notacomputergeek

Recently, Microsoft announced the discontinuation of one of their non-profit donation programs – 10 free Microsoft 365 Business Premium licenses.

Every non-profit should have been taking advantage of this. The monthly discounted cost of Business Premium is $5.50 per user, so the total amount of savings was $66/user/yr or $660/yr for the 10 free users. This amount is not huge, but if you are a small non-profit with less than 10 users, this was a nice donation. I’ve seen varying dates of discontinuation sent to non-profits, but they are usually between March and July of 2026, so you have time to plan.

Option 1 – discontinue using Microsoft. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you are closing your doors. Even the discounted rates are good.

Option 2 – convert your Business Premium licenses to Business Basic. Microsoft allows for a non-profit to have up to 300 Business Basic licenses at no cost. The major drawbacks with Basic vs Premium are no downloadable Office Suite apps, no option to send an encrypted email, and cannot be managed with Microsoft Intune. However, web-based Office apps are still available with Basic. I usually only recommend Basic for generic accounts that are automatically forwarded, such as info@domainname.org.

Option 3 – convert your Business Premium licenses to Business Standard. Standard is $3.00/user/mo and includes the downloadable office suite on up to 5 devices per user but does not include sending encrypted emails or Microsoft Intune.

Option 4 – keep using Business Premium for $5.50/user/mo. I guess Microsoft hopes you choose this option whether you need it or not. Even if you choose this option, you will need to purchase your Business Premium licenses and re-assign your users to them, since the donation is considered a separate Product Name.

Option 5 – choose to use one of Microsoft’s other licensing options, such as E3 or E5. Here is a link to the different license levels and main features. Trust me, it can get confusing.

Shared Mailboxes and email aliases do not need a license.

NOTE: All your licenses don’t have to be the same. As an example, you can have 3 Basic users, 5 Standard users, and 4 Premium users. I’ve also read that Microsoft will not automatically convert them to another product when the discontinue date arrives.

To see pricing and purchase licenses, visit your Microsoft 365 Admin portal.

Lastly, Microsoft has been known to change target dates, so maybe they will push this back – who knows, but you should start planning accordingly.