The Charity Technology Trust (CTT) has announced that Adobe has joined its CTXchange donation programme offering charities design and digital editing software.

Qualifying organisations will be able to choose from a list of Adobe software including InDesign CS6 (a professional print- layout application), Photoshop CS6 Extended (image editing application) and Dreamweaver CS6 (website and internet application editor). Two application suites are also available - Creative Suite 6 Design and Web Premium or Creative Suite Production Premium.

Charities can request either four individual programmes or one suite over the course of one fiscal year.

To be eligible for a donation, organisations must be a UK registered charity or charitable housing association with an operating budget of less than £6m. Adobe products are not available for religious organisations without a secular community designation or to fraternities/sororities, Scouts, computer refurbishing organisations, legislative and political organisations or advocacy groups.

Chief executive of CTT, Richard Craig said: “Access to professional grade design and editing software can play an important role in helping charities and not-for-profit organisations to produce the marketing and fundraising materials they need. As part of CTXchange, Adobe will give charitable organisations access to applications that they may otherwise be unable to afford, helping them to remain competitive.”

CTT was set up in 2001 to provide charities with information technology and support services and so far 10,000 charities have already received hardware or software donations.
Other organisations who offer donations through the scheme include Microsoft, Symantec and Cisco.

Charities need to register with the CTXchange in order to request a donation for which there is a small administrative fee to cover the costs of the programme.

The fee varies according to the request but is usually between 6 and 8 per cent of the retail price of the product.