This is a list of popular software applications that offer their systems either free or at a major discount to charities and nonprofits.
Google Suite for admin
Google Suite is a full range of cloud-based productivity tools including email, calendar, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software. This is all available totally free to charities.
Google Adwords Grants
AdGrants give charities the chance to advertise for free, up to a limit of $10,000 per month (around £6,200).
Microsoft 365 for admin
Office 365 is now available free for charities in certain circumstances. They also offer a range of other support offerings for non profit organisations.
Adobe for design
Adobe offer a range of cloud-based and desk-based design software that can be useful for charities wanting to do design work in-house. Through TT exchange you can get discounts of up to 60%.
Xero for accounting
Xero is the leading cloud-based provider of accounting software that has challenged the previous big players. It has seen huge growth by being much earlier to fully embrace the benefits of cloud-based software when incumbent systems like Sage and Quickbooks lagged behind and still focused on software that had to be installed locally. Xero offers non-profit organisations a 25% discount on their already low prices.
Free websites
Getting a new website used to be complicated, time-consuming and expensive. It doesn't need to be like that anymore and there are a number of options that allow you to get a great website for your charity without any setup fees at all.
Free databases
There are also lots of great charity database solutions available, some of which offer free introductory plans for charities. As a charity you probably need a database that has been built for charities, so no good system is going to stay free forever. But there are some that are free or very cheap as you get started. In fact, most databases price based on how many contacts you have so the cost will increase as you grow.
Free website hosting
If you have a piece of open-source software and you need to sort out your own hosting arrangements then there are a number of providers who offer free hosting for charities.