Techsoup Global is a nonprofit organization that provides discounted technology assistance and software subscriptions to nonprofits with support from a variety of tech companies and left-of-center grantmaking foundations. The group was founded in 1987 by Daniel Ben-Horin, a left-of-center former journalist who previously ran the Media Alliance, an association of Bay Area journalists, in the 1980s and wrote for the socialist magazine Mother Jones in the 1970s.

The organization receives more than $50 million in revenue annually and receives in-kind donations of software from dozens of software companies including the most widely used platforms in the world such as Microsoft, Adobe, and Amazon Web Services. Techsoup also receives funding from many notable left-of-center grantmaking foundations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. ^{1 2 3 4}

Background

Techsoup Global was founded in 1987 by Daniel Ben-Horin a former journalist who wrote for publications including the Arizona Republic, New Times, and Mother Jones. Prior to founding Techsoup Ben-Horin was the executive director of the Media Alliance, a left-of-center association of San Francisco Bay Area Journalists. ^{5 6}   

Ben-Horin founded TechSoup under the name CompuMentor, with $2,500 which began as a program that placed local technology professionals as volunteers at Bay Area nonprofits. The modern TechSoup program began because, according to Ben-Horin: “Computer companies were sending new software products to just about everyone on computer magazines’ mastheads. We offered to take the excess product off the magazines’ hands and redistribute it to nonprofits, whom we charged $5 a package.” That program became known as TechSoup Stock and became the focus of the organization. ⁷

By 2007, the organization had 160 employees and was tasked with administering the product philanthropy programs of major software companies such as Microsoft, Symantec, Cisco, and Adobe, distributing over $250 million in products to nonprofits around the world annually at that time. ⁸

Software Distribution

TechSoup’s main program involved providing donated software to nonprofit organizations for a heavily discounted fee that funds the organization. The group works with thousands of nonprofit “members.” Those in the United States are required to be registered as 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations with the IRS. Groups that receive software from Techsoup include charities, advocacy groups, faith-based organizations, and libraries. The group has served over 690,000 nonprofits globally. Among the largest programs of the organization is its Microsoft Software Donation Program, which includes all the latest versions of the most widely used Microsoft software. The group also discounted access to the cloud through the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Grant Credits Program for Nonprofits, as well as access to hundreds of other software platforms from dozens of companies. ^{9 10}

Techsoup Global Network

In 2006, Techsoup founded the Techsoup Global Network, which included creating or partnering with nonprofit organizations in other countries including Poland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, and South Africa. The Techsoup Global Network currently includes Connecting Up in Australia, Socialware in Belgium, Techsoup Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Techsoup Brazil. ^{11 12}

Since its founding the global network claims to have provided over $5 billion in software to nonprofits around the globe. ¹³

Funding

Aside from in-kind software and hardware donations from a wide array of technology companies, Techsoup receives funding from many left-of-center foundations including The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, The Cisco Foundation, the Hearst Foundations, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors – Haitian Fund for Innovation and Reconstruction, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ¹⁴

1. “Funders.” TechSoup Global. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://meet.techsoup.org/about-us/funders-and-donors/
2. “About Our Donors and Partners.” TechSoup Global. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://www.techsoup.org/about-us/about-our-donor-partners
3. Ben-Horin, Daniel as told to Garfinkle, Perry. “A Serious Side of Fun. New York Times. November 25, 2007. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/jobs/25boss.html
4. “Mother Jones, Volume 4.” Foundation for National Progress. 1979. Accessed via google books October 22, 2023. https://books.google.com/books?id=pyYyAQAAIAAJ&q=Daniel+Ben+Horin+The+Song+of+the+Canary
5. “Mother Jones, Volume 4.” Foundation for National Progress. 1979. Accessed via google books October 22, 2023. https://books.google.com/books?id=pyYyAQAAIAAJ&q=Daniel+Ben+Horin+The+Song+of+the+Canary
6. Ben-Horin, Daniel as told to Garfinkle, Perry. “A Serious Side of Fun. New York Times. November 25, 2007. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/jobs/25boss.html
7. Ben-Horin, Daniel as told to Garfinkle, Perry. “A Serious Side of Fun. New York Times. November 25, 2007. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/jobs/25boss.html
8. Ben-Horin, Daniel as told to Garfinkle, Perry. “A Serious Side of Fun. New York Times. November 25, 2007. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/jobs/25boss.html
9. “TechSoup.” Network Depot. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://www.networkdepot.com/techsoup/
10. “About Our Donors and Partners.” TechSoup Global. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://www.techsoup.org/about-us/about-our-donor-partners
11. “TechSoup Timeline.” TechSoup Global Network. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://tsgn.org/en/about/ts-timeline
12. “TechSoup Global Network.” TechSoup. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://meet.techsoup.org/about-us/techsoup-global-network/
13. “TechSoup.” Network Depot. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://www.networkdepot.com/techsoup/
14. “Funders.” TechSoup Global. Accessed October 22, 2023. https://meet.techsoup.org/about-us/funders-and-donors/