Hi Tonia,

Unfortunately, my favorite Dell rep was promoted and I’m not super thrilled with the rep I got afterwards, so I won’t recommend them. However, if you stop by the Church IT Roundtable chat room (go to http://www.citrt.org/ and click the Live Chat link at the top), ask during the workday especially (wait a few hours and try again if you don’t get a response, it’s busier some days than others) and see if someone has a Dell rep they highly recommend. Also, you can buy Dell stuff through my Zones rep (Eric Inabnit; his name and number and email are in my post above), they can resell Dell stuff and it’s usually (not always) close to what Dell would charge, especially for the hardware (Dell will often win on Microsoft software that Zones also sells, but Zones can do well on Dell hardware and actually comes close enough on Microsoft software I will often buy from them because Eric takes good care of me and they’re not that much higher, and it’s often easier to buy from somewhere with a reliable contact, and to get things from one source).

Thanks!

Hi Allen,

Adobe does offer non-profit pricing to churches in my experience, as long as the church has an IRS 501(c)(3) letter of recognition. While a church doesn’t need to get this letter officially (to be tax-exempt and accept tax-exempt donations), they can get one, Lakeview has one, and Adobe gives us the non-profit discount just fine. In lieu of an IRS letter I’ve heard that a letter from a CPA can authenticate tax-exempt status of churches, but it’s up to Adobe/Microsoft/etc whether to accept that as proof for their programs, or require an IRS letter in all cases. I haven’t had experience without an IRS letter however, so I don’t know if this would be successful from experience. It sounds like from yours, it isn’t, at least with Adobe. The IRS letter technically pertains to whether the IRS treats an organization as taxable or not; businesses like Adobe often use the status as a way to avoid doing their own checking and just use the government guidelines (“if the government says they’re non-profit, we’ll agree”) but accepting alternate proof like a CPA’s letter is time-consuming and costs them additional money, and I know of no legal reason to force them to follow the IRS rules.

All that said, IANAL and this is not legal advice :-)

–Allen

You’re welcome Tom, I’m glad you’ve found the information useful!

Tom

“If you are a WCA Member just call them and have your email address setup so that when you login to the Willow site you will get the discount–BUT it will be taxable. That is the Apple Site THROUGH the Willow site.”

Also, CGreenTX, also from the chat, mentioned that if your average weekly attendance is above 2,000, Apple has a new Apple Worship Team that can help you out with a corporate account and discounts greater than the WCA 10%. I am emailing you the contact information for a Enterprise – Worship Market Field Account Executive you should get in contact with in this case!

Thanks!

I’m not sure where you’re getting your Office Mac 2008 information. I was able to buy charity licenses through Zones for Mac Office 2008 for $50 without Software Assurance and around $70 with (I went without in this case), and it then becomes available to download in the eOpen licensing center (for me at least). I didn’t know it was covered under downgrade rights for Office 2007 versions though, that could be useful information for sure if you already have those! Thanks!

One note for you about Office Mac 2008: While you cannot buy licenses for this directly, Office Mac is covered under the ‘downgrade rights’ provision for certain Office 2007 Licenses (I think Standard and above, but may be wrong. I know it’s covered with Professional Plus.). If you have licenses for those products, you can download a disc image of Office Mac 2008 from the eOpen website. Nifty!

@Ian: Thanks for the additional info on Willow Creek Association! I should look into that (except for Mac Office 2008 :-)