I audit church budgets line by line, and software is where I find money on almost every single one. Not because churches buy bad tools — because almost every major vendor has a nonprofit price, and almost no church has asked for it.

Here are the ten I see most, with what to do about each. (Pricing programs change — always check the vendor's current nonprofit page — but every one of these was real as of this writing.)

1. Adobe Creative Cloud at retail. Churches routinely pay full commercial price. Adobe's nonprofit pricing through TechSoup runs a fraction of retail for the same apps. If your media team uses Photoshop or Premiere, this alone can be thousands a year.

2. Canva Pro. Canva for Nonprofits is free — full Pro features, up to 50 users. Churches are approved case-by-case, but most get in. If you're paying for Canva, stop.

3. Microsoft 365 / Google Workspace. Both offer free nonprofit tiers (Microsoft 365 Business Basic free up to 300 users; Google Workspace has a free nonprofit plan). Churches paying retail for email and docs are often leaving $1,000–$3,000/yr on the table.

4. A second giving platform. This one's sneaky: a church adopts a new giving tool but the old one keeps billing — or their church management system already includes giving they're not using. Two systems moving the same dollars means one monthly fee (and sometimes a worse rate) for nothing.

5. Project-management tools at retail. Monday.com gives nonprofits 10 free seats plus a discount beyond that. Asana and others have nonprofit programs too. And honestly — half the churches paying for these could do the same job in tools they already own.

6. QuickBooks Online at retail. Available through TechSoup at a fraction of the retail subscription. Your bookkeeper can migrate the account without losing anything.

7. Three different form/survey tools. Wufoo, Typeform, SurveyMonkey — I regularly find all three on one church's books, while their church management system (Planning Center, Breeze, etc.) includes forms for free. Pick one home for forms and cancel the rest.

8. Streaming platforms you've outgrown — or never needed. If you're paying for a premium streaming service but your stream just goes to YouTube and Facebook (both free), a free encoder like OBS may be all you need. Broadcast-grade tools earn their keep for large multisite churches; for everyone else they're often habit.

9. The zombie subscriptions. Every audit finds at least one: the tool nobody can log into, the trial that converted two years ago, the license for a staff member who left. Nobody decided to keep paying — nobody decided to stop. Put every recurring charge on a list with an owner and a renewal date. That list is worth real money.

10. Sales tax you didn't owe. Not software, but it hides on the same receipts: in many states, churches are exempt from sales tax on purchases — and vendors like Amazon will honor it automatically once you enroll your exemption certificate. Some states even refund what you've already paid.

The one caveat

Most of the big programs (TechSoup, Microsoft, Adobe) require an IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter. Churches are automatically tax-exempt without one — but without the letter, the programs can't verify you. If your church has never obtained one, that single piece of paper unlocks most of this list.

Want the version with your actual numbers?

This list is the generic version. The specific version — your subscriptions, your duplicates, your dollar amounts — comes from your transactions. Upload a year of them and I'll send you a free savings report within 24 hours, personally reviewed, category by category (here's how to export the file from any accounting system). Most churches find the total lands somewhere between "nice" and "we need to schedule a board meeting."