The Microsoft Donation Program on TechSoup has had some significant changes recently. Microsoft products are a perpetual favorite for public libraries. The good news is that even though the number of donated products has been reduced, the product donations most popular with libraries will still be available. These include the latest versions of Windows 10, Windows Server, Exchange Server, Office Standard, and Office for Mac. The process for requesting your Microsoft donations hasn't changed. Here is what libraries can request from our Microsoft Donation Program.
The Two-Year Cycle and Request Limits
Your library can request your Microsoft donations on a two-year cycle. Your two years is dated from your first Microsoft donation request. You don't need to do all your requests at one time. You can make multiple requests over your two-year cycle. There are limitations on how much you can request every two years. Libraries can get up to
- 50 licenses of each Microsoft donated desktop product type. For example, you can receive 50 licenses of Windows 10 Upgrade and 50 licenses of Office Standard.
- 25 donated Windows Server Standard license packs, each of which licenses two server cores. A server machine needs a minimum of 16 core licenses — more if the server has more than 16 cores.
- 5 donated server products that are not Windows Server Standard, like Exchange Server Standard, SQL Server Standard, or SharePoint Server.
- 50 client access licenses (CALs) for each server offered. If a server uses both user CALs and device CALs, you can get 50 of each type.
- 50 licenses of Windows 10 Get Genuine (the full version of Windows) just once. In other words, this product donation is limited to one request per lifetime.
- Additional Microsoft products that remain on a donated basis include Microsoft Access, Project, Visio Standard, and Dynamics 365 (on-premises).
All Microsoft products are download-only. Find out more on your Microsoft donated software request limits here.
For information on the admin fees for the Microsoft donated products mentioned about see our Top Donated Products page.
Office Professional Plus
Microsoft Office Professional Plus has been a very popular product among libraries. It is no longer available from TechSoup as a donation, but it is available to public libraries at a discount from a Microsoft Authorized Education Partner. If your library needs that suite of products, you might consider requesting Office Standard and Microsoft Access separately from TechSoup. Combined, these two products deliver almost all the power of Office Professional Plus.
Special Rules for Public Libraries
Public libraries may request Microsoft products through this program for public access computers, or computers used directly in the management of the public access computers for your library's public access program.
Participating libraries must also make their collection and basic services available without charge to all patrons who live in their legal service area (excluding incidental fees such as printing charges). Libraries may impose charges on patrons who live outside their legal service area, though.
Microsoft Discounted Cloud Services and Software
If your library needs additional copies of Microsoft software beyond what is available in the TechSoup donation program, public libraries are eligible for Microsoft discounted products under the Microsoft Educational program. Please refer to the Microsoft Volume Licensing for Industries website and click the Education tab for more information about licensing for discounted on-premises software and also Microsoft cloud services like Office 365.
Find a Microsoft Authorized Education Partner here.
TechSoup is actively exploring ways that we can better serve public libraries. We hope to provide all Microsoft offers directly through our catalog in the future, so stay tuned! We'll let you know about any changes in Microsoft program so we can serve you as well as possible.
