Microsoft 365 for Charities: Licensing in 2026

Microsoft still gives eligible charities Microsoft 365 for free, but only its entry-level plan. Since July 2025, the plans with desktop apps and the stronger security tools are discounted rather than free.

If you set up your licences under the old grant, it's worth checking what you hold now. The plan you choose also decides which security settings you can turn on.

What changed in 2025

Microsoft's nonprofit updates page lists the Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant as discontinued from 1 July 2025. Grant licences expired at each organisation's next renewal date and didn't renew.

The Office 365 E1 grant ended at the same time and in the same way. Both plans are still available to nonprofits at a discounted price.

If your charity relied on either grant, check the subscriptions in your Microsoft 365 admin centre. Make sure every user has a licence that's still active and that you know what renews next.

Grants and discounts

A grant is free. Microsoft gives eligible nonprofits up to 300 Microsoft 365 Business Basic licences as a grant.

A discount is a lower price on a paid plan. Microsoft offers discounts of up to 75% on many of its nonprofit offers, including Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Business Premium.

Granted licences are only for paid staff and unpaid executive roles, which Microsoft says include board members. Volunteers and temporary staff can use discounted licences but not granted ones.

Microsoft also expects you to remove granted licences nobody uses. Its terms treat falling below 85% active use of granted licences as abuse of the programme, which can cost you access to the offers.

Which plan fits a charity

Business Basic (grant): Outlook email and Teams, with the web and mobile versions of the Microsoft 365 apps. It doesn't include the desktop apps.
Business Standard (discounted): everything in Basic, plus the desktop apps installed on each user's devices.
Business Premium (discounted): everything in Standard, plus Intune for device management, Defender for Business for device protection, Defender for Office 365 Plan 1 for email, and Entra ID P1 for Conditional Access.
Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 (discounted): Microsoft's enterprise plans, which it also sells at nonprofit pricing.

Business Premium or an E plan?

Microsoft designed the Business plans for organisations with up to 300 users. If your charity has more people than that, you need the enterprise plans.

Under 300 users, Business Premium is the plan we recommend for most charities. It's the only Business plan with app protection for personal devices, which matters when volunteers use their own phones.

You don't need the same plan for everyone. Someone who only uses email and Teams in a browser can stay on the Business Basic grant, as long as they're paid staff or an unpaid executive.

Copilot for nonprofits

Microsoft 365 Copilot is licensed separately from your Microsoft 365 plan, and Microsoft sells a nonprofit version of it. Microsoft's partner announcements describe a 15% nonprofit offer built into that licence.

Until 31 December 2026, Microsoft is also letting its partners add further Copilot promotions on top of nonprofit pricing. Ask your licensing provider for a current sterling price before you budget.

Who's eligible in the UK

Microsoft's offers are for nonprofits with recognised charitable status in their own country. Public libraries and public museums can also qualify.

Some organisations can't apply, whatever their status:

Schools, colleges and universities, which use Microsoft's education licensing instead.
Government organisations and agencies.
Housing associations, which Microsoft lists as ineligible in the UK.
Political organisations and trade associations.
Nonprofits whose activities focus on influencing public policy.

Microsoft allows one validated grant tenant per organisation. If you run more than one Microsoft 365 tenant, pick the one you'll keep before you apply.

How to apply

Register in the Microsoft Nonprofit Hub at nonprofit.microsoft.com. An employee or a strategic volunteer has to do this, because Microsoft doesn't let an IT provider register on a charity's behalf.
Enter your charity's name and registration details exactly as they appear on your official records.
Wait for validation, which Microsoft says takes up to three working days. It takes longer if the validation partner asks for more documents.
Once you're approved, the offers appear in the Nonprofit Hub. Activate the Business Basic grant there, and buy discounted plans directly or through a Microsoft partner.

Microsoft also asks nonprofits to confirm regularly that they still follow its rules. Missing that attestation can remove your access to the offers until you complete it.

Where TechSoup and Charity Digital fit

Microsoft checks eligibility for its cloud offers through a third-party validation partner, and you register for them in the Nonprofit Hub. In September 2025 Microsoft announced Goodstack as a validation partner.

TechSoup UK now runs the UK donation and discount catalogue that used to sit on the Charity Digital Exchange. Charity Digital moved it across on 1 July 2025, and Microsoft products are part of that catalogue.

Security settings to switch on

Microsoft 365 has the controls built in, but several are off until someone configures them. The Charity Commission says trustees stay responsible for protecting the charity from cyber crime, even when IT is delegated.

Turn on multi-factor authentication for everyone

Every Microsoft 365 plan includes security defaults, which make all users register for multi-factor authentication (MFA) and block older sign-in methods that can get round it. Microsoft switches them on for new tenants, but an older tenant may not have them, so check.

On Business Premium, use Conditional Access instead, which comes with Entra ID P1. You have to turn security defaults off to use it, so have the replacement policies ready first.

Cyber Essentials requires MFA on every cloud service, and for assessment accounts created after 26 April 2026, not turning it on is an automatic fail. As an IASME-accredited Certification Body, we certify Cyber Essentials directly.

Separate and limit admin accounts

Give each administrator a normal account for email and day-to-day work, and a separate account used only for admin tasks. Microsoft says admin-only accounts don't need a Microsoft 365 licence, so this costs nothing extra.

Keep the number of Global Administrators low and give people the narrowest role that does the job. Microsoft also recommends two emergency access accounts that aren't assigned to any one person, with long passwords kept somewhere safe.

Manage the charity's own devices

Business Premium includes Intune Plan 1 and Defender for Business. Enrol charity-owned laptops and phones in Intune, so you can require encryption and wipe a device that's lost or stolen.

Onboard the same devices to Defender for Business for endpoint detection and response. Microsoft built it for organisations of up to 300 users, and it comes with default security policies ready to use.

Protect data on personal phones and laptops

Don't enrol a volunteer's own phone in full device management. Intune app protection policies protect charity data inside apps such as Outlook without managing the rest of the device.

With app protection, you can require a PIN to open Outlook and stop people saving charity data to personal storage. If a phone is lost or a volunteer leaves, you can remove the charity's data from those apps.

The NCSC's guidance on personal devices makes the same point: the owner controls the hardware, so you can only manage as much as they agree to. App protection needs Intune, which is in Business Premium but not in Business Basic or Standard.

Remember that volunteers can't use granted licences. A volunteer who needs charity email on their own phone needs a discounted paid licence, and Business Premium is the one that protects the data on it.

Getting it set up

We provide IT support for charities remotely across the UK, and on site in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. Your own team completes the Nonprofit Hub registration, and we take it from there.

As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, we set up nonprofit licensing in Microsoft 365 and configure the security settings above. We check each user's licence against what they do, so you only pay for what people need.

Sources

Common questions

Is Microsoft 365 free for charities?

Business Basic is. Eligible charities get up to 300 Business Basic licences free, while Business Standard and Business Premium are sold at a nonprofit discount.

Is Microsoft 365 Business Premium still free for nonprofits?

No. Microsoft discontinued the Business Premium grant from 1 July 2025, and eligible nonprofits now buy it at a discount of up to 75%.

Can volunteers use a charity's Microsoft 365 licences?

Yes, but only discounted ones. Microsoft limits granted licences to paid staff and unpaid executive roles such as board members.

How long does Microsoft nonprofit validation take?

Up to three working days, according to Microsoft. It takes longer if the validation partner needs more documents from you.

Do charities get a discount on Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Yes. Microsoft sells Microsoft 365 Copilot at nonprofit pricing, and extra partner promotions run on top of it until 31 December 2026.

IT support for charities

Microsoft 365 for charities: what nonprofit licensing gives you in 2026