The products and services that make up Microsoft 365 have been essential to modern business productivity for a long time now, and is ideal for businesses looking to optimize their operations. But is it the same for non-profit businesses as it is with for-profit businesses? The truth is that charities need cutting edge solutions just as much as any other organisation – just because their efforts are not directed to making money for themselves, does not mean they aren’t looking to be as efficient as they can. We reached out to an IT support provider from London that specialises in Microsoft 365, and has worked with charities for many years. According to them, the outsourced IT support London charities look for usually involves support with modern business solutions like Microsoft 365.
What is Microsoft 365
Firstly, let’s look at what Microsoft 365 actually is. For businesses, it is the Microsoft plan they are likely to be most familiar with, because it contains all of the familiar business applications and services, which they have probably been using for years…
Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote form the basis of the Office suite in Microsoft 365. Then, you have Teams, Outlook and Exchange, which form the basis of the plans communications products. Finally, OneDrive and SharePoint provide complete cloud storage capabilities for the entire organisation.
When we spoke to the provider of managed IT services London based charities have received M365 support from, TechQuarters and they also confirmed that they use the same products in their organisation, and that in their opinion, Microsoft 365 is a complete solution for any charity’s daily work demands.
Non-profit Staff Pricing
Microsoft 365 can be bought as five different plans, billed per user, per month. The first three plans are aimed at small- to medium-sized non-profit organisations, but they are analogous with the standard plans – the main difference is the pricing, which are as follows:
Microsoft 365 Business Basic (Non-profit Staff Pricing) – Free for up to 300 users.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard (Non-profit Staff Pricing) – £2.30 per user/per month (75% off).
Microsoft 365 Business Premium (Non-profit Staff Pricing) – £4.10 per user/per month (75% off).
There are two other plans, which are aimed at large non-profit organizations. They are called Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, and they are analogous with the for-profit enterprise plans. They are priced as follows:
Microsoft 365 E3 (Non-profit Staff Pricing) – £7.90 per user/per month (75% off).
Microsoft 365 E5 (Non-profit Staff Pricing) – £19.00 per use/per month (60% off).
Microsoft 365 Products Used By Charities
Given that Microsoft offer non-profit pricing for their business and enterprise M365 plans, it is clear that these products are well-suited for charities. But which products in particular do charities find most useful? When we spoke with the company that provides IT support for charities, they gave us a rundown of some of the most useful M365 products, and how they help non-profits…
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Microsoft Teams
Teams is officially categorised by Microsoft as a collaboration platform; one which combines several common forms of business communication – instant messaging, videoconferencing, and telephony – along with co-authoring and file management capabilities. It is frequently used by charities as a platform for ongoing conversations between teams.
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Outlook & Exchange
Everyone knows that emailing is an essential part of business. Outlook and Exchange makes up Microsoft’s complete business emailing services. Outlook is the actual email client, and Exchange is a business server. Outlook allows users to manage the emails, contacts, and calendar on a single platform.
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SharePoint & OneDrive
Efficient file management can be the key to productivity in a business. SharePoint and OneDrive together offer all the tools to make sure charities can keep their files secure yet accessible at all times. SharePoint is aimed more at company-wide file management, whereas OneDrive is aimed at giving individual users their own cloud storage.
