Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit (discontinued)

Score7.4 out of 10

20 Reviews and Ratings

What is Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit (discontinued)?

Microsoft for Nonprofit was a bundle of nonprofit-specific applications, advanced training benefits, and technical support that is no longer available.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of Likelihood to donate, which allows users to increase donor giving by understanding and engage with a constituent community based on its propensity to give.

Online donation options
Online avenues for donation are available, including landing pages, forms, donation buttons, etc.
Category average: 7
Volunteer shift management
The software allows volunteers to sign up and check in for event shifts.
Category average: 4.8
Role-based user permissions
Permissions to perform actions or access or modify data are assigned to roles, which are then assigned to users, reducing complexity of administration
Category average: 7.5

Mobile access
Users can access the CRM via an app from a mobile phone or tablet.
Category average: 7
Reporting and data visualization
Track donor retention and acquisition, campaign success, and incoming donations recommendations for ask amounts, donors at risk of lapsing.
Category average: 6.4
Wealth screening
The software can access publicly available wealth screening data to provide information on donors’ charitable giving histories.
Category average: 6.1

Josh Kelly

Executive Director at Police Pictures (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit to host our email server for our organization. It enhances communication, provides a platform organization sharing of all important documents and files.
Being a small nonprofit, and there being expenses for most things, this is a solution that helps us accomplish more for our mission. As you can imagine, this helps save a decent amount of money from month to month.

Pros

Support - quick and usually easy
Minimal amounts of down time - if any
Generally easy to use Admin Center

Cons

Back end email signature coding

Return on Investment

As of now, this is something that we do not utilize.

Other Software Used

Google Workspace

Brooke Belott View profile

Principal Consultant in Professional Services at Heller Consulting (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are one of the first professional service firms focused solely on nonprofits to partner with Microsoft’s Technology for Social Impact group. We’re helping nonprofit organizations select Microsoft solutions and working with other Microsoft partners to develop and optimize their applications for the nonprofit sector. We implement Fundraising & Engagement, and Dynamics Marketing to address the challenges that nonprofits face in these areas and support their missions.

Pros

Constituent managment.
Gift management.
Marketing and outreach.

Cons

Continued improvement in integrating with nonprofit technology (e.g., digital fundraising, digital advocacy, etc.)
Improvements to dashboards and reports with more out-of-the-box templates for nonprofit use cases.

Return on Investment

Integration between fundraising and marketing is enhanced through a single shared database.
The user interface is consistent across applications within MC4N, increasing adoption.

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud, Blackbaud CRM, StratusLIVE and Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365, Projector PSA, ChromeOS

Peter Kim

Executive Director of Technology in Information Technology at The Contingent (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The Contingent has used Microsoft for Nonprofit to unlock capabilities in areas where we've felt completely stuck in the stone ages in. Fundraising and Engagement, supercharged by Mission CRM has allowed us to take our donor and grant management to the next level, where prior to a year ago, we were using a desktop platform that had no cloud-based equivalent that would meet our organization's needs. For Volunteer and Constituent management, we're still growing to solidify use cases, though we have initiatives such as Every Child (see https://everychildoregon.org, https://everychildarkansas.org) and Emerging Leaders (see https://emergingleaderspdx.org) that engage community members, yet we've been continuing to assess the right ways to unpack and utilize the capabilities that would best serve our stakeholders, volunteers, community members and our team.

Pros

Providing a basic framework for nonprofit organizations who've been limping along or have capped out with their current platforms to consider switching to amplify and multiply their capabilities, reach, and impact
Increasing the accessibility for both citizen developers and tech teams to extend a platform, so long as there are clear parameters (business use case) and thoughtful design and architecture planning
Sharing some core infrastructure that accelerates the use of important tools to further the mission of nonprofit organizations

Cons

Provide a concierge service to learn about use cases and shine a light on key features to begin unpacking
Interactive guide for new users to better understand how to kickstart their journey
Perhaps use AI to decipher and translate use cases to propose the technical solution or feature to utilize

Return on Investment

We've been ramping up our collective efforts to increase our donor engagement, though we're also deploying strategies that we couldn't fully light up with Microsoft for Nonprofit alone, i.e. utilizing the Microsoft Dynamics Marketing app to reach lists of donors to make asks
Our use case for volunteer management seem to require deeper, more robust and sophisticated solutions than the Microsoft for Nonprofit package offers. We're torn between ramping up development to go beyond, or consider an off the shelf 3rd party product and integrate

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce.com, Zendesk Support Suite and Apricot by Social Solutions

Dan Lammot View profile

CEO (Chief Executive Officer) in Professional Services at threshold.world (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

threshold.world is a launch and implementation patner for the Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit.

Pros

Connecting dollars to outcomes
Robust constituent model that efficiently manages individuals, organizations, and households
Covers all giving types with ease
Provides an extensible interface and platform far superior to legacy cloud platforms

Cons

Improve partner onboarding experience to serve customers
Improve batch gift entry capabilities

Return on Investment

Significantly increased capacity for constituent engagement
Significantly improved fundraising and back office operations
The only solution that truly connects dollars and outcomes

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce Experience Cloud, Salesforce.com, Blackbaud CRM and Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT

Dave Hisler View profile

Senior Director of Engineering in Engineering at Avanade (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We work with nonprofits on all aspects of the Microsoft tech stack to accelerate mission outcomes. We find new ways to incorporate digital technology into operations with personalized solutions to fit a nonprofit’s unique needs. Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit provides the essential foundational tools for fundraising and volunteer management while also improving evidence-based decision-making powered by rich data capabilities, AI, and machine learning.

Pros

Improve their marketing effectiveness, build donor loyalty and ultimately increase funding to support the Nonprofit's missions
Robust security measures like data encryption, multi-factor authentication and threat detection to protect organizations from breaches and threats.
Payment processing powered by Azure and integration with popular credit card gateways
Make volunteering with your organization easy by providing a one-stop shop for volunteers to view engagement details, complete training and onboarding, and find future opportunities.
Better understand the people who serve your organization and their volunteer journey, from event attendance to attrition levels to donor conversion.
The Program impact dashboard enables nonprofit staff to measure the results of their organization’s impact so they can report to funders, apply for grants, and make informed, data-driven decisions.

Cons

Extensibility of payment processing
Planned giving module needed
Batch upload for recurring donations
Language translations in top markets
Peer to peer and crowdfunding capabilities
More extensive membership management capabilities

Alternatives Considered

Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud and Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT

Other Software Used

PowerApps, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Power Automate

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT

Salesforce Agentforce 360 for Nonprofits

VolunteerHub

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit (discontinued)

What is Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit (discontinued)?

Categories & Use Cases

Media