Zoom for Nonprofits: The Discount, Its Catches, and Free Alternatives

Zoom gives eligible nonprofits 50% off through its Zoom Cares program: Workplace Pro is $7.08 a user a month and Workplace Business $9.16, billed annually. You must be a 501(c)(3) or international equivalent with a budget of $10 million or less, and Zoom left TechSoup in May 2025, so you apply through Zoom and Goodstack. Before you pay, check what you have already: Google Workspace for Nonprofits includes Meet for 150 participants, and Microsoft 365 Business Basic includes Teams for 300, both free.

Much of what you will find about this is out of date. TechSoup’s own notice says that on 1 May 2025 Zoom ended the program it ran there, and older articles still send people to a listing that no longer exists. We read Zoom’s pages on 5 November 2026, using its US dollar view; we were reading from outside the United States and the cards still mentioned another country’s sales tax, so confirm your own price at checkout.

What the discount covers

From Zoom Cares and Zoom’s pricing page; yearly figures are our multiplication. The offer is annual only. Anything not on the list is at full price, and that includes Zoom Events, which matters if you are planning a ticketed event; see nonprofit event software. The Pro card lists AI Companion as a feature, but separate AI add-ons are not among the discounted products. If you use AI summaries for sensitive meetings, have an AI use policy first, and read AI and nonprofit data security.

Three things the 50% does not tell you

The Webinars discount is smaller than it looks

Zoom lists Webinars at $64.50 a month, shown against $129. But $129 is the monthly billing price for 500 attendees, the Zoom Cares offer is for annual plans only, and the annual list price at 500 attendees is $83.33. So against what an annual buyer would pay anyway, the saving is about 23%, not 50%. The ordinary 300-attendee tier is $66.67 a month on annual billing, almost level with it. Zoom also shows only “starting at” for larger sizes, so ask for your nonprofit price in writing before you plan on a 1,000-seat webinar.

Pro and Business are separate paths

The nonprofit Pro card is for 1 to 9 users and Business for 10 to 250, although Zoom’s standard pricing allows Pro up to 99. The support article says you can increase licences on your plan, but “You will not be able to upgrade from Workplace Pro to Workplace Business.” A charity at eight staff and growing should ask how a move to 10 or more would work before buying, because nine Pro seats are about $765 a year and ten Business seats about $1,099.

Existing customers have conditions

According to the same article, customers on a direct sales quote are not eligible. Monthly subscribers must move to annual first. A paid annual plan bought online is cancelled and replaced, with the remaining amount credited. An existing marketing coupon means cancelling and resubscribing, and a charity already holding a TechSoup or Goodstack discount gets the new discount from the following term. There are no refunds for what you have already paid. Sales tax exemption is a separate process, so the IRS letter you gave Goodstack does not count for it.

Who qualifies

Zoom Cares is for organizations with 501(c)(3) designation, public libraries with that designation, and international equivalents, with operating budgets of $10 million or less. It excludes:

• Education: K-12, higher education, boards of education and teaching hospitals.
• Healthcare: hospitals, clinics, hospice, nursing care, rehabilitation and health insurance.
• Government agencies.
• 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) organizations.
• Budgets over $10 million.

That list rules out quite a few charities, including many health and education nonprofits. If you are excluded, the free options below may still apply, on their own terms.

How to apply

1. Have your IRS determination letter and budget to hand.
2. Apply through Zoom Cares. Goodstack verifies eligibility, in 2 to 3 business days by Zoom’s account.
3. Use the coupon you are given when you buy or renew on Zoom.
4. If you already pay Zoom, read the support article first and time this close to renewal, since earlier payments are not refunded.

How verifiers such as Goodstack work, and why status alone is not always enough, is in our software discounts guide.

Do you need Zoom at all?

From Zoom, Google, Google’s feature comparison, Microsoft’s nonprofit plans and Teams limits, read 5 November 2026. For internal meetings and board calls, most charities can stop here. If you qualify for Google Workspace for Nonprofits or Microsoft 365 for nonprofits, video is included. Note that Zoom’s 40-minute limit on Basic is the reason many charities pay; Meet and Teams have no such squeeze for a normal meeting. Each has its own eligibility rules, so check those guides.

The honest reasons to pay for Zoom anyway: your partners, funders and volunteers already know it, it needs no account to join, and you already rely on its breakout rooms for training. A board can also meet on any of these; check your bylaws and state law allow remote meetings, keep minutes as usual, and see the board guide for the wider duties.

Free or cheap webinars

This is the part that is hardest to get for nothing. A webinar needs registration, a public audience and a host in control of who speaks.

• Google Meet is not a public webinar tool at the free level. Live streaming is an Enterprise feature, and for ordinary meetings only guests inside your organization can watch a stream. We found no free Google webinar tier.
• Microsoft Teams may be enough, but check. Microsoft’s events licensing page says Business Basic has foundational event features, up to 1,000 attendees with registration. Its nonprofit plans table leaves webinar hosting with registration unticked for Business Basic, and ticks it for Standard at $3.50 and Premium at $5.50. We cannot resolve that from Microsoft’s own pages, so test it, or ask Microsoft, before you promote an event.
• A normal meeting link. Zoom Pro or Meet can hold a small public talk of up to 100 or 150 people. You lose registration and attendee controls, and strangers can reach the meeting, so use a waiting room and one-time links.
• Zoom Webinars. The paid route, from $774 a year after the discount.

If you run a one-off fundraiser online, you may be better served by ticketing tools: nonprofit event software compares what they charge, and fundraising ideas covers what is worth running. Capture attendees’ consent and add them to your email list afterward, since that is what makes a webinar pay off.

Which to choose

• Under 150 people, board and staff meetings, already on Google: Meet. Pay nothing.
• Already on Microsoft 365: Teams. Pay nothing.
• Need recording on a Google free edition, and partners expect Zoom: one or two Pro seats for the people who host, at about $85 each.
• Ten or more regular hosts: Zoom Business at $109.92 a seat, after comparing the cost with what your Google or Microsoft plan already gives you.
• Regular public talks: test Teams first, then Zoom Webinars.
• Ticketed conference: compare Zoom Events at full price against the event software page.

Only the people who host need a paid licence; participants join free. Volunteers usually do not need a seat at all, unless they run meetings themselves; share one host account’s meetings carefully, with its own password and a named owner. More on bringing helpers in is in how to recruit volunteers. If you are designing slides or invitations, Canva for Nonprofits is free.

A worked example

Take a charity with six staff and a monthly board call. If everyone has a Zoom Pro seat, that is 6 x $84.96, or $509.76 a year after the discount. But only two people ever start meetings, so two seats are enough at $169.92; at list, those two would cost about $340. Add Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 through their nonprofit programs and the question becomes whether those two seats earn their cost at all. If your funders and partners are comfortable joining a Meet or Teams link, the answer is often no, and $170 a year goes to something else. Review this at each renewal rather than letting it roll. Zoom’s annual plans are charged as a single upfront payment, so you will notice the date only when the bill arrives.

Where these figures come from

We read Zoom’s Cares page, support article and pricing pages, TechSoup’s notice, and Google’s and Microsoft’s own pages on 5 November 2026. Zoom’s prices were read in its US dollar view from outside the United States, so they may vary where you are, and they exclude tax. Annual totals are our arithmetic. Prices and programs change often; check at checkout. Zoom has no commercial relationship with this site and we take no referral fees.

This is reference information, not legal or tax advice. Rules vary by state and change over time. For a decision that carries real consequences, check the current text at irs.gov or your state registry, and talk to a nonprofit attorney or CPA.