Religious Organizations Are Now Eligible for Microsoft Donations at TechSoup

Wow!  This is HUGE news!  I've been in the Church IT field for 10yrs and I'm happy to see TechSoup is finally available to Churches :-)

@jasonpowell

"I'm happy to see TechSoup is finally available to Churches :-)"

Just to be clear - TechSoup has always been available to communities of faith! TechSoup welcomes you and anyone else to join us on the TechSoup forum, for instance, to talk about your tech use with volunteers and supporters, and to ask questions about such. All blogs and webinars are available to communities of faith as well.

In addition, there are products offered through the TechSoup product program that are available to communities of faith. But please be aware that it is the donating company that produces the software that decides what organizations it will be available to - not TechSoup. If there are restrictions on a product being available to a community of faith, those restrictions are by the product provider, not TechSoup.

Glad you are happy with the news about this change from Microsoft.

Very happy to see Microsoft do this for non profits.

Our church will be so happy to upgrade from Office 2003 to 2013!  This will help us out a ton! Thanks all!

Thrilled to know about this change to Microsoft's policies.  So glad they recognize the contributions that so many people of faith and their organizations make to help others.  On behalf of www.theGlobalMission.org - thanks!  We'll be getting the word out to our friends and partner ministries and churches as well.

I just looked to see if it was offered for my organization, but couldn't see it listed under eligibility for Microsoft products. Is that where I should look for Office 365? I've got an email into support asking for help, but thought I would post here.

God answers prayers!!!  This is awesome!!! Our church has already purchased Office 2013 but we're excited to see Microsoft do this for faith based organizations.

Only problem I see with this is that in order register with TechSoup.org the church must have a determination letter that cost $800 to get from the IRS even if they already have an EIN and have had 501(c)(3) for many years.

Per www.microsoft.com/.../faq

"Organizations that engage in discrimination in hiring, compensation, access to training or services, promotion, termination, and/or retirement based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, political affiliation, union membership, or veteran status, other than as allowed by law, are not eligible for software donations."

Not sure much has changed.

"Only problem I see with this is that in order register with TechSoup.org" Just to be clear, there are requirements regarding IRS determination to register for the TechSoup product donation program, however, there are NO such requirements to join other TechSoup.org services, such as the online community forum or free webinars.

To teacherwhite:  What has changed is that tens of thousands of nonprofits are now eligible for these donations.  Yes, you must warrant that your organization does not discriminate in hiring or program services in order to receive Microsoft donations.  This is a requirement of Microsoft’s for all their philanthropy and applies to all organizations that it serves with donations.

To mclayton: it’s not just churches that much provide an IRS determination letter – all nonprofits must to participate in the product donation programs that TechSoup administers.  It’s been a stipulation of the TechSoup product donation program since its inception.

To mclayton: there should be no charge for obtaining a determination letter from the IRS.  A determination letter simply states that the IRS is granting your organization 501(c)(3) status.  When your organization first received its 501(c)(3) designation, the IRS would have sent your organization a letter stating this.  This is your determination letter.  Our organization had been using our determination letter from 20 years ago but recently ran into one funder who only wanted determination letters from the last 3 years.  I called the IRS and they sent me a new one, no charge.

@teacherwhite - Read that statement from Microsoft again closely.  Note it states "other than allowed by law" ... so assuming your hiring practices are legal per fed and state regulations then you are eligible.