Helping Charities Communicate with Non-profit Pricing for its Office 365 Plans

Office 365 Plans includes access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

Microsoft is Helping Charities Communicate with Non-profit Pricing for its Office 365 Plans. Office 365 plans include access to Microsoft 365 apps and services such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. To qualify for non-profit pricing, your organisation must be a registered charity in the UK and meet certain eligibility requirements.

Microsoft also offers a number of other resources and tools for non-profits, including free access to some of its products and services, such as Microsoft Teams, as well as discounts on other products and services.

Not all registered charities are created equal, and smaller ones, in particular, can often find resources squeezed as they seek to pour as much money as possible into the cause they support, usually at the detriment of other aspects of the business.

IT is a particular area where charities can sometimes be under-resourced, but thanks to Pisys, registered charities of all sizes can improve their communications due to a partnership with Microsoft and its market-leading 365 product.

What is Microsoft 365?

Most people are familiar with Microsoft Office packages such as Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft 365 takes these applications and places them in the cloud, allowing them to be accessed from any smart device (such as a phone, tablet or computer) from anywhere that has an internet connection.

How can it help charities?

Organisations in the ‘third sector’, especially smaller ones, may not have a central office or location for supporters to work. Often, small to medium-sized charities are staffed by unpaid volunteers who help from home.

Thanks to Microsoft 365, collaboration on fundraising activities, planning of events as well as the day-to-day running of the charity can be undertaken by many people working from their home or local cafes – anywhere that has WiFi.

Benefits

Microsoft 365 is a subscription-based service that provides a range of productivity tools, including Office applications (such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), email, and online storage. It can help charities in a number of ways:

Collaboration: Microsoft 365 allows team members to work together on documents and projects in real-time, regardless of their location. This can help charities to streamline their internal communication and collaboration, which can be particularly useful if staff are working remotely or from different locations.

Productivity: Microsoft 365 provides a range of tools that can help charities to be more efficient in their work. For example, the Office applications can be used to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets, while the email and calendar functions can help charities to manage their communication and schedule.

Security: Microsoft 365 includes a range of security features, such as advanced spam and malware protection, to help charities keep their data safe. It also provides tools for data backup and recovery, which can help charities to protect against data loss due to hardware failures or other issues.

Savings: By using Microsoft 365, charities can potentially save on the cost of purchasing and maintaining individual software licenses. It can also help charities to reduce the need for IT infrastructure, as many of the tools are cloud-based and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection.

Overall, Microsoft 365 can be a useful tool for charities looking to improve their productivity, collaboration, and security.

Costs

Microsoft gives eligible organisations a grant for up to 300 free Microsoft 365 Business Basic accounts. This is ideal for the small to medium sized charities.

Emails can be accessed from any smartphone, tablet or computer allowing all individuals to keep in touch.

What’s more, you have full control over the email, so if a volunteer or staff member leaves, you still have access to the email account to send and receive messages, and it’s easy enough to pass it on to a new member of the team.

Email addresses can also be set up with the domain name of the charity, for example, info@yourcharityname.co.uk, however, a fee may be charged for this, so it’s worth asking us first.

Email and Applications – from £2.30 per user per month
You get all the benefits of the above email package but with the benefit of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher and Access as cloud-based applications, accessible from any device that has them installed.

Microsoft gives eligible organisations a Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant. This is for up-to 10 users and discounted pricing for additional Business Premium users. Other discounts are available, such as Business Standard.

In summary, many registered charities miss out on services such as these as they are unaware of them, but now you know, make sure you contact us to see how we can help you.

For more information on Microsoft Office 365, either email us at sales@pisys.net or call 01792 464748 to talk to our team.