Office 365 Name Change Explained

I can’t keep track of all these changes! Which subscription is which?

Here is a guide to name changes for specific products:

What Microsoft 365 subscriptions are available to Nonprofits?

A Microsoft 365 subscription will give you access to all the same features as a previous Office 365 subscription. Microsoft offer a tiered system of subscriptions, with more expensive subscriptions proving access to more features.

Most subscriptions include the traditional Office programmes of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, but available online in a cloud-based format, with SharePoint integration. Be aware, these apps are not available with a Microsoft Office Basic subscription - a free of charge service that provides cloud-based access to instant messaging, HD video conferencing, and 1 TB personal file storage and sharing.

Microsoft 365 Nonprofit F3 is a basic packages designed specifically for nonprofits. It is available at a discounted charity rate of £1.90 per user per month. This subscription is suitable for nonprofits of any size with "firstline workers" or volunteers who don’t need Office desktop applications. It provides cloud-based access to Office applications with email, instant messaging, HD video conferencing, 2 GB personal file storage and sharing, and other services. It has a number of security features, including Azure Active Directory Premium P1, Azure Information Protection Premium P1, Microsoft Advanced Threat Analytics, and Microsoft Intune.

A subscription to Microsoft 365 Standard is available at a discounted charity rate of £2.30 per user per month. This is suitable for small and mid-sized nonprofits with up to 300 users that need Office desktop applications.

Office desktop applications for PC and Mac are included, as well as apps for tablets and phones. It also includes access to Exchange, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint.

Microsoft 365 Business Premium is available at a discounted charity rate of £3.80 per user per month. This includes all the features of Microsoft 365 Standard, as well as a simplified management console for setting device and data policies. This subscription provides cloud-based access to Office applications, email, instant messaging, HD video conferencing, 1 TB personal file storage and sharing, security features, and more.

Larger Nonprofits that require desktop-based apps may be better suited to Microsoft 365 Nonprofit E3. It includes all the features of Microsoft 365 Nonprofit F3 as well as access to desktop apps and enterprise-level security. If you require a phone system as well then Microsoft 365 Nonprofit E5 will be the subscription for you!

What can Microsoft 365 do for charities?

That’s a lot of information to process. It can be intimidating trying to figure out which subscription is right for your charity. It might not be obvious how finding the right subscription can help your charity to provide its services.

We’ve done a number of case studies exploring how charities of all shapes and sizes have benefited from using Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Business 365 was a natural fit for Lhasa’s mission statement of ‘innovation through collaboration’. Sharepoint enabled their team to easily share research and other documents. Quick and easy file-sharing and other technologies that allow charities to permit access to a shared central bank of resources can maximise the productivity and efficiency of remote teams.

Swindon Carers Centre (SCC) found the security benefits of their subscription to Microsoft 365 E3 and E1 particularly beneficial to their dispersed team.

The SCC found that multi-factor authentication for employees working on personal devices allowed them to enjoy the benefits of flexible working and collaboration tools without compromising security. They also found the software’s compatibility with Windows 10 Pro beneficial.

Guts UK’s subscriptions to Microsoft 365 Business Premium allowed them to express the creativity that drives their fun and interesting content - particularly cloud features that empowered remote working and made collaboration easier and more rewarding. They found that work became much more efficient. SharePoint enabled their team to easily share research and other documents. The ability to have multiple users edit a document at the same time naturally led to a more collaborative working process, which naturally improved communication - something that extended to working arrangements between the charity’s two offices.

By identifying what your organisation’s key needs are, you will be able to find the right Microsoft 365 subscription for you.