Adobe has long produced professional software for creating compelling documents and media, but many nonprofits have been stuck by their donation policies and steep costs in the past. Many of those nonprofits are likely to be overjoyed with TechSoup’s news yesterday that  Adobe has just loosened their donation program rules to allow many more nonprofits to access their products at reduced rates. While there are several changes to their policy, one of the most biggest moves is that now more health care organizations are eligible for the discounts. In the past, only health care organizations providing services to people with disabilities were eligible, but now organizations including “nursing homes, rural medical facilities, mental health organizations, and family planning organizations” will be able to receive the discounted software as well.

For more details on their software donation guidelines, read TechSoup’s page outlining their program, and you can also use TechSoup’s new tool to help you determine whether or not you are eligible. For organizations who are still not eligible for their discounted software, TechSoup also keeps a stock of non-current Adobe products that these organizations can purchase at reduced rates.

Here at NPower, we have also seen the benefits of Adobe’s increased generosity in regards to the kinds of trainings that they are supporting financially. Many NPower clients have appreciated the 50% discount on Adobe classes over the last few years. Starting this summer, Adobe has begun to allow us to also subsidize private trainings on their products and educational coaching sessions. Now, all private Adobe trainings will also be discounted by 30% from the regular consulting rate. The discounts on NPower trainings are available to all nonprofits, even if they don’t fit into the eligibility for discounted Adobe products at TechSoup. Visit this page on our website to learn more about the discounts on our public and private Adobe trainings.

Adobe is also providing support for a wider range of training offerings at NPower, so you will see new offerings in our upcoming class schedules. On September 23rd we are holding the first of these new offerings, InDesign and Photoshop Educational Coaching. In this session, students will bring in InDesign or Photoshop projects to receive guidance and support from our expert trainer. As each student will receive a great deal of personal attention, registration to these sessions will be limited to 5 students. Keep an eye out for the October edition of our newsletter to hear the details about our Website Projects Educational Coaching offering.

Thank you Adobe for your continued support of our training offerings, and for allowing more nonprofits access to your products at reduced rates!

This just in from Microsoft: a free webinar next week highlighting their Dynamics CRM tool.

If you’re shopping CRM (Constituency Relationship Management) tools, sign up to hear news about nonprofit templates for MS Dynamics CRM at a free webinar hosted by Microsoft on Tuesday, May 4th from 11am – 12:30pm Pacific Time. One of the presenters will be Shawn Michaels from NPower Oregon, an advisor to our database team here in Seattle.

Register here .  This webinar is free, but space is limited, so register today.

How to order donations, and where to find how-to videos:

• Are you considering upgrading to Windows 7, but have already used your MS donation for the year? No worries! Through TechSoup, Microsoft is allowing nonprofits an extra donation for Windows 7. You need to place your order by June 30th, and you can read the other “fine print” here .
• Thank you to Microsoft Community Affairs for assisting with our Windows 7 presentation last month. If you missed the presentation, check out Microsoft’s helpful Windows 7 How-To videos  .

Join TechSoup on November 12 for a free online tour of their fabulous technology resources for nonprofits and libraries:

Learn How TechSoup Can Help Your Organization — November 12
Thursday, November 12, 11 a.m. Pacific time

Join TechSoup.org content creators, community leaders, and customer service support for a tour of how your organization can use all that TechSoup has to offer to improve your technology and help you reach your mission. We’ll walk you through the process of registering and requesting donated and discounted products from 40 donor partners like Microsoft and Adobe. We’ll also take you on a virtual tour of TechSoup’s free educational resources for nonprofits and public libraries.

Register now!

I’ll be joining a panel discussion at the Puget Sound Grantwriter’s Association conference in Seattle on 10/16 to share suggestions for some smart investments that may help your nonprofit raise capital or provide you with resources that go beyond a large check. In other words, how to engage corporations in assisting nonprofits in ways that are useful and that reflect the new reality of tightened corporate giving budgets.

Here are some suggestions I have heading in, thanks to some help from my friends here at NPower Seattle. I’ll be sharing these thoughts at the PSGA conference, and I’ll write again with new ideas gained from that discussion.

Doing More with Less Suggestions

Account for all the costs in grant requests to limit the budget-breaking “hidden costs” to your organization. (This may seem counterintuitive in a “Doing More with Less” list because it drives the overall project budget UP, but it’s better in the long run to ask for what you need to cover your costs.)

For example:

• the “soft” costs of technology like software, training, set up and maintenance
• Temp help to cover for staff who attend training

For technology projects, get cost estimates from a recognized IT provider to add credibility to your request.

• Contact an IT service provider, like NPower Seattle, to get a proposed scope of work or estimate for your workstation, server, database, Web site or other technology upgrade. Include the estimate in your proposal.

Be creative about identifying matching and in-kind contributions. Include things like:

• The value of your own staff and volunteers’ time that’s not covered by grant funds
• The value of your IT provider’s time for providing a free estimate or any pro-bono services
• The difference between the retail value and a discounted rate you receive (through TechSoup, Microsoft, Google, NPower…) for software, hardware and training. For example, NPower has negotiated with some nonmember groups to charge our discounted member rate for our services, and allow them to apply the difference as an in-kind contribution from NPower in a grant proposal.

Be convincing about the need for infrastructure upgrades and support.

• Pitch the idea of a progression from a Stable and Secure Foundation to Effective Use to Innovation. You can’t get to the fancy stuff without reliable work stations, internet access, email, etc.

• See NPower’s Tech Impact profiles for an example of how one local organization, Treehouse, benefits from scheduled support services to keep their technology infrastructure stabel and secure – visit http://www.npowerseattle.org/about-us/tech-impact/

TechSoup – self-serve information and discounted technology products

• online information and resources at the Learning Center– visit http://home.techsoup.org
• the weekly “By the Cup” e-newsletter
• Discussion Forums where nonprofit staff connect with each other and with technology experts who chime in. Visit the Discussion Forums main page at http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/forums/
• a product philanthropy service called TechSoup Stock – visit http://www.techsoup.org/stock . Nonprofits can access donated and discounted technology products, generously provided by corporate and nonprofit technology partners. Partners include Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, Grant Station…
  • For example, Microsoft Office software purchased through TechSoup comes with a 2-year software assurance agreement for free upgrades. This is a significant savings.

Microsoft - free software and training resources

• Software donations

Through a partnership with TechSoup, Microsoft and NPower, agencies who are NPower customers may be able to get their Microsoft software at zero cost as part of the Microsoft Direct Donation Program. Please check with NPower for more details.

• NGO Web site

The Microsoft NGO Connection site at www.microsoft.com/ngo offers free curriculum and training materials for nonprofits to use for internal staff training or for public training with clients.

Salesforce – free licenses and a growing nonprofit community

• Free licenses

Licenses for the first 10 users are provided free to nonprofits, thanks to the Salesforce.com Foundation. Some organizations have been granted additional licenses at no charge, and additional licenses are available from the Foundation at a deep discount.

• Implementation of your Salesforce CRM is made faster and less expensive by the nonprofit template developed by NPower Seattle. Contact NPower for details.
• See NPower’s Tech Impact profiles for stories of how two organizations (Arts Corps and Friends of the Orphans) have benefited from free Salesforce licenses and assistance from NPower – visit http://www.npowerseattle.org/about-us/tech-impact/
• One other draw is that the nonprofit community of users is large (hundreds of nonprofits use Salesforce) and a source of free advice and peer support.
  • There’s an active discussion group on the web (search Google Groups for “npsf”).
  • Seattle Nonprofit User Group: Whether you’re just exploring Salesforce, a beginning user, or an expert with tips to share, you’re welcome to attend the monthly Salesforce Nonprofit User Group hosted by NPower Seattle. Join us at the NPower Seattle offices on the 3rd Wednesday of every month at 8:00 a.m. Visit http://usergroups.salesforce.com/nonprofits_seattle/ to register for the Nonprofit User Group and to check out the Salesforce Nonprofit User’s blog.

Google – free applications, ad words and video hosting

• Google apps like Google docs and Google calendar
• Google ad words – free to nonprofits for key words up to $1 per click
• YouTube’s charity initiative allowing nonprofits or any YouTube user to post their cause driven video with an added overlay link. Learn more at http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/06/youtube-videos-getting-off-site-overlay-links.html

Misc. cost-saving or no-cash ideas

• Social media for reaching out to and inspiring donors and volunteers (Facebook, Twitter, FlickR, YouTube…)
• Tips for online fundraising from the NTEN blog, like Raise Money on Facebook: Four Strategies You Need to Know About, at http://nten.org/blog/2009/09/24/raise-money-facebook-four-strategies-you-need-know-about
• Communications expertise and tips via webinar and blog from Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com
• Tech tool comparisons and guides from Idealware
• Private training at NPower Seattle – if you have at least 7-8 people to train at the same time, it’s less expensive to schedule a private group session than to register individually. See details here.
• Protect yourself from cyber theft – set up a dedicated work station for online banking. See the recent post by John Joynt on NPower’s blog for details: http://community.npowerseattle.org/npowering/cyber-theft-p1/

Your thoughts? What have I missed?

~Peg Giffels

Apple recently released Snow Leopard, an updated version of their Mac operating system.  One of the new features with this version is integrated support for Microsoft Exchange Server using Apple’s Mail, Address Book and iCal applications.  Before you get too excited, keep in mind that Snow Leopard only supports connecting to Exchange Server 2007.  If you are connecting to  Exchange Server 2003 (or earlier), Snow Leopard offers IMAP support, but you will not get the same integrated experience.  However, for users who need to connect to a mail server running Exchange 2007, this may be reason enough alone to upgrade.  For more information, check out the links below:

• Apple - Mac OS X Snow Leopard
  
• Snow Leopard and Microsoft Exchange First Impressions
• Snow Leopard In Depth: Exchange

Many of the TechSoup Stock donation programs allow eligible organizations to receive a fixed quantity of discounted hardware, software, and online service offerings between July 1st and June 30th of each year (their fiscal year).  Check out TechSoup’s website for a list of donation programs affected by the fiscal year end.  Eligible organizations can maximize their TechSoup benefits by submitting your donation request before Tuesday, June 30th and then become eligible once again on July 1st.  Please note that the Microsoft Software Donation Programs are NOT affected by TechSoup fiscal year end.

Have you wanted to be able to take advantage of Symantec’s product offerings available through TechSoup Stock, but have not been able to because you are you a library or school?  Well want no more, as all Symantec products are now available to qualifying libraries and 501(c)(3) schools.

Also, a reminder for all qualifying nonprofit agencies that the current fiscal year for Symantec product donations is coming to a close on June 30th.  So if you have need for any Symantec products and have not taken full advantage of their TechSoup enterprise and desktop offerings (two products from each class), make sure to do so soon.

For more details regarding the Symantec Donation Programs, check out the TechSoup website.

If you are looking for help with your fundraising for the 2009-2010 fiscal year, then make sure to check out GrantStation’s special offer available through TechSoup.  On Tuesday, May 19th and Wednesday, May 20th, qualified nonprofits can receive a one-year GrantStation membership for a $99 Admin Fee – that’s $300 off the regular fee.  Make sure to register your organization ahead of time to make sure that you can take advantage of this offer.  For more information regarding this offer, please visit TechSoup.