“If your non profit is using any of the affected licences, then you are going to have to start paying more, right at the moment your charity could do without these added costs.“
It is with a little regret, but perhaps not a lot of surprise, to pass on the news that Microsoft are changing the way they donate licences to non-profits. They announced this on 14th May 2025, we were informed about this by our upstream supplier today. The key points of note are that:
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium / E1 licenses are no longer free but will be charged for at a discounted rate.
- Microsoft 365 Business Basic licences remain unaffected, these are still free for the moment.
If your non profit is using any of the affected licences, then you are going to have to start paying more, right at the moment your charity could do without these added costs. Of course you can continue to have these licences at the discounted rate, but if your non profit is badly impacted, you may want to consider these alternative solutions:
- Purchase perpetual licences for Microsoft Office 2024 – its cheaper in the long term.
- Go web only – remove the Office software form your computers and work in the browser only.
- Migrate to a Zimbra Mailbox Solution – it’s cheaper and more ethical.
- Choose open source software such as LibreOffice or a collaboration suite such as Nextcloud.
We’ll be contacting all our customers about this issue to perform an impact assessment and licence plan.
If you run non profit and need help to navigate these changes, please do contact us today.