I am not the best Microsoft advocate, and in fact personally prefer all things Apple, but I do want to salute Microsoft for their incredible and long-standing support of charities, churches, and other non-profit organizations. It is fairly easy to suggest an ulterior motive when a corporation donates or discounts product for schools of any sort, as that increases the likelihood that their product will become dominant and will be used by the student in their corporate life. However, in the case of non-profit pricing, I see no motive other than generosity and a sense of fairness. I know that our organization would not be able to accomplish anything near what we have without Microsoft's support. [For an interesting comparison, try to acquire an Adobe product for anything less than list price.]
Many other software companies are completely ignoring the growing number of large churches with increasingly sophisticated needs who truly have no choice but to choose Microsoft software. The alternative is either software that is 10-20 times more expensive, or an open-source solution, which is rarely considered due to the difficulty in finding and hiring specialists in those areas, particularly since most churches try to hire from within.
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