Free Microsoft Tools for Non-Profit Organizations
In almost all sectors around the world, commercial, educational, government, and non-profit, people use Microsoft tools in their daily work. From an accessibility perspective this makes perfect sense with all of the major Microsoft Office applications now offering integrated accessibility checking, as well as supporting conversion between different document formats and, through plugins and third-party applications, conversion to specialist accessible formats, making accessible document creation significantly easier than just a few years ago.
To benefit most from these developments, users require the latest version of the Microsoft applications, yet through support discussions and delivery of training we’re aware that many non-profit organizations are still using older versions of Microsoft Office applications, and it’s quite common for these to be many generations out of date.
We’re happy to share that Microsoft 365 Grants can provide free access to the latest Microsoft 365 applications through one of a portfolio of grants available to registered non-profit organizations. Please note that eligibility varies between countries so you will need to check the Microsoft website for details.
The grant can provide 10 licences for Microsoft 365 Business Premium, giving full access to all the common Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and many others to be installed locally. The grant also includes cloud storage for personal and shared files, email hosting and access to web-based versions of the tools, all free of charge.
A further non-profit grant provides up to 300 free E1 licences which gives users access to email, cloud storage, as well as online access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams. This doesn’t include any installed versions of the applications, but instead requires an internet connection to use the web versions in a browser window.
We’re told that applications for some organizations take around 10 minutes to process, but this is likely to vary depending on your region and type of organization.
You can learn more about the Microsoft Non-Profit Grants and eligibility on their website.