CVS Fife - 23-27 Randolph Street, Buckhaven KY8 1AT (Map)
T: 01592 567001 - F: 01592 567009 - E: cvsfife@cvsfife.org
Software Discounts For Charities
As a charity you can benefit from discounted software - in some cases up to 95% off!
Software Donation Scheme
Several large software houses such as Microsoft and Symantec donate thousands of copies of their software titles to charities each year.
Basically they allocate a number of licenses to charities and use Charity Technology Exchange (CTX) to manage the distribution. Once you are registered with CTX you can request software.
Each manufacturer has their own rules and eligibility rights and in the case of Microsoft:
- you can order twice in a two year period
- there has to be a one year gap between orders
- the combined total of different titles ordered in a two-year period may not exceed six titles
- you need to buy at least 5 items (could be five copies of MS Office or five different items)
- there is a limit of 50 user licences per title (or one licence per server title)
CTX charge an administration fee for each item ordered but this is way below any discounted rate you will find elsewhere - e.g. MS Office Pro Plus 2007/2010 admin fee is £13 per copy, Windows 7 Pro Upgrade admin fee is £5 a copy.
To take advantage of these deals you need to register with CTX - www.ctxchange.org - it takes a few days before you get your free account with them. The website has in-depth details about eligibility criteria and explains how to go about registering and ordering.
You need to think carefully about what you are ordering and order more than you currently need in case things change before year one is up.
For Microsoft software you need to set up a Microsoft Live ID (if you don't already have one).
Once you have ordered your software, Microsoft will send you DVDs and a link to the Microsoft Volume Licensing site. You then register your organisation to the MS Live ID. The volume licensing site will list all the serial numbers and licences that you have paid for and you can also download your software from there.
There are other advantages: you can give staff the right to purchase personal copies of Office for about £9 each. If you bought 10 licences for your office you could allow 10 staff members to buy copies for their home computers.
Software Dealers who provide substantial discounts
SCVO, NCVO and WCVA have negotiated discounted software deals for their members with Pugh.co.uk and Phoenix Software. CVS Fife has made several purchases from Pugh, primarily because, unlike Phoenix, the prices and details for each software title are listed on the website.
There is a wide range of software to choose from, including Microsoft, Adobe, Quark, Symantec, Corel, and Mcafee.
You need to be careful when making your purchases as the way the licensing works is not standardised across all the different software titles. Here is an example of what you would do if you wanted to buy three copies of MS Office Professional Plus, you would need:
- one copy of the Media (CD/DVD installation disc) @ £27 + VAT
- three licences @ £67 + VAT each
If you needed more copies in the future you would just buy additional licences as you already have the Media.
You also need to be careful what you order - one copy of MS Access costs pretty much the same as a full copy of Office Pro Plus (which includes Access). Also Office Pro Plus is cheaper than Office Pro and no more expensive than Office Standard!
To give another example, say you wanted to buy Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 you could purchase the boxed version for £159 + VAT (normal price £400 inclusive). However, it may be worthwhile looking at the bundled packages as these offer greater savings, eg the Adobe Design Premium costs £516 + VAT (normal price over £1500) and it includes:
- Adobe Dreamweaver® CS5
- Adobe Photoshop® CS5 Extended
- Adobe Acrobat® 9 Pro
- Adobe InDesign® CS5
- Adobe Illustrator® CS5
- Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5
- Adobe Flash® CS5 Professional
- Adobe Fireworks® CS5
- Adobe Bridge CS5
- Adobe Device Central CS5
Buying Direct
Many software houses will provide discounts for charities - if you are not sure you can always email them and ask! CVS Fife has secured discounts between 15% and 50% on some titles just by asking.
As an example...
Many organisations use AVG anti-virus software - some use the FREE version but if you look at the terms and conditions you will find that it is only free for personal use and not for use by charities or business use. However there is a form on the AVG website where you can give details of your charity and what you want and they will email you an offer - usually 50% off. It is worth noting that the Free version of AVG is very basic compared with the full AVG Internet Security Suite.
Shop Around
It pays to have a scan around the internet as good deals are often available.
Some of the sites to check are:
Make sure that the deal is for the latest version of the software (or that you can upgrade to the latest version for free). Watch out for Student versions as they are often cut down (e.g. MS Office Student does not include MS Access), or may have terms and conditions that restrict use.