Microsoft Office 365 Nonprofit: What You Need to Know

With Microsoft Office 365 Nonprofit, you can enjoy the full functionality and security of installed software in a collaborative, anywhere, anytime environment. Read on if you have questions about going completely online, especially if you're handling sensitive data.

Benefits of Office 365

By eliminating email maintenance, software upgrades, and insecure storage, Office 365 frees up IT staff time. The traditional Office suite that your staff is already familiar with also enhances the word processing, data analysis, communication, and productivity features.

Here are some of its key benefits:

Email hosted on a server. Microsoft Exchange Online eliminates the need for an in-house Exchange server or the need to set up a VPN or remote access. From a PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet, you can access your email, shared calendars, and contacts. Office 365 provides users with 25GB of mailbox storage and supports attachments up to 25MB.

Privacy and security. Additionally, your data will be protected in the cloud along with built-in spam and malware protection. Office 365 is compliant with industry standards like HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and FISMA (The Federal Information Security Management Act). With a web-based admin center, your IT staff can manage and customize the security options for your organization.

Web-based Office applications. On your way home from the office, you realize that something important needs to be updated. Now what? You can open, view, and edit Office Web Apps documents directly from your browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari) on your home computer or mobile device. Using Office 365 on up to five of their own devices gives your staff the flexibility to work wherever they need to, whenever they want.

Sharing documents. Microsoft's cloud-based file-sharing tool, SharePoint Online, lets you share documents with colleagues easily. You can even edit documents concurrently with others, avoiding the time and confusion of e-mailing documents back and forth.

Web-based and voice-based conferencing. Video calls, Web conferencing, instant messaging, and voice calls are all part of Microsoft Skype for Business. Video conferencing in high definition (HD) allows you to collaborate with out-of-office staff and volunteers. You can also take notes from meetings using Skype for Business in real-time.

Networking socially. Microsoft's internal social network for businesses, Yammer, is included in all versions of Office 365 Nonprofit. You can use Yammer to connect, collaborate, and share with volunteers, staff, and stakeholders. Learn more by watching this archive of our webinar, Engage Volunteers with Yammer.

Support 24/7. Don't have on-call IT staff? Office 365 provides 24/7 professional-level support for issues ranging from critical to mild (depending on the plan your organization has).

Choosing the Right Office 365 Nonprofit Plan

Organizations such as nonprofits and charities have different staffing and technical needs, so there is no "one-size-fits-all" Office 365 plan. In addition, Microsoft offers three deeply discounted Office 365 plans.

The two free donated plans are:

• Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials
• Office 365 Nonprofit E1

You cannot download the full version of Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) with these free plans. In addition to these free Office 365 plans, you can request the latest version of Office through TechSoup. For a fee of $29, Office Standard is available to nonprofits, while Office Professional Plus is available for a fee of $40. Both are compatible with the free Office 365 plan.

Also available to eligible organizations are three discounted paid plans from Microsoft. These plans include Microsoft Office desktop applications and other features. Per user, Office applications can be installed on up to five devices. Here are the discounted plans:

• Office 365 Nonprofit Business Premium ($2 per user per month)
• Office 365 Nonprofit E3 ($4.50 per user per month)
• Office 365 Nonprofit E5 ($10 per user per month)

(Note that Office applications downloaded from one of these discounted plans cannot be installed on the same device as Office products obtained through volume licensing. This includes all Office products provided through TechSoup as donations, including Skype for Business, Visio, and Project. Before installing the discounted plan applications, you must uninstall any Office products you have received as donations through TechSoup.)

A Feature Comparison of the Office 365 Nonprofit Plans

Migration and Maintenance to Office 365

Office 365 makes IT tasks as easy as possible, so you can focus on your organization's mission. With the Office 365 admin portal, accidental techies can configure settings and customize licenses, permissions, and services according to the needs of nonprofits.

(Volume-licensed desktop versions of Microsoft Office requested through TechSoup are not compatible with retail or "click-to-run" versions of Office software, such as Office 365.)

How to Get Office 365 Nonprofit

Visit the Microsoft Office 365 Nonprofit site to find out if your organization qualifies for free and discounted versions of Office 365 Nonprofit.

The TechSoup team has developed a list of consultants experienced in helping nonprofits and charities determine if Office 365 Nonprofit is right for them. As well as assessing your current setup, they can help you migrate to Office 365 and provide ongoing support.

See Microsoft's Who's Eligible page to check if your organization qualifies for one of the Office 365 Nonprofit offers.