Tech Thoughts

New to TechSoup: Adobe Creative Suite 6

Adobe Creative Suite 6 is now available via TechSoup!

For those unfamiliar with TechSoup, they are a nonprofit organization that provides technology donations to other nonprofits. They are the exclusive donation provider for Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, among others. The qualification process to get your organization registered with TechSoup can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of months to process. Once qualified, TechSoup matches your org up with the donation programs that you qualify for, and you can then log in on behalf of your organization and “purchase” software from those programs at unbeatable prices. (*Technically it’s not a purchase, your org is paying an admin fee to TechSoup, who is facilitating the donation on behalf of the company.)

I’ve long said that if your nonprofit isn’t registered with TechSoup, you are wasting money. The admin fee to obtain Adobe CS6 Design & Web Premium via TechSoup is $150. Compare that to a retail price of $1,899 or even the standard nonprofit licensing program rate of $600.

Every TechSoup donation program has it’s own limitations and restrictions. The Adobe donation program requires that the organization provides specific types of direct services, has a budget under $10 million per year, and limits donations to one suite or four individual products per fiscal year. Eligibility resets on July 1st, and does not carry forward. (Pro tip: get your donation requests in before June 30th!) Organizations that don’t qualify for Adobe’s regular donation program may still qualify for their Special Donation Program, which allows broader eligibility to request donations of previous versions of their software.