Sector News

New criteria allows more charities to access Microsoft discounts

We are pleased to announce that following detailed discussions, supported by the Cabinet Office, Microsoft has introduced new eligibility criteria for charities accessing discounted Charity (Academic) pricing.

The principle criterion is that charity pricing will be offered to all registered charities, with a small number of exclusions for certain groups who are covered by other agreements.

Microsoft has been, and remains a strong supporter of the sector through the discounts they offer, their donations programme and a wide range of community affairs activities to support community-based programmes and local projects enabling more people to have better access to technology.

In addition to the traditional licensing method for charities, Microsoft is now making subscription licenses available via the Public Sector PSA12 framework agreement, to any charity with 100+ seats and receiving over 50% of funding from government.

Many charities may also be starting to look at cloud solutions and Office 365. NCVO looks forward to supporting Microsoft in building the sectors understanding of and access to Office 365.

Any WCVA member that isn’t eligible to purchase Academic pricing under the new agreement will be able to continue to do so until the current Microsoft Select Agreement expires on 30 April 2013.

The eligibility criteria can be found here.