Donation Program

Overview

CitySoft makes its Community Enterprise (CE) software platform available to 501(c)3 non-profit and other social sector organizations with a yearly budget of $500,000 or less.   The CE donation program is managed through a partnership with TechSoup.  TechSoup provides information on the CE donation here and here.  The program is also described below and in these Frequently Asked Questions.

CitySoft offers this program as part of our continued commitment to the non-profit community. Having come from and worked in the social sector for many years, we have found that many organizations doing great work are unable to afford quality software to support their missions.  CitySoft provides these organizations with many advantages because the CE software is both:
1) easy to download and install locally or with a 3rd party (unlike many ASP systems) and
2) full featured, easy to use, and designed for upgradeability (unlike many open source implementations)

How To Qualify

An organization can qualify for the free version of CE if it certifies that:

  • It is a 501(c)3 organization or a Canadian charity and
  • It had a budget of $500,000 or less in its most recent fiscal year

For more details on whether you qualify and to apply for the program, see the TechSoup program.

What You Get

Qualified organizations that participate in the program will receive a full version of CitySoft's Community Enterprise software with documentation. For brief description of the modules in Community Enterprise, please download this overview, go to this overview page, visit our online demos, browse this site, or request a demo.

What You Can Do With Community Enterprise

The short answer is "a lot." You can manage contacts, web sites, emails, and much more with CE.  Feel free to review our site to see more detail on Community Enterprise. 

What Obligations Do Program Participants Have

There are only a few obligations for participants in the program, including the following:

  • You cannot provide the CE platform to other people or organizations for free or for a fee without written permission from CitySoft.
  • Organizations, consultants, and developers who participate in the program must agree to contribute any programming code that is generated related to the system to the Community Enterprise source code community so that it can be used by others.

What You Will Need To Be Successful

To successfully install and use your version of the Community Enterprise system, you will need to have access to the appropriate skills, hardware, and software.  We recommend that you work with an experienced consultant or company to setup and learn the software.  We can suggest resources to contact for this purpose.  As per the sections listed below, there are two general skill areas - hosting and using CE - that you will want to plan for as you consider an implementation of the software.

1. Installing and Hosting Community Enterprise

We have created CE to be a very easy to use system for both administrators and end users. However, you will need to have access to people with the basic skills necessary to install and host the system on a server. This includes basic skills in administering Adobe's Cold Fusion Server software and Microsoft's SQL Server software. With these skills and our installation guide, your installation should be easy.  Although not required, we frequently recommend that donation recipients host the CE application with CitySoft at a steeply discounted price of $75/mth (with a $100 setup fee).  This is because it is very easy for CitySoft to host the CE application because we are experts at it whereas an NPO may not want to have to worry about installation and configuration issues.  And, this modest fee helps us offset the costs of running the donation program.

2. Using Community Enterprise

Using CE does not require any technical skills. However, you should be aware that learning to use a new system, even a user-friendly system like Community Enterprise, requires some time. You should expect to either spend time and resources learning to use the system or hire a consultant to help train and support your use.

CitySoft's Commitment and Support 

For participating organizations, CitySoft commits to providing the CE software, associated documentation, and access to our free client support forums. However, CitySoft cannot commit to providing training, consulting or other services - paid or unpaid - to organizations participating in the donation program. In the event that you want help with your Community Enterprise implementation, we can suggest appropriate professional services providers from our large network of consulting partners.

More Information

For more information, please see our Donation Program FAQ.