Are You Compliant with Microsoft's New Donation Program Requirements?

Microsoft recently announced that it will be auditing nonprofit Office 365 license usage through the donation program and asking organizations to cancel licenses not actively being used. Although Microsoft provides the licenses free to nonprofits, each has an associated cost that is being tagged to a Microsoft business unit.

Microsoft will now require nonprofits to use a minimum of 85 percent of their granted Assigned Licenses to remain compliant. That means you must start using inactive licenses or unassign unneeded licenses to remain above the 85 percent threshold.

I understand that it is hard for nonprofits to not grab as many licenses as they can in case Microsoft changes the donation program in the future, but that strategy may end up as a self-fulfilling prophecy if Microsoft decides it has so many unused licenses that it has to scale back the program.

Failure to act may result in organizations not being eligible for future Microsoft grants. If you’re a Tech Impact client and are unsure if your utilization rate is within the threshold, we can help.

You can find more details in the Microsoft Philanthropies Grant Eligibility guidelines, or use the following Microsoft resources to determine whether you are in compliance:

Finally, Microsoft provides a free “adoption concierge” to help you assign existing licenses to users and start actively using the licenses, or unassign inactive licenses.

Learn more on the Microsoft Philanthropies FAQ.

 

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