Many nonprofit organizations struggle with antiquated servers running out-of-date legacy software that’s too complex to easily transfer to the cloud. Hosting your own physical servers or paying for space in expensive Data Centers may not be a good option – instead, nonprofit organizations should consider moving to the Microsoft cloud – and there are nonprofit Azure credits that you can take advantage of.
A public cloud platform at its core, Azure for nonprofits lets companies create, deploy, and manage services and applications without worrying about managing actual servers and infrastructure – and can be used to host applications and infrastructure. Azure also offers a variety of other services, including networking, virtual computing, storage, and more.
Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit combines the best of Microsoft with solutions designed specifically for the nonprofit sector to link teams across organizations, consolidate reporting and data, and enable program business experiences that exceed expectations. Additionally, (and this is the best part) Microsoft offers Azure Cloud on a discounted and donated basis via Azure credits.
That being said, there are a few changes coming that nonprofit organizations need to be aware of when it comes to Azure credits…
Nonprofit Azure Credits Update
In July 2023, Microsoft released the following information:
Ten years after we launched the first Office 365 Nonprofit cloud grant for the nonprofit sector, Microsoft Philanthropies remains committed to doubling the number of nonprofits that we support with the Microsoft Cloud. To ensure that we’re maximizing the number of nonprofits that we can support with granted technology, we’re refreshing our grant strategy and updating our grant portfolio with these changes:
Effective October 1, 2023, our Azure grant is now USD 2,000. Customers will no longer be able to renew at the previous Azure grant level, and at the next grant renewal on or after October 1, 2023, they will be granted USD 2,000 of Azure sponsorship credits annually so long as they remain eligible to receive such grants.
FAQs
Q: What will happen if my Azure grant is renewed before October 1st, 2023? Following October 1, 2023?
Prior to October 1, 2023, Azure grants will continue to be awarded at the current USD$3,500 sponsorship level. On or after October 1, 2023, all grant extensions will be made at the revised USD$2000 sponsorship level.
Q: Is there any additional effect of this credit modification to the Azure grant?
There are no other modifications to the current given Azure credits as a result of this update to the Azure grant – only the overall value of the Azure sponsorship credits is altered.
Q: Can the new AI services that Microsoft is introducing be funded by this Azure grant?
Yes, nonprofits can employ a variety of Azure AI (Artificial Intelligence) services funded by the Azure grant program. These services include, among others, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure Bot Service. The Azure grant can be used by eligible organizations to gain access to and make use of certain AI capabilities.
Q: How does the current Azure grant option stack up against those offered by Amazon Web Services?
AWS has an approach based on the organization’s annual operational budget. The current AWS credit limit is $1,000 for qualifying organizations with an annual operating budget of less than $10 million; those with an annual operating budget of between $10 million and $50 million would qualify for $2,000; and additional organizations that exceed an operational budget of $50 million can be eligible for credits of up to $5,000. All tiers have an administrative cost of up to $475 USD.
The Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofits program has been modified based on beneficiary usage trends, which implies that eligible nonprofit organizations can receive up to $2,000 in Azure services for free each year. Applying for the grant is free of charge.