Did You Know Office 365 Is Free To Charities?

Microsoft is donating their subscription-based Office 365 Business Essentials and Office 365 E1 Enterprise licenses to eligible charities, offering them the latest release of the office productivity apps Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, as well as a full suite of Web apps including professional email, shared calendar, online storage, instant messenger, HD video conferencing, notepad, and screen sharing through apps such as OneNote, Lync, or SharePoint. What’s more, Office 365 enables non-profits to easily set up a public website as well as an internal collaboration network (Intranet) without any hosting fees. Find out more about Office 365 charities below.

Are You Eligible?

Eligible Office 365 charities and non-profits include organizations that are legally recognized as charitable in their countries. Examples include non-profits dedicated to improving education, helping the poor, preserving culture or the environment, or promoting human rights. Although most schools, colleges, and universities are not considered Office 365 charities, they can also get Office 365 through Microsoft’s academic volume licensing programs. Office 365 donations are available in 96 countries. To check whether Office 365 is available as a donation in your country, go here.

Office 365 Charities: How to Get Your Office 365 Donation

If you represent a non-profit organization that wants to receive Office 365 as a donation, you must follow the simple steps below to apply for a license:

  1. Go to the Office 365 trial download page.
  2. Choose between Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials and Office 365 Nonprofit E1. Notice that both Office 365 Business Premium and Enterprise E3 licenses are available for charities at a significant discount.
  3. Set up your account, providing all the required information. In the right-hand side of the screen you’ll see a highlight of the plan you’ve chosen, including the number of user licenses and the functionality you’re getting. To complete the process you must create a user ID and validate your phone number.
  4. After you’ve launched your free trial, go to Admin > Licence Management and assign the available licenses to users. You can return to this tab at any time in the future to manage your licenses.
  5. Wait to receive an email confirming your eligibility. This may take anywhere from a few hours to three weeks. If you don’t receive this email in the first 21 days after signing up for the free trial, contact customer support. Have your RS 501(c)(3) determination letter ready if you’re representing a US-based nonprofit, or the equivalent proof if you’re representing a nonprofit outside the US.
  6. Enjoy Office 365. Once the Office 365 Nonprofit offer appear in your admin portal, your eligibility has been confirmed.

Clear Cloud Services have helped countless charities with their Microsoft application for charity pricing so please feel free to contact us for help with this process.

Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials Versus Office 365 Nonprofit E1

The two Office 365 plans Microsoft donates are Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials and Office 365 Nonprofit E1. Both of these include business-class email with 50GB of storage space per user, HD video conferencing and Skype audio calling, instant messaging, 1TB of storage space per user with OneDrive, anti-spam and anti-malware protection, a 99.9% guaranteed uptime, and online office apps.

The main difference between the two plans is that while While Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials supports up to 300 users, Office 365 Nonprofit E1 supports an unlimited number of users. Also, Office 365 Nonprofit E1 features Yammer, an enterprise social network, and site mailboxes for easier team collaboration.

Compared to the paid plans for nonprofits, these free plans lack only mobile apps, unlimited storage email, hosted voicemail, and interactive dashboards for business intelligence. Find out more about the Office 365 charities plans here.

Office 365 Charities Plan Calculator

If you’re not sure which plan is best for your nonprofit, Clear Cloud’s Office 365 calculator is a simple tool that can help you determine the costs based on how many licenses you need.

Future Support

Charities and non-profit organisations require timely and accurate accounting of all their expenses. We can help you make sure that you don’t pay any more than you need on MS Office and IT services.

Office 365 is available to qualifying charities free of cost or with significant discounts. If you are a local charity, non-profit, or school, we can work with you to ensure a seamless transition to cloud services to get the most out of your new Office 365. The suite can help you reduce costs and enhance organisational productivity, with streamlined processes and better opportunities for collaboration.

Once your organisation is enjoying the many benefits offered by Office 365, we can help you get the most out of your subscription. We offer various support packages and training so please contact us for a free consultation.