01732 759725 34 SOCIAL IMPACT Microsoft Tech for Social Impact is looking to recruit more partners as it aims to double in size by end of 2025 But what’s in it for the reseller or MSP? Nonprofits clearly benefit from lower costs, if they are currently paying full commercial rates, and from evergreen technology via the cloud, if they are currently making do with packaged software bought from a retail outlet. But what do resellers get out of selling licences at a discount of 65% to 80%? “My biggest challenge is resellers saying ‘Well, there’s no money in it for me’, because while they still make the same margins, revenue is obviously reduced,” says Lines. “But resellers are never going to get rich just selling Microsoft licences. Where they really add value is with services, and if we can help nonprofits save money on licences, then they will have more money to spend on services. At the end of the day, nonprofits are businesses and they have the same security vulnerabilities, the same challenges with remote work, the same challenges with managing staff as resellers’ other customers. “The other big benefit for resellers is around Corporate Social Responsibility. They've got a responsibility as a business to serve their community, and this will give them something to shout about that will have a knock-on effect in other sectors they serve. I come from an education background and I know how important it is when going after a large deal or a tender or an RFQ to be able to say we help X, Y and Z charities locally.” Lines adds that that ability can also be helpful in attracting and retaining talent, especially amongst Millennials. A sustainable approach The other obvious question is why not just give the licences away? It is not as though Microsoft, with $241 billion in revenue last year, couldn’t afford to do so. Lines’ answer is that from the outset TSI was set up with its own P&L to serve the nonprofit sector in a programmatic and sustainable fashion based on a quasi-commercial approach that delivers savings for nonprofits and income for TSI to reinvest. This model, he suggests, is the best way to provide long-term benefits that add real value to TSI’s target market. As evidence, he cites recent developments like the extension of licensing discounts to libraries and museums and TSI’s development of a Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit. “Over the last five years the TSI team has grown considerably. What's interesting is that this includes an engineering team, which has enabled us to start creating our own cloud vertical, Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit. This from-the-ground-up new platform allows nonprofits to manage their operations more effectively, whether that be finances, volunteer management, staff rotas. There’s a whole heap of capabilities within it.” Lines also makes the point that if Microsoft just gave away its software, without the backing and support of its reseller community there's a risk people would only use it for Teams and Teams Calling and miss out on all the added functionality available and the self-paced training on offer through Microsoft’s nonprofit training centre hub, as well as instructor-led courses provided by resellers (another revenue opportunity for them). Clearly, resellers have an enormous role to play in helping Microsoft reach its goals. In doing so they can burnish their own CSR credentials and perhaps develop new business opportunities as well. To find out more about nonprofit offers from Microsoft, please visit www.microsoft.com/nonprofits. It may not qualify as a best kept secret, but there is no doubt that Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact (TSI) team doesn’t have the profile and recognition it deserves – at least for now. Set up five years ago, the technology arm of Microsoft Philanthropies division, has two main purposes: to provide nonprofits with discounts of 65% to 80% on licences for almost every product in Microsoft’s three main software stacks (Modern Workplace, Azure and Business Applications); and to reinvest all profits either back into the sector, through more grants, more discounts and the development of new services, or into humanitarian projects around the world. Chris Lines, Territory Channel Manager at Microsoft, points out that re-investment into the nonprofits sector allows Microsoft to provide free licences for charities with fewer than 10 seats. “They get free Business Premium licences, they get an Azure grant on the cloud infrastructure side of things and they get access to things like Ads for Social Impact, which allows them to boost their search engine optimisation. We try and help them in every single way rather than just say here’s Word and PowerPoint.” Microsoft TSI currently serves 330,000 charities and nonprofits around the globe, out of an estimated community of 4 million organisations (33,000 out of 160,000 in the UK), and in 2022 gave back $3.2 billion to the wider community and nonprofit sector. “To put this in perspective,” says Lines, “if you were to rank Microsoft TSI as its own country, in terms of aid given back, it would be the 12th ranked country in the world.” Partner recruitment Microsoft has ambitious plans to increase the number of nonprofits it serves with the help of its partner community, so it is now undertaking a concerted campaign to recruit more reseller partners. With 13,000 partners transacting with Microsoft TSI worldwide, including about 1,300 in the UK, out of 400,000 Microsoft partners globally, there is clearly scope to attract more channel partners. Prepare for impact Starlight Page 1 2021 Annual Report ANNUAL REPORT 2021 Visit www.microsoft.com/en-us/nonprofits to see how Starlight Children’s Foundation and other charities are benefiting from Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit If you were to rank Microsoft TSI as its own country, in terms of aid given back, it would be the 12th ranked country in the world
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