Changes to Microsoft 365 and Office 365 nonprofit plans beginning September 1, 2022 were recently announced. It is important to note that the changes will not impact any nonprofit offers available as grants including:
• 10 Licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Premium
• 300 Licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Basic
• 2000 Licenses of Office 365 E1 with an Enterprise agreement
The following products will have new pricing:
• Office 365 E1 (from US$2.00 to US$2.50)
• Office 365 E3 (from US$4.50 to US$5.75)
• Office 365 E5 (from US$14.00 to US$15.20)
• Microsoft 365 E3 (from US$8.00 to US$9.00)
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from US$5.00 to US$5.50)
Pricing for Microsoft 365 E5, Microsoft Business Standard, and the Frontline SKUs are NOT changing.
These increases will apply globally with local market adjustments for certain regions. Microsoft will continue to provide nonprofits with discounts of up to 75% on many other Microsoft 365 products.
Related Blogs
Office 365 Nonprofit – Which License Should You Choose?
Microsoft Office: A Decade of Continuous Innovation
Since its launch a decade ago, 24 new apps and more than 1,400 features were added to Office 365 without any price increase.
During its launch in June 2011, Office 365 included Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Lync, Exchange, Project, and InfoPath. Microsoft has continuously re-invested in Office 365 to meet the changing needs of patrons. New apps and capabilities have been added over the past decade: Access, Bookings, Delve, Forms, GroupMe, Kaizala, Lens, Lists, OneDrive, OneNote Class Notebook, Planner, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Publisher, SharePoint, Skype for Business, Staff Hub, Stream, Sway, Teams, To-Do, Visio, Whiteboard, and Yammer – and Microsoft has released over 1,400 new features in three key areas.
1. Communication and collaboration 🗣️. Microsoft Teams is the new front end across work, life, and learning for more than 250 million monthly active users including millions of volunteers and board members in the nonprofit space. Teams was launched in 2017 as the only integrated solution to include meetings, chats, calls, collaboration, and the ability to automate business processes. Investments in real-time collaboration in the desktop apps with @mentions, modern comments, auto-save and modern versioning, and other capabilities makes collaboration natural. Deep integrations with Power Platform, Whiteboard, Lists, Planner, Shifts, Forms, and SharePoint were also launched to empower people and organizations for hybrid charitable activities.
In 2020 alone, over 300 new capabilities were released including Together mode, background effects, large gallery view, raise hand, live reactions, breakout rooms, live captions with speaker attribution, and Fluid components.
2. Security and compliance 🔒. With the increasing volume, sophistication, and scale of cyberattacks in the nonprofit sector, security and compliance has been a priority for Microsoft. Since Microsoft 365 was first introduced, new attack surface reduction capabilities were added to help organizations defend against ransomware and other threats. Capabilities like data loss prevention (DLP) for email and documents, sensitivity labels, and message encryption were added to help keep important data within the organization. Built-in mobile device management (MDM) and other management tools like Microsoft Endpoint Manager were put in place to help administrators support remote and hybrid volunteers and advocates.
3. AI and automation ⚙️. New artificial intelligence (AI)- supported capabilities were infused across the productivity and collaboration applications to help automate tasks, find the information needed, and help communicate in ways that are more accessible for board members and donors. Cloud-powered AI now automatically creates maps, charts, and tables in Excel, sorts email and removes clutter in Outlook. AI-powered real-time translation, captions, and transcription make collaboration and communication more accessible and engaging.
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Microsoft Has Extended Unlimited Audio-Conferencing Dial-in Across the Suites to Complete the Teams Usage Scenario
Extending unlimited dial-in and security features across the SKUs are some examples of how Microsoft regularly delivers new value to support the changing needs of nonprofits. The addition of these features were unrelated to the price increases.
With unlimited audio-conferencing, customers from 70+ countries will be able to dial-in to Teams meetings from virtually any device. This feature is included in Microsoft 365 E5 and Office 35 E5 and is available as an add-on to other licenses.
Beginning in March 2022, Microsoft extended audio-conferencing to the following SKUs:
• Enterprise: Microsoft 365 E3, Office 365 E3, Office 365 E1
(already included with M/Office 365 E5)
• Frontline: Microsoft 365 F3, Microsoft 365 F1, Office 365 F3
• SMB: Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium
Including Microsoft Defender Value to the Microsoft 365 suite
Effective March 2022, Microsoft Defender features were added to the Microsoft 365 suite. Microsoft 365 E3 now has Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Plan 1 built-in while Microsoft 365 Business Premium now has Microsoft Defender for Business built-in.
Below are some frequently asked questions:
FAQs:
Q: Will the price change affect both monthly and annual pricing for the Microsoft 365 SKU for the applicable products?
A: Yes, the pricing will affect both annual and monthly billing options and will be effective upon the next renewal after September 1, 2022.
Q: Are there any changes to standalone SKUs, like Microsoft 365 E5 Security?
A: No, there are no updates to the pricing for standalone SKUs currently.
Q: Which licensing programs will the new pricing apply to?
A: The new pricing applies to the commercial Volume Licensing, Cloud Solution Provider (CSP), and Web Direct programs.
Q: How will this price change affect existing customers?
A: Existing customers are not affected until their next renewal on or after September 1, 2022.
Microsoft is committed to building on the value they’ve delivered over the past decade to continuously provide innovation that helps nonprofits succeed and thrive today and well into the future.
If you have any questions or concerns about this recent announcement, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at cloud@proserveit.com or simply book a time with us to chat.
By: Joy Fajardo
Right to Play, a global non-profit organization, improved its staff’s access to necessary resources and tools by utilizing SharePoint.
Key Benefits:
Improved Access: Employees are using Office 365 and SharePoint which give them the necessary tools to access the resources and materials they use when teaching children.
Increased Data Security: Right To Play utilized Windows 10’s biometric security to keep their data more secure, addressing the security issues that inevitably came up from having many employees working abroad.
Cost Savings: As a not-for-profit organization, Right to Play enjoys the benefits of Microsoft’s reduced cost structure for qualified nonprofits
