Nonprofit

Why Microsoft Now for Nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations in 2026 are dealing with a funding environment that is increasingly competitive and demanding. Major donors are consolidating, and foundation reporting now emphasizes outcome data rather than just activity reports.

Additionally, IRS Form 990 transparency expectations and grant funder demands for proof of program effectiveness have raised operational standards for nonprofit data and technology systems.

At the same time, nonprofit cybersecurity risks have increased significantly. Key threats include:

• Business email compromise (BEC) attacks targeting nonprofit CFOs.
• Ransomware attacks on organizations believed to have cyber insurance.
• Donor data breaches that can severely damage the reputation of mission-driven organizations.

Microsoft has invested more in the nonprofit sector than any other major technology platform. Through Microsoft Tech for Social Impact (TSI), eligible nonprofits can receive discounts of up to 75% off commercial pricing. TSI also offers free licensing for foundation tiers, which include:

• Microsoft 365
• Azure
• Power Platform

• Microsoft 365
• Azure credits
• Power BI

• Microsoft 365 Business Premium
• Office 365 E1
• Dynamics 365 Sales and Customer Service
• Azure credits

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit includes industry-specific tools built on the Common Data Model. These tools cover:

• Constituent management
• Program delivery
• Fundraising
• Volunteer engagement
• Award management
• Mission impact reporting

Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator enhances Sales, Customer Service, and Marketing with nonprofit-specific features. Additionally, Microsoft 365 Copilot, available at a discount for eligible nonprofits, offers AI support for:

• Grant writing
• Donor communication
• Board reporting
• Program staff productivity

This makes AI tools more accessible to mid-budget nonprofits.

Nonprofit Executive Directors, CFOs, Development Directors, and CTOs frequently ask, "Is this cost-effective?" The TSI program offers a clear response.

However, the primary concern is how to implement this with:

• Current donor systems
• Grant compliance needs
• Limited IT resources

This is the engagement that EPC Group has successfully delivered hundreds of times.

Microsoft Tech for Social Impact (TSI) — Eligibility + Activation

TSI eligibility is the first step for nonprofit Microsoft engagements. To qualify, organizations must meet the following criteria:

• Have 501(c)(3) status in the United States or a recognized international NGO equivalent in over 200 countries.
• Align their mission with Microsoft's anti-discrimination and ethical use requirements. Microsoft does not include political action committees, partisan political organizations, or certain advocacy categories.
• Obtain active validation through TechSoup, Microsoft Goodwill, or another approved validator.

EPC Group manages the TSI eligibility validation as part of our standard nonprofit engagement. This includes:

• Organizational documentation review
• TechSoup or Microsoft Goodwill registration assistance
• Microsoft Partner Center activation
• License selection (foundation tier free + grant tier discounted)
• Ongoing license reconciliation across the organization

Once activated, the nonprofit gains access to a license catalog that includes:

• Microsoft 365 Business Premium (free for up to 10 users; $5.50/user/month for additional users vs. $22 commercial)
• Office 365 E1 (free for up to 10 users)
• Microsoft 365 E3 + E5 (75% off commercial)
• Dynamics 365 Sales + Customer Service (free for up to 10 users + $9.50/user/month grant pricing)
• Azure credits ($3,500/year for eligible orgs)
• Microsoft 365 Copilot (TSI-discounted)

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit — Accelerator Architecture

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit (MCfN) combines several powerful tools: Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Azure. It also features nonprofit-specific accelerators built on the Common Data Model. EPC Group has successfully implemented MCfN for various organizations, including:

• Nonprofit organizations
• Charities
• Foundations

• National nonprofits
• Regional nonprofits
• Faith-based organizations
• Private foundations

The most common deployment patterns include these organizations.

Constituent Management. Gain a full 360-degree view of your constituents, including:

• Donors
• Members
• Volunteers
• Beneficiaries
• Alumni
• Ecosystem partners

Our solution combines different systems for donors, volunteers, and members into one profile, powered by Dynamics 365.

• Integrates with email marketing
• Supports event registration
• Facilitates payment processing
• Enhances program management systems

Program Delivery. We offer case management solutions for human services nonprofits. This includes:

• Intake
• Assessment
• Service delivery
• Outcome tracking

We offer beneficiary tracking for international development organizations. We also provide member service for membership associations and alumni engagement for educational nonprofits.

Our solutions are based on Dynamics 365 Customer Service and include nonprofit-specific entities.

Fundraising + Engagement. Our campaign management includes multi-channel attribution and donation processing. We offer payment gateway integration, recurring giving, and monthly sustainer programs.

We emphasize major gift cultivation and moves management. Our services include planned giving and bequest tracking.

We manage donor segmentation and journey orchestration using Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys.

Volunteer Engagement. Volunteer registration + screening + onboarding, volunteer opportunity matching + scheduling, volunteer-hour + impact tracking, volunteer recognition + retention workflows.

Award Management. Our services for foundations and grantmaking nonprofits include:

• Grant program management
• Application, review, and scoring workflows
• Award decision and agreement generation
• Grantee and sub-grantee compliance tracking
• Financial reporting and drawdown management
• Outcome and impact reporting from grantees

Mission + Impact Reporting. We measure outcomes based on theory-of-change and logic models. Our analytics include IRS Form 990 data, which covers:

• Program services
• Management expenses
• Fundraising expense ratios
• Schedule G, L, and R

We also provide dashboards for boards, funders, and the public.

Dynamics 365 for Donor + Grant Management — Migration From Legacy

Many nonprofits engage with Microsoft to migrate from older donor systems. Common systems include:

• Blackbaud Raiser's Edge / Raiser's Edge NXT
• Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack
• DonorPerfect
• eTapestry
• Bloomerang

EPC Group has successfully completed numerous migrations to Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator. These migrations have involved organizations with annual budgets ranging from $1M to over $500M.

Why organizations migrate. Legacy donor systems were designed for basic fundraising tasks, such as gift entry and acknowledgment. However, they often do not meet the needs of today’s donors. Modern donors expect:

• Personalized communication and engagement.
• Seamless online donation experiences.
• Real-time updates on their contributions.

• Personalized communication
• Streamlined donation processes
• Real-time updates on their contributions

• A unified profile across all channels and program touchpoints
• Sophisticated donor journey orchestration
• AI-assisted personalization
• Integrated grant management for organizations that both fundraise and grantmake
• Integration with the broader Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Azure ecosystem

Migration scope. The migration process includes several key components:

• Donor and constituent profile migration (contacts, organizations, relationships, interactions)
• Giving history migration (gifts, pledges, recurring, planned, soft credits, hard credits)
• Campaign, appeal, fund, and GL coding migration
• Communication preferences and consent migration
• Custom field migration (each legacy system has 20-200+ custom fields)
• Report and dashboard reproduction

EPC Group's migration scope also includes parallel running, data integrity validation, and user training.

Common migration timeline.

For organizations, the migration timeline varies based on size and budget:

• Small organizations (under $5M budget, under 25K donors): 8-12 weeks.
• Mid-size organizations ($5M-$50M budget, 25K-200K donors): 16-24 weeks.
• Large national and international organizations (over $50M budget, over 200K donors): 28-44 weeks.

The engagement scope includes both legacy data migration and Microsoft target-state configuration.

Power BI for Impact + Grant Compliance Reporting

EPC Group has shipped Power BI for nonprofit reporting across organizations from $1M grass-roots to $1B+ global NGOs. The dashboard patterns that consistently drive value:

Program Outcome Measurement. We use a logic model to track our theory of change. This process includes measuring:

• Outputs
• Outcomes
• Impact indicators

Additionally, we perform cohort analysis to monitor outcomes over time.

Furthermore, we perform quasi-experimental and comparison-group analysis. These methods help us provide evidence of program effectiveness. They are crucial for foundation reporting and government grant compliance.

Grant Compliance. We provide comprehensive support for managing restricted funds. Our services include:

• Tracking budget versus actual versus forecast
• Monitoring time and effort for federal grant compliance
• Overseeing sub-recipient activities for pass-through grants
• Preparing A-133 / Uniform Guidance audit-ready evidence
• Managing drawdown and reimbursement tracking

IRS Form 990 Analytics. Our services cover various aspects of IRS Form 990 compliance. This includes:

• Program services vs management vs fundraising expense ratios
• Schedule G fundraising event accounting
• Schedule L related-party transaction tracking
• Schedule R related organization reporting

EPC Group's nonprofit Power BI deployments feature 990-aligned semantic models. These models significantly reduce the effort needed for 990 preparation.

Donor Analytics. Our analytics cover several key areas to enhance donor engagement and retention. These include:

• Donor retention
• LYBUNT (last year but unfortunately not this)
• SYBUNT (some year but unfortunately not this)
• Lapse and reactivation rates
• Donor lifetime value
• Acquisition and retention costs
• Channel performance
• Major-donor portfolio analytics
• Planned giving pipeline

Executive + Board + Funder. Our executive dashboard combines financial, program, fundraising, and operational health data. We offer board-meeting dashboards that update for each board cycle.

We also develop funder-specific reporting dashboards. Each dashboard is tailored for major foundation and government funder relationships.

M365 Copilot for Nonprofit Program Staff

Microsoft 365 Copilot provides significant benefits for nonprofits. Nonprofit staff frequently need to accomplish more than their for-profit counterparts. Eligible nonprofits can access TSI-discounted Copilot licensing. EPC Group specializes in implementing Copilot for the most valuable use cases:

• Enhancing productivity
• Streamlining operations
• Improving collaboration

• Enhancing productivity
• Streamlining operations
• Improving collaboration

Grant Proposal Drafting. Copilot in Word helps you create grant proposal narratives. It uses past proposals, outcome data, and program design documents.

Copilot in Outlook supports your correspondence with funders. Additionally, Copilot in Loop improves collaboration for proposal teams.

Foundation research synthesis is enhanced by Copilot Studio agents. These agents utilize data from the Foundation Directory Online, Candid.

Donor Acknowledgment + Stewardship. Copilot for personalized donor acknowledgment letter generation at scale, donor research + cultivation note synthesis, major-gift moves-management documentation.

Board + Funder Reporting. Copilot for board meeting preparation, board minutes drafting + summarization, program data summarization for board + funder narrative reports.

Program Staff Productivity. Copilot Studio agents for program staff Q&A using SharePoint as the grounded knowledge base (organizational policies + program manuals + grant agreements + curriculum + protocols).

EPC Group's nonprofit Copilot deployments feature a lightweight governance framework that suits nonprofit risk profiles. This includes:

• Donor data classification
• M365 sensitivity labels for confidential donor and program participant information
• Basic DLP for Copilot
• An organizational Copilot use policy

Nonprofit Cybersecurity

Nonprofits face cybersecurity threats that are disproportionate to typical nonprofit IT budgets. EPC Group nonprofit cybersecurity reference architecture:

Identity + Access. Microsoft Entra ID offers several key features to enhance security:

• Conditional Access policies
• MFA enforcement for all human and service accounts, including third-party donor and fundraising platform integrations
• Privileged identity management for IT and finance admins
• Microsoft Entra ID for B2B, covering vendor, grantee, and funder access

Email + BEC Protection. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has two plans: Plan 1 and Plan 2. These plans offer vital protection against:

• Business Email Compromise (BEC)
• Phishing
• Impersonation attacks

This protection is crucial for nonprofit CFOs, as they are frequently targeted by wire-fraud schemes.

• Safe Attachments and Safe Links
• Anti-spoofing measures and DMARC enforcement
• Communication Compliance for wire-transfer authorization workflows

Endpoint Protection. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on staff laptops + tablets, with Intune-enforced security baselines.

Data Protection. Microsoft Purview Information Protection offers sensitivity labels for donor data and program participant data. It also includes DLP policies that stop the unauthorized transfer of large donor lists or program participant data.

Additionally, it offers donor data classification and retention policies that align with IRS requirements and state donor solicitation requirements.

Detection + Response. Microsoft Sentinel is designed for mid-to-large nonprofits. This includes organizations with a budget of $50M or more or those with 200 or more staff members.

For smaller organizations, we recommend using Microsoft 365 Defender.

Every organization should maintain a documented incident response playbook that includes:

• Clear roles and responsibilities
• Steps for identifying incidents
• Procedures for containment and recovery

• Business Email Compromise (BEC)
• Donor data breach
• Ransomware sub-playbooks

Vendor Risk. Vendor security review for donor + fundraising platforms (payment processors, fundraising platforms, email marketing, donor research tools), with documented security questionnaires + control attestations.

Engagement Operating Model — Nonprofit Application

EPC Group's 7-phase Engagement Operating Model (Discover, Architect, Plan, Build, Validate, Deploy, Run) — documented at /engagement-model. Nonprofit-specific phase content:

Discover. We provide a thorough assessment of your organization's needs. This includes:

• TSI eligibility validation
• Current donor, program, grant, and financial system inventory
• Current Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant assessment
• Grant compliance obligation inventory
• Donor data and program participant data classification
• Internal IT capacity assessment

Architect. Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit scenario selection, Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator design, donor migration architecture, Power BI semantic model design for impact + 990 + grant compliance, M365 + Copilot governance design.

Plan. Phased rollout sequence (donor migration vs program management vs analytics vs Copilot), change management for staff (program + development + finance + IT), training curriculum.

Build. Tenant configuration, TSI license activation, Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator configuration, donor migration build, Power BI semantic model build, Copilot governance + DLP deployment.

Validate. Donor data migration validation, parallel-run reconciliation, user acceptance testing with program + development + finance stakeholders, grant compliance reporting validation.

Deploy. Phased production rollout, donor system cutover with parallel-run period, Hypercare period with staff support.

Run. Managed Microsoft Support tier appropriate for nonprofit (typically Essentials or Extended Coverage tier — 24x7 less commonly needed), quarterly governance reviews, annual TSI license reconciliation, continuous improvement.

Engagement Investment

EPC Group nonprofit engagement tiers (typically priced 30-50% below commercial equivalents in recognition of nonprofit funding constraints):

Foundation (fixed-fee, 8-16 weeks): This phase includes TSI activation and the initial build for one Microsoft workload. Options include:

• M365 + Copilot
• Dynamics 365 donor migration
• Power BI impact reporting

This offering is ideal for small to mid-budget nonprofits with budgets under $25M.

Enterprise (fixed-fee, 20-32 weeks): This package includes the Foundation, multi-workload, and Engagement Operating Model full lifecycle. It covers:

• Donor migration
• Power BI reporting
• Copilot deployment

This option is suitable for mid-to-large national nonprofits with a budget of $25M-$250M.

Platform (fixed-fee, 36-60 weeks): Enterprise + Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit full deployment + multi-program + multi-region. Suitable for large national + international NGO ($250M+ budget).

Many EPC Group nonprofit projects receive funding from various sources. These include:

• Microsoft Tech for Social Impact partner grants
• Foundation technology grants
• Capacity-building funder support

EPC Group is a recognized partner in the TSI ecosystem.