Software company Citrix has joined the Charity Technology Trust’s (CTT) donation programme CTXchange, and is offering a heavily-discounted one-year subscription to its online meeting services.

Registered charities and charitable housing associations can now install the GoToMeeting software enabling them to securely host meetings online for up to 15 participants.

Users can participate in a meeting through any Java-enabled browser, or via telephone with audio provided either through free voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services or by toll-based phone conferencing.

Richard Craig, CEO of CTT, said: “Access to GoToMeeting will help organisations to operate more efficiently as well as make it easier for them to communicate with multiple people and save on travel and conference call costs.”

At the end of the year charities can go directly to Citrix to renew the subscription at the standard rate.

CTT was set up in 2001 to provide charities with information technology and support services and so far 6,000 charities have already received hardware or software donations.

Other organisations who offer donations through the scheme include Microsoft, Flickr 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.