Microsoft’s founder & Chairman Bill Gates globally runs one of the largest philanthropic programs and towards that end, the company strives to help non-profit organizations with its latest freebie. It will give Office 365 licenses for free to certified non-profit organizations located in 41 countries. Under this program, it will offer unlimited licenses of Office 365 Enterprise E1 for Nonprofits to eligible organizations. This latest move was a part of Microsoft’s broader ‘Technology for Good’ program.

“In the hands of nonprofit organizations, technology can boost productivity, increase effectiveness through better collaboration, and extend services to new communities and individuals in need,” said Microsoft on its official website. “Moreover, technology can be a powerful force that opens exciting opportunities for nonprofits to better achieve their missions and accelerate their impact.”

Customers can select from one of the four plan offerings or mix and match the plans. Under Office 365 Enterprise E1 plan, the cloud-only version, one can subscribe it for free for unlimited number of seats. It will cost US $8 per user per month wherein the user will get access to Lync Online, Exchange Online, browser-based Office Web Apps and SharePoint Online.

Under this new initiative, nonprofit organizations can make use of Office 365 Enterprise E3 at $4.50 per user/month which otherwise costs $20 per user/ month. Other two plans are Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials and Office 365 Nonprofit Business Premium. In the near future, Microsoft is planning to add two additional plans as well namely –

• Office 365 Small Business at no additional cost. This benefit will be given to organizations having 25 or even fewer users.
• Office 365 Small Business Premium for $2 per user per month

“Nonprofits are seeing more and more the advantages of cloud computing, but they often can’t access it because of costs and other reasons,” said Lori Harnick, general manager of Microsoft’s Citizenship & Public Affairs group.

WHAT OFFICE 365 NONPROFIT HAS IN STORE FOR YOU?

• Real-Time Tracking: Get all the information about the happenings around using real time tracking.
• Open Up: This will enable you to foster team collaboration with video conferencing, instant messaging and social enterprise –Yammer.
• Is It Cross-Device Compatible? It has cross device compatibility and can run on any iPad or PC.
• Privacy and Data Confidentiality: Your data will remain secured.
• Get Data on The Go: Access data anywhere, anytime along with remote file sharing.
• Go Virtual: Draft business class professional email and conduct virtual board meetings.

FOLLOWING THE TECH GIANT GOOGLE –

Do you remember that Microsoft’s rival Google has run a similar program in 2007 to lure non-profit organizations? Since 2007, Google is running a similar program of Apps email and collaboration suite. Following Google’s lead, Microsoft Office 365 has launched this program but with a difference. There is no limit to maximum number of users for Office 365 Enterprise E1 Option but Google has a cap of 3000 users. Also, Google Apps for Nonprofits is only available in US, Wales and England.

The cloud version of Office 365 has a lot of functionality and as non-profits are still reeling under global economic downturn and slow recovery, this free productivity software hits the spot.