Microsoft Donation Program Limits

Eligible organisations receive an allotment of Microsoft software donation requests over a two-year cycle. An organisation's two-year cycle begins with its first donation request after 27 July 2011. After two years, the ordering limitations are reset and a new two-year cycle begins.

The organisation does not need to request the full amount of its allotment. There is no limit to the number of separate requests the organisation can make, as long as they have not used up their full allotment, and no minimum order quantity requirement.

Microsoft products may not be transferred between separate legal entities or resold. Additionally, Microsoft products may not be installed on computers that will be given to or sold to other organisations or individuals, even as part of a charitable program.

Donated product will be distributed under this program to qualifying organisations only, not to individuals.

• Quantity and Frequency of Microsoft Requests
• About Title Groups
• About the Maximum Allotment of Server Products
• Microsoft Donation Centre
• Examples

Quantity and Frequency of Microsoft Requests

Microsoft provides nonprofits with an allotment of product donations that can be requested per two-year period. Within a two-year period, each eligible nonprofit may request products from up to 10 of the title groups with a 50-license maximum for desktop operating systems or client access licences. A maximum of five server products, regardless of title group, can also be requested within the 10 title groups. 

The maximum number of licences applies to the combination of all products within the title group. For example, if an organisation requests 10 Office Professional Plus 2010 and 10 Office for Mac 2011, it will have requested 20 licences from the Office Suite title group and will have 30 licences still available to request within that title group.

About Title Groups

A title group consists of all products that serve essentially the same purpose. For example, all Windows operating system products are in one title group, including Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Business, Windows 7 Professional, and Windows 7 Enterprise in all languages and in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

A product's title group appears near the top of the detailed product description page.

Click here to see the list of Microsoft title groups.    

About the Maximum Allotment of Server Products

An organisation can request a maximum of five server products altogether within a two-year period. The server products can be in a single title group, or they can be in up to 5 title groups, as long as it does not exceed the 10 title group limitation.

For example, an organisation may request any one of the following:

• Five products in the Windows Server title group
• Two products in the Windows Server title group, two products in the Exchange Server title group, and one product in the Small Business Server Premium title group
• Three products in the Small Business Server Premium title group and two products in the SQL Server title group

Some servers require management licenses or client access licenses (CALs) in order to work with their network of computers. Management and access licenses are separate items and are in title groups with a 50-license maximum.

Microsoft Donation Centre

Registered organisations can check the Microsoft Donation Centre page to see the dates for their two-year cycle and how much of their total allotment is still available to them. You must be logged in to see this page, and it is accessible through a link on the "My requests" page.

If there is no such link on the your My requests pages, the organisation is not eligible for Microsoft donations through TechSoup New Zealand.

Examples

The following examples can help explain how the various allotments work together.

Organisation A

Organisation A has requested 20 Office Professional Plus 2010 licences and 20 Office for Mac 2011 licences. They also requested 20 Windows 7 Professional 32-bit upgrade licences, and 10 Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit upgrade licences.

• They have requested from 2 of 10 title groups and can request from 8 more.
• In the Office Suite title group, they have requested 40 licenses and can request up to 10 more.
• In the Windows Desktop Operating Systems title group, they have requested 30 licenses and can request up to 20 more.

Organisation B

Organisation B has requested 1 Project Server, 29 Project Server CALs, 10 Project Professional, 20 Project Standard.

• They have requested from 3 of 10 title groups and can request from 7 more.
• In the Project Server CAL title group, they requested 29 licenses and can request up to 21 more.
• In the Project Desktop title group, they 30 products (10 Project Professional and 20 Project Standard) and can request up to 20 more.
• They have requested one server product and can request up to four more.

Organisation C

Organisation C has requested 50 Office Professional Plus products, 1 Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition, 1 Exchange Server 2010 Standard Edition, 50 Core CAL Suites and 15 Windows Remote Desktop Services User CALs.

• They have requested from 5 of 10 title groups and can request from 5 more.
• In the Office Suite and Core CAL Suite title groups, they have requested 50 licenses and cannot request any more.
• In the Windows Terminal Services CAL title group, they have requested 15 licenses and can request up to 35 more.
• They have requested two server products and can request up to three more.