I'm really not a fan of PayPal but Google Checkout (which i love) accepts donations and will do so for free until 2009 when it goes to normal pricinghttp://checkout.google.com/seller/fees.htmli think but you'll have to register as a npo http://checkout.google.com/seller/npo/ http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-501c3-Nonprofit-Organization
Here is the Ubuntu LoCo howto page for dealing with money which might be helpful to you guys https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LoCoTeamDealingWithMoney
As far as hardware donations go, if you were to create a wiki page for donations, you could just direct all who have hardware who are willing to donate to the irc channel or mailing list and/or have people who need hardware list what they need on that page.
Hope this helps :) .Danny