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.