TechSoup: how a Romanian NGO validates its access to free software

Why you need TechSoup

Many technology companies give their products to non-profits for free or at a deep discount. Their problem: the offer is global, and what counts as an “NGO” differs from country to country. They cannot check the papers of an association in Alba Iulia or a foundation in Iași themselves.

That is where TechSoup comes in: a global network that verifies organizations' status through local partners. Slack, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Canva and many other vendors rely on its validation. In Romania the local partner is TechSoup Romania, with a product catalogue, webinars and guides in Romanian.

Who qualifies

In Romania, non-profits are mainly the associations and foundations set up under Government Ordinance no. 26/2000. They are entered in the Register of associations and foundations at the court where they have their seat, and they appear in the Ministry of Justice's national NGO register. An association's branches have their own legal personality, so they can be validated separately: each local branch of a national organization can have its own account.

Each vendor still sets its own terms: some offers have budget or membership limits, others exclude certain kinds of organizations. Read the terms of each product before you request it.

The documents to prepare

When we validated our organizations, TechSoup Romania asked for:

the tax registration certificate (the tax identification code, from ANAF);
the certificate of entry in the Register of associations and foundations, issued by the court;
the statute of the organization (the branch's, if you validate as a branch);
an activity report for the last year.

TechSoup may ask for other documents too, for example a letter from the leadership confirming that the person creating the account may represent the organization. The status in your account shows what is still missing.

The law sets no format for the activity report. A few pages approved by the board, listing the last year's activities, projects and beneficiaries, were enough for us. If you have changed your seat, name or statute, first check that the changes are entered in the register, so that all your documents say the same thing.

How long it takes

Once the documents are uploaded, validation usually takes a few days. Ours stayed valid for five years; after that it is renewed with up-to-date documents.

Open the account for the organization, not for a person

Use an email address that belongs to the organization (for example it@organization.ro), not a volunteer's personal one. The same goes for every service you get through TechSoup: people leave, the access has to stay with the organization. Admin fees are paid against an invoice, which goes into the organization's accounts.