Few of the problems Public Charities must overcome to serve their community are as frequent or imposing as financial resource limitations. While a very few megacomglomerate “charities” may exist with fantastic executive compensation and benefits, most social agencies have never received a grant big enough to operate with even pitiful wages. Yet they go on, noble and seemingly undaunted, to stand in the gap between where our society is today and where it should be. One of the organizations which has made our struggle so much easier is the Tech Soup organization.
Tech Soup has over 41 donor partners, such as Microsoft and Adobe corporations, which donate their product line for redistribution to recognized 501(c)(3) organizations. Tech Soup charges a nominal “administrative fee” based upon a small percentage of the market value to support themselves.
Because of Tech Soup, we can update our computer software to Microsoft Windows 7 for eight dollars ($8.00) per seat, and get Microsoft Office 2010 for $31 per seat. You read that right. Eight dollars is much easier for us to find than $230! QuickBooks, Symantic, and Adobe software are similarly available.
There is an enrollment process involved to verify your tax exempt status and organization type, but it only takes a week or so. I recommend that you browse their web site at http://www.techsoup.org to see the kind of items available to you, and then if you wish to participate click the purple box in the upper right corner for details on how to register to receive Tech Soup stock.