Microsoft Software Donation Program – Eligibility,
Allotments, and Returns
Organization Types Eligible for Microsoft Donations
Microsoft donations are available to NGOs registered
under Societies Registration Act, 1860 or Indian Trusts Act, 1882 or those
organizations registered under Section 25 of Companies Act, 1956, as granted by
the Government of India, and to public libraries with valid FCRA certificate.
Some types of nonprofits are not eligible, such as educational institutions,
political organizations, healthcare networks, and nonpublic libraries.
Organizations that engage in discrimination in hiring,
compensation, access to training or services, promotion, termination, or
retirement on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age,
disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, pregnancy, sexual
orientation, political affiliation, union membership, or veteran status, other
than as allowed by law, are not eligible to participate in this program.
Organizations must be willing and able to attest that they do not discriminate
on any of these grounds in order to receive donations.
Special Rules for Public Libraries
Public libraries may request Microsoft donations through
this program for public access computers only. Donated software is available
only for use on public access computers or computers used directly in the
management of the public access computers or the library's public access
program.
Participating libraries must also make their collection
and basic services available to the population of their legal service area
without charges to individual users (excluding incidental fees such as printing
charges). If they choose to do so, libraries may impose charges on users
outside the legal service area, and they may provide products and services
(beyond basic services) to the public at large, with or without individual
charges.
Quantity and Frequency of Microsoft Requests
Microsoft provides nonprofits, charities, and libraries
with an allotment of product donations that can be requested per two-year
cycle. Your organization's first donation request after July 27, 2011, marks
the beginning of its recurring two-year cycle. Within a two-year cycle, each
eligible nonprofit or public library may request
· Products from up to
10 of the Microsoft title groups, with a 50-product maximum for desktop
products and license-only products and a 25-product maximum for server products
that use core-based licensing (see below for more details)
· A maximum of five
server products that do not use core-based licensing, regardless of title group
(see below for more details)
There is no limit to the number of times an organization
can make a Microsoft donation request within the two-year cycle as long as they
have not used up their full allotment. After two years, a new cycle begins, and
the allotment is reset.
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.
A product's title group is listed near the top of each detailed
product description page.
For more information, see the list of Microsoft title groups.
About the Maximum of 10 Title Groups
An organization can request products from a maximum of 10 title
groups. For example, if an organization requests Office Professional Plus,
Visio, Windows Server, and Windows Server client access licenses, it will have
requested products from 4 of the 10 allotted title groups.
About the Product Maximums Within a Title Group
An organization can request a maximum of 50 desktop or
license-only products per title group within a two-year period.
Desktop or license-only products are
· Products that run on
an individual computer (such as Office or Windows)
· Client access
licenses (CALs), management licenses (MLs), and other licenses that provide for
connection to or management of a server application
For server products that use core-based licensing (such as
Windows Server Standard or Datacenter), the maximum an organization can request
per title group is 25 within a two-year period.
About the Maximum Allotment of Server Products That Do Not Use
Core-Based Licensing
An organization can request a maximum of five server
products that do not use core-based licensing altogether within a two-year
period. These server products can be in a single title group, or they can be in
up to 5 title groups, as long as the overall maximum of 10 title groups is not
exceeded in the two-year period.
For example, an organization may request any one of the
following:
One product in the Windows Server Essentials title
group, two products in the Exchange Server title group, and two products in the
SQL Server (Server/CAL) title group
- Three
products in the SharePoint Server title group and two products in the SQL
Server (Server/CAL) title group
Some servers require MLs or CALs in order to work with
their network of computers. MLs and CALs are separate items and are in title
groups with a 50-product maximum.
About the Two-Year Cycle
Your organization's Microsoft two-year donation cycle begins
when your organization places its first request for Microsoft product
donations. If your organization requested any Microsoft donations prior to July
27, 2011, its cycle was reset, and its new cycle begins on the date of its
first Microsoft donation request after July 27, 2011.
Your organization's cycle will run for two years from
this initial start date. It will then be immediately reset and run for another
two years, and so on. For example, if an organization's first cycle starts on
October 12, 2014, its new cycle will begin at 12:00 a.m. Pacific time on
October 12, 2016, at which point the organization has a new allotment.
Microsoft Donation Center
Registered organizations can check the Microsoft Donation Center 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).
Examples
The following examples can help explain how the various
allotments work together.
Organization A
Organization A has requested 20 Office Professional Plus, 10
Office Standard, and 10 Office for Mac. They also requested 20 Windows upgrade
products.
- 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 products and can
request up to 10 more.
- In
the Windows Desktop Operating Systems title group, they have requested 20
products and can request up to 30 more.
Organization B
Organization B has requested 1 Project Server, 29 Project Server
CALs, 10 Project Professional, and 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 have requested 29 products and
can request up to 21 more.
- In
the Project Desktop title group, they have requested 30 products (10
Project Professional and 20 Project Standard) and can request up to 20
more.
- They
have requested one server product that does not use core-based
licensing (Project Server) and can request up to four more.
Organization C
Organization C has requested 50 Office Professional Plus
products, 16 Windows Server Enterprise, 1 Exchange Server 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
products and cannot request any more.
- In
the Windows Server title group, they have requested 16 products and can
request up to 9 more.
- In
the Windows Remote Desktop Services CAL title group, they have requested
15 products and can request up to 35 more.
- They
have requested one server product that does not use core-based licensing
(Exchange Server) and can request up to four more.
Organization D
Organization D has requested 16 Windows Server Standard and 50
Windows Server CALs. They also requested 1 SQL Server Standard (Server/CAL) and
25 SQL Server CALs.
- They
have requested from 4 of 10 title groups and can request from 6 more.
- In
the Windows Server title group, they have requested 16 products and can
request up to 9 more.
- They
have requested the maximum allotment of licenses from the Windows Server
CAL title group.
- In
the SQL Server CAL title group, they have requested 25 CALs and can
request up to 25 more.
- They
have requested one server product that does not use core-based licensing
(SQL Server) and can request up to four more.
Refunds and Returns
If you want to return or exchange the Microsoft donated
products you've received, you will need to return all Microsoft products in the
request and place a new request for the Microsoft items you want.
Since all Microsoft products are download-only, returns
will be accepted only if none of the software has been installed, and you
received the donation no more than 60 days previously.
If you want to return or exchange your Microsoft
software donation, please call s for review and approval at (800) 659-3579,
option 2.
The donation limits on your account will normally be
reset within eight business days after a return is complete.
Note that products available through the Get Genuine
Windows Agreement for Small and Medium Organizations have different policies
than products available through the standard Microsoft Donation Program. Read
more about Get Genuine products.