Your Questions Answered: Upcoming changes to Microsoft's 365 nonprofit subscriptions

What is the difference between the office 365 and 365 business premium?

Office 365 is a group of license types – in this case there is Office 365 E1, E3 AND E5. Business Premium is a license type that belongs to the Microsoftt 365 group – such as Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium and so on 

We are looking at moving from an O365 E2 licence (free, but out of date) to M365 Business Premium shortly, If we were to do this before the increase happens, and paid yearly, would that lock us in at the £3.78 price for a year? 

Yes, if you purchase the licenses from us before 1st September your price will be locked at £3.78 per user per month for 1 year – essentially delaying your price increase. 

Is there any change to MS365 Standard pricing or any charge being introduced for Basic? 

No, there has been no information received regarding price changes for Business Basic or Business Standard 

I had a message we aren’t using everything (within our subscription). Some of our volunteers haven’t been able to sign in. Also we hope to have some new trustees so need to keep possibilities of email addresses for them?

Microsoft introduced a license usage requirement last year to stop organisations ‘stockpiling’ free licenses. Organisations must be using 85% of their free licenses – using would be ensuring they are assigned to user accounts and are used regularly for emails. Saving documents etc 

Do we know when Microsoft will confirm the E3 price? 

We still haven’t received this information yet but this info will be available from 1st September 

Are there any changes to the Microsoft Dynamics licensing? In particular Dynamics Sales Enterprise. 

We haven’t been made aware of changes to this product. We don’t actually re-sell Dynamics 365 licenses so you may need to check this with Microsoft directly. There is a free offer for Dynamics licenses which is worth checking outt via your admin portal 

The first 10 licences on M365 premium are free, is that correct?

Correct, the first 10 licenses are free for eligible staff members (paid staff and unpaid executive staff – such as a CEO or trustee 

Will we continue to be able to flex up and down monthly the number of Business Premium Licences? 

Absolutely! You can increase or decrease your licenses at anytime 

Following up from another question, could you please expand on the 85% utilisation rule for donated mailbox licences?

To provide a simple example, if you have obtained 100 Business Basic licenses (free) you need to ensure that 85 of these licenses have been assigned to user accounts and are used regularly to meet the 85% utilisation requirement 

What will be the cheapest option to get desktop as well as online office apps?  We already have the 10 free premium licences.

Business Standard is the cheapest subscription that provides the ability to download the Office app to a device 

We are Currently setting up AAD for a charity that provided learning opportunities for Adults with Learning Disabilities.  Two questions:

1. Want to include Learners in IT environment, what is the most appropriate and cheap licence bearing in mind got 75 learners.  and

2.  As Global Admin is there any mileage in upgrading the global admin licence from MS 365 Business Premium to Office 365 E5.   

Please note that Microsoft nonprofit licenses can only be used by staff members and not by members,students or other non-employed users – you may wish to look at 365 for Education for this. Upgrading to E5 from Business Premium will certainly increase the security options on this user account. 

Is this an not for profit price list?  I though charities get 130 E1 for free.

Yes, the list provided is the nonprofit list. The free version of E1 licenses was retired last year 

I have 4 licenses for Premium billed through Microsoft at £3.80 per month and 1 Premium licence for free. I also have 5 Business basic for free. Is it only the paid for licences I will be billed for? 

Technically you will be billed for the free licenses (if via Microsoft direct) but these will be att the cost of £0.00. Payment should only be taken for the paid licenses 

Are there any issues in having a mixture of Free Premium licenses and Business standard paid? 

Not at all. You should mix your licenses types up to be more cost effective and ensure your members of staff have access to the features they specifically need 

I have a question around the free licenses.  One charity I’m in has 10 free business premiums which it only just gearing up to using properly now we have younger members stepping up - what are the chances that we might be charged in the future do you think? 

Microsoft don’t tend to suddenly start charging for free licenses if the offer changes. Historically, they retire a free licenses and then you have the option of setting up a new license which involves a payment – you shouldn’t automatically be charged for free licenses that then change 

For Orgs still on E2, with the changes/possible problems going forward with Office 2016/2019. What would you recommend: move to Office 2021 or change to Office 365 E3 for desktop apps? 

Office 365 is the future for all Microsoft licensing – it’s a better product with it’s collaborative and flexible features. Office 2021 can now be more expensive to charities and the cost between this and E3 isn’t much in the long term 

Office 365 and Microsoft 365 are being used interchangeably, but they are two very different products, right? Can you elaborate on the differences? 

Office 365 is aimed towards enterprise licensing (hence the ‘E’ term used for the license types). Microsoft 365 Business and higher is a group of 3 products – 365 (for emails, document saving etc) Enterprise Mobility+Security and Windows 10/11 deployment. 

Are there any details on price increases on any of the other Microsoft non profit add ons? 

There are price increases for some add-ons but we haven’t had this information through. We can share this information once available 

Is Office E3 currently £3.50 for NFP? 

No, the current price is £4.00(Ex VAT) per user per month 

What are the benefits of provisioning Microsoft licences through Charity Digital, as opposed from registering as a non-profit directly with Microsoft? 

We provide a further discount on some products (every little helps!). We can also be your first point of contact for any issues. We may not be able to resolve your issue and you may be required to contact Microsoft but we can certainly help you as much as we can 

Following on from my earlier question about locking in the M365 Business Premium price before the price increases, if we were to do this through our IT support company (who have a partnership with Microsoft) rather than through Charity Digital, and then wanted to change our IT support company, would that cause issues with our licensing? We’ve always used Charity Digital before, but our IT support provider is suggesting we go via them. 

Potentially yes. If you obtain licenses via an IT provider and then switch this can lead to problems with the switchover – such as work outage. At Charity Digital, we simply provide the licenses, meaning you can switch IT providers when you wish and it won’t affect your licenses as they have been purchased via ourselves 

How much is the difference in cost between Microsoft F3 and Office 365 E1? 

E1 is going up to £1.89 (Ex VAT) per user per month whilst we will continue to provision Microsoft F3 at £1.51(Ex VAT) per user per month 

Follow up, thanks for that.  MS 365 Business Premium comes with Windows Defender for Business, would that be sufficient from a cyber-security slant from a GDPR perspective?  If so I would in effect lose my 10 free MS365 Business Premium licences if I convert to Office 365 E3. 

It can be, but from a GDPR perspective it comes down to your organisation’s processes on handling and maintaining the GDPR standards. Many organisations can meet GDPR compliancy on very simple 365 setups – Windows Defender is just another tool to reach that Goal. Office 365 E3 and E5 have a data protection feature which was specifically designed for GDPR requirements. 

Is there any change in the Enterprise Mobility + Security E3 licence cost? 

No, we have not been advised of any price increases on the EMS subscriptions 

We are accessing our users and licenses through Microsoft 365 admin center. What’s the difference between Microsoft Business Premium and Non Profit Portal? Some of functionalities were lost when we assigned Non Profit Portal (eg. we couldn run Word and Excel)? 

The ‘Non Profit Portal’ license is a trial licenses that has no features at all. Organisations will not be able to use this ‘trial’ licenses for any uses other than just looking at the 365 admin centre whilst being validated. As you have already been validated and using Business Premium licenses, there is no need for you to assign the Non Profit Portal licenses to any users. 

We would like to remind you that from September 1st, Microsoft are increasing the prices of some of the 365 nonprofit subscriptions. If you require any new Microsoft licenses, we advise that you purchase them before this date in order to secure the lowest available price. You can do this here.