
5. Community college students given free computers were two percentage points more likely to pass their courses and 1.9 points more likely to graduate; larger effects for students who worked or travelled far. Royal Economic Society, Home computers improve outcomes for disadvantaged students (Fairlie and London, Economic Journal 2012), 2012-06-08. ↩ ↩
6. Free computers for 1,123 schoolchildren had no effects on grades, test scores, credits, attendance or discipline. NBER Working Paper 19060, Fairlie and Robinson (AEJ: Applied 2013), 2013. ↩ ↩
7. Of 240 university students in Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya, 98.8% used a smartphone to access the internet, followed by a laptop (30.0%). Advances in Medical Education and Practice, Uptake, barriers and determinants of e-learning among university students, 2022-06-08. ↩
8. A new business laptop of the kind Donum has in mind: UGX 4,600,000 with a two-year warranty, in stock. A Kampala computer seller's listing, checked 5 October 2026 (the link is in DONUM_BATCH10.md, 10.11), 2026-10-05. ↩ ↩
9. GNI per capita, Atlas method, Uganda: USD 1,020 in 2024 (World Bank indicator). Trading Economics, reporting the World Bank's development indicators, 2024. ↩
10. Launching the One Student, One Laptop scheme, the minister said: "Many universities and schools continue to lack adequate computer access.". New Vision, Uganda launches One Student, One Laptop programme, 2025-07-26. ↩
11. Uganda has 73 degree awarding institutions, 55 of them universities, with a total enrolment of 227,127. Ministry of Education and Sports, Education Statistical Abstract 2025, 2026-01. ↩
12. Refugee tertiary enrolment reached a record 11 percent in 2025, up from 9 percent in 2024; the target is 15 percent by 2030. USA for UNHCR, on UNHCR's education report, 2026-10-02. ↩
13. The same experiment found no evidence of short or medium run effects on earnings. NBER Working Paper 24276, Fairlie and Bahr, 2018-02. ↩
14. One Laptop per Child in Peru: no evidence of effects on test scores in maths and language. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Cristia and others, 2017. ↩
15. 230 million jobs in sub-Saharan Africa will require digital skills by 2030. IFC, Digital Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2019-05-08. ↩
16. By 2030, some level of digital skills will be required by 50 to 55 percent of all jobs in Kenya. World Bank and IFC, Demand for Digital Skills in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2021. ↩
17. A random draw is a proper way to decide when the bad reasons it keeps out outweigh the good ones. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, on Peter Stone, The Luck of the Draw (Oxford, 2011), 2011-12-19. ↩
18. Random draws for school places are seen as a fair and transparent way to distribute them; winning is a chance occurrence, not determined by ability, ethnicity, residence or other characteristics. RAND Europe, Stasz and van Stolk, The use of lottery systems in school admissions, 2007. ↩