 jimkyleBtrieve GuyPremium
join:2002-10-20
Oklahoma City, OK
kudos:2
 ·AT&T Southwest
| Is techsoup.org legitimate? I'm "computer adviser" for my highschool's alumni association, which is a 503C non-profit. Got a call this morning from our president, who's been investigating the use of QuickBooks Non-Profit to keep our group's books (currently being kept in Excel spreadsheets). He had learned of an organization making QB Non-profit available for download upon payment of a $45 "administration fee" and thought we should investimate it. Since the normal price from Intuit is around $300 (I've found prices ranging from $299 to $319), that sounds too good to be true -- so I'm suspicious.
A Google search turned up "techsoup.org" which advertises exactly that deal. I then searched for "techsoup" looking for negative reports or complaints, but found none. A "whois" search shows the domain was registered in 1999 to "techsoup global" out of San Francisco. My search for "techsoup" turned up only glowing reviews and promotional news, the majority of which had been posted from the domain itself.
I'm still suspicious, but with no evidence I cannot advise my group to walk away from this possibility. Techsoup does require application for membership, and is apparently not open to the general public, so it might well be up and up. Does anyone here know more about it, either way?
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Jim Kyle |
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 DC DSLThere's a reason I'm Command.Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
kudos:2 | I don't have any info regarding them but you could try contacting Intuit/QuickBooks to find out. |
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 DennisPremium,Mod
join:2001-01-26
Algonquin, IL
kudos:5
Chicago
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| reply to jimkyle
all I can say is that my "bs radar" went off at first but I can't find anything negative easily.
»louisiananonprofits.blogspot.com···org.html |
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jimkyleBtrieve GuyPremium
join:2002-10-20
Oklahoma City, OK
kudos:2 Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| Same situation here. There seems to be no way to contact Intuit directly to ask them, but I did join their forum area and asked my question. So far there's one reply, indicating no problem. If Intuit monitors those forums, perhaps they will have something to say...
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Jim Kyle |
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DC DSLThere's a reason I'm Command.Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
kudos:2 | Right off their website:
Intuit Inc.
Corporate Headquarters:
2632 Marine Way
Mountain View, CA 94043
650-944-6000 |
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| Hi Jim:
I'm Allyson - I manage Intuit's product donation program through TechSoup. I completely understand your concerns, but I assure you that we're very much above board. Intuit has a brief overview of our partnership here:
»about.intuit.com/about_intuit/ph···bout.jsp
As does Microsoft:
»www.microsoft.com/about/corporat···Software
From Cisco:
»www.cisco.com/web/about/ac48/abo···ist.html
From Adobe (see "Software Donation Program"):
»www.adobe.com/corporateresponsib···ity.html
If you have any questions about the registration process, eligibility, or anything else, feel free to contact me at allyson@techsoupglobal.org. |
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jimkyleBtrieve GuyPremium
join:2002-10-20
Oklahoma City, OK
kudos:2 | Thanks very much! You told me what I need to know, and I'll pass the details along to our president and to our finance committee.
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Jim Kyle |
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| reply to jimkyle
I see you already received a response from Intuit but I just wanted to add that yes, techsoup.org is a legitimate web site for non-profits to purchase software at significantly discounted prices. They are excellent to work with. |
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| Hi all,
Glad to see Allyson has already provided excellent insight regarding our work. As the TechSoup Chief Business Development Officer, I wanted to share that as a 501 c 3 organization based in San Francisco, we have the pleasure and honor to centralize great resources - including donation programs for companies like Intuit, Cisco, Microsoft, Symantec, SAP, and many others.
We appreciate you asking the right questions, and are glad to learn our good name is clear to all the readers of this group. Do be aware that the admin fees are a payment nonprofits make TO TechSoup.org, and those fees are not returned to the donating organizations.
Since these wonderful companies make a huge commitment each year to their donations, I wanted to make sure you all knew the technology you'll find for donation requests on TechSoup are in fact donations.
AND one favor? If you know of a nonprofit that hasn't heard of TechSoup, please point them our way, will you? We have a lot of ways any nonprofit can improve their organization, and we're always hoping to increase the number of groups we can help every day.
All the best
Gayle Carpentier
TechSoup Global
Chief Business Development Officer
gcarpentier@techsoupglobal.org |
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jimkyleBtrieve GuyPremium
join:2002-10-20
Oklahoma City, OK
kudos:2 Reviews:
·AT&T Southwest
| said by Gayle :We appreciate you asking the right questions, and are glad to learn our good name is clear to all the readers of this group. Do be aware that the admin fees are a payment nonprofits make TO TechSoup.org, and those fees are not returned to the donating organizations. I'm also very glad that I asked, and have already recommended to the president of our association that we pursue this opportunity. This is one time when "too good to be true" wasn't! In our 26-year existence, we had not learned of your existence and consequently have been paying full list price for all our software. Once we've made our application and received approval, our budget will see some great savings.
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Jim Kyle |
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