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AWS credits for NGOs: USD 1,000 a year for hosting

Amazon Web Services gives small NGOs USD 1,000 a year in credits, through TechSoup. What they cover, what they really cost, and what a Romanian organization should know about invoices, VAT and where its data lives.

Credite AWS pentru ONG-uri: 1.000 USD pe an pentru găzduire cover

The offer

Through the AWS nonprofit programme run by TechSoup, organizations with an annual budget under USD 10 million can request USD 1,000 in AWS credits once per programme year (1 July – 30 June). TechSoup charges an admin fee, USD 95 when we last checked. The credits are valid for 12 months and cover on-demand use of most AWS services; larger organizations can get USD 2,000 or 5,000.

The terms have changed several times in recent years, so check the amount and the fee in the TechSoup catalogue before paying. Microsoft, on the other hand, offers its Azure credits directly, through its own nonprofit programme.

What USD 1,000 covers

  • The organization's website

    A static site costs cents a month; a small server, a few dollars.

  • Domains

    DNS zones in Route 53 cost USD 0.50 a month each.

  • Photo archive

    Backups of the organization's photos and documents.

  • Email from apps

    Messages sent by forms and notifications, through SES.

The National Organization of Romanian Scouts, for one, has hosted its national websites on these credits. As a rule, the credits do not cover domain registration, AWS Marketplace or upfront payments for reserved instances — read the terms.

Someone has to run it

AWS is not a ready-made application but infrastructure. You need someone skilled to set it up and, above all, to keep it safe:

  • two-factor authentication (MFA) on the main root account, which is not used day to day;
  • a separate login for every person, from IAM Identity Center;
  • a budget with an alert in AWS Budgets, so you know in time when you are about to run past the credits.

Credits run out; the bill does not.

The steps

  1. Validate the organization with TechSoup.
  2. Create the organization's AWS account, with an organization email address and MFA.
  3. Request the AWS credits in the TechSoup catalogue and pay the admin fee.
  4. Enter the code you receive in the AWS console, under Billing → Credits.
  5. Set up the budget and its alert.

What the law says: invoices, VAT and data

For customers in Europe, the AWS contract is usually with Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, in Luxembourg. As long as the credits cover all your usage, there is nothing to pay. Once you go past them, you are buying services from a supplier in another member state:

  • An NGO that is not registered for VAT and buys services from abroad must, as a rule, obtain a special VAT code (art. 317 of the Romanian Fiscal Code) and declare the VAT in Romania, in the special return (form 301). The same goes for any paid subscription with a foreign supplier. Talk to the organization's accountant before the first payment.
  • The AWS invoice and proof of payment go into the organization's accounts; pay with the organization's card, not a volunteer's personal one.
  • Keep members' and volunteers' data in an AWS region inside the European Union, for example Frankfurt (eu-central-1). The data processing agreement the GDPR requires is part of the AWS terms.

This article is not tax or legal advice; the rules change, and every organization's situation is different.