Every day, Microsoft is adding 1,000 organizations to The Microsoft Cloud.[1] “The Cloud” is a term that is used often but not always understood, so I’d like to look at some current statistics and trends that suggest The Microsoft Cloud will bring great benefits to non-profit organizations (NPOs).

• Microsoft donates an average of $2.6 million a day in software to more than 86,000 nonprofits around the world.[2] This has traditionally been on premise software licenses such as Windows or SQL Server, however, they are now donating or providing a significant discount for their Microsoft Office SaaS solution (Office 365) that is available in 125 countries for qualifying NPOs. The offer includes much more than the traditional Office products such as Microsoft Word or Excel. A NPO gets all of green items (in the diagram below) for free, or all items for a significant discount per user per month. That’s tremendous value.

• Microsoft also has a highly discounted model for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for NPOs. This was a significant factor in why we decided to move OneNFP Fundraising to CRM Online. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM business now serves more than 3.5 million users and nearly 40,000 customers, after 36 consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.[3] The native CRM functionality and the specific NPO features added by OneNFP allows an organization to track their donors, pledges and donations, and most importantly eliminate the need to reconcile their financial and fundraising systems.
• There is a downward trend in cloud computing prices being driven by competition from Amazon and Google. To date, Microsoft has followed suit. This is projected to continue as economies of scale allow these providers to spread the cost across more organizations.

What does this all mean? The Microsoft Cloud translates into huge organizational efficiency and lower prices to the consumer. Based on the current trends and stage of The Microsoft Cloud, it’s becoming evident that NPOs will have access to everything they need to run their organization from a single solution.  The efficiency and lower costs associated with doing this should allow more funds to flow directly to their programs.

We are super excited to be part of this trend and have adopted it as our mission. If we can help increase efficiency or reduce the overall cost a NPO spends on internal systems, we are in essence helping to fund those additional programs. It’s a win/win for everyone.