Microsoft bumps up 365 prices for non-profits
Microsoft will raise the prices of five Microsoft 365 SKUs for new and existing non-profit customers from 1st September.
The company first announced the price change in an update to a Partner Center website last month, where it regularly publishes notices of deals and pricing adjustments.
The price rises are as follows:
- Microsoft Office 365 E1: from $2.00 to $2.50
- Microsoft Office 365 E3: from $4.50 to $5.75
- Microsoft Office 365 E5: from $14.00 to $15.20
- Microsoft 365 E3: from $8.00 to $9.00
- Microsoft 365 Business Premium: from $5.00 to $5.50
The change will affect non-profit customers across all licencing channels. However, any offerings that are available as a grant - such as 10 licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Premium, 300 licenses of Microsoft 365 Business Basic, and 2,000 licenses of Microsoft Office 365 E1 via Enterprise Agreement - will not be affected by the change.
The prices are still low in comparison to commercial products, with non-profits paying 60 - 75 per cent less than business customers.
Comparing the percentage increase in price rises for non-profit customers with those imposed on commercial customers last month, one stands out: the price of Office 365 E3 has risen 27.78 per cent for non-profit customers, compared to a 15 per cent price rise for commercial customers.
Prices for the other four products rose at the same rate for both non-profit and commercial customers.
The company increased the price of its basic business plan for commerical customers by 20 per cent last year, from $5 to $6 per user per year, while the high-end Microsoft 365 E3 rose 12.5 per cent, from $32 to $36 per user.
Microsoft justified its decision to raise prices for non-profit clients in an FAQ page, noting that it has introduced 24 new apps - including Teams - and over 1,400 features to Microsoft 365 in the last decade.
Microsoft also says in the FAQ that it is no longer offering on-premises software grants as part of a new 'cloud-first grant' programme.
'Ahead of the April 4th updates to our on-prem grant program we sought to provide non-profit customers with enough time to transition to the cloud and lock in existing Microsoft 365 non-profit prices,' the company says.
'With this in mind, we delayed this price increase by six months from the commercial price changes to give non-profits enough time to make the transition.'