Techsoup Canada (techsoupcanada.ca) is the Canadian branch of Techsoup.org, an American organization that facilitates technology companies to donate or subsidize the prices of their goods and services to charities and other worthy organizations. Techsoup Canada has a number of donor partners, including Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, Symantec.
Of particular interest to fundraising associations is the opportunity to acquire a free license for Google's G Suite (formerly knows as Google Apps).
Here’s some info about Google’s offerings for non-profits: https://www.techsoupcanada.ca/en/support/google/FAQ
Here’s some info about how to register for Tech Soup Canada https://www.techsoupcanada.ca/en/support/how-to-register
After registering your own domain name, G Suite provides the fundraising association with ability to:
- create gmail email accounts “@greatschoolfundraisingassociation.com”
- one for each board member, volunteer role, etc.
- create mailing lists
- members@, volunteers@, board@ email addresses and lists can be set up to make it easier to communicate
- use Google’s group calendar and contacts features
- use Google’s ‘docs' and ‘sheets’ to create, share and collaborate on documents
- provide a place to store documents, and pass them along to the future
- online ‘google groups’ discussions, both public and private
The Society needs to create a Tech Soup account, and then register the Society with Tech Soup (this will involve submitting some documents).
Once Tech Soup has approved the Society, you can request a "G Suite Validation Token”, create a new "Google for Non Profits” account, apply the token to a request for a free account, and then submit the request and the token.