Learn how to take advantage of nonprofit pricing for this virtual tool for remote workers.

Many nonprofits are already using Office365 even if not working entirely remotely – but for remote or hybrid office workers this virtual office is proving to be a lifesaver. If you have questions about Microsoft Teams pricing for nonprofits, this article should help steer you in the right direction to take advantage of this useful tool at a reasonable price for your nonprofit.

Before rushing out to adopt a new system, don’t overlook the one you may already have!

Download our Guide to Remote Work: Microsoft SharePoint and Teams here.

Microsoft Teams Pricing for Nonprofits

If you are an Office 365 subscriber, you have access to one of the best video chat and web event platforms available, Microsoft Teams. But did you know you can also benefit from nonprofit pricing for Office365 that makes Microsoft Teams really affordable compared to stand-alone video conferencing apps or shared workspace solutions?

Teams provides a secure way to collaborate with colleagues on Mac or Windows computers using chat, audio, and video calls.  It also integrates seamlessly with Outlook and Microsoft Office. This makes it very attractive to nonprofits as it is easy for staff to adapt to using familiar features.

Microsoft Teams is secure by design and follows Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle. The detailed guide to their security practices is outlined in their Teams Security Guide.  

Why Use Teams at Nonprofits?

Price: Teams is part of the Office365 suite of office apps including SharePoint for file sharing and Outlook for remote email access. Office365 is available with discounted pricing to nonprofits.

Ease of Use: Teams is designed to work seamlessly with other Microsoft products, and upgrades to usability are being added often. This means that your staff need less training on additional features once they have had training on the ins and outs of using Teams itself.

Features: Teams allows multiple participants in a meeting, from within and external to your organization. An integrated calendar feature makes scheduling and holding virtual meetings a snap. While in a meeting, you can chat with other participants and share files, or share your screen. You can also easily record meetings and have them automatically stored in another Office 365 service, Microsoft Stream.

Teams also allows you to add the ability to dial-in to a meeting or call someone from Teams to have them join an active meeting without using video. This requires an audio conferencing add-on that’s just $1.60/user per month for nonprofits. Since many nonprofits either operate in an area with limited video bandwidth or are serving and working with colleagues with limited bandwidth, the option to affordably dial in is particularly useful to the nonprofit sector.

Microsoft can display custom backgrounds, allowing people working from home to project a more formal office space than they may be using. Teams provides a set of custom background images in addition to the standard background blur option.

Security: Teams is a secure environment, however you will need to provide security training for staff on common cybersecurity issues such as not sharing passwords or Personally Identifying Information (PII) through Teams chats or shared documents. If you have questions on typical cybersecurity training for nonprofits we produced this video.

Microsoft Teams Resources

There are many resources for getting started with Microsoft Teams as a nonprofit both from an IT Admin perspective and as an end user. Here are some curated resources to get started:

Other Affordable Video Conference Options

If your organization is using Zoom, be sure to check out the discounting available through TechSoup for their Business and Pro subscriptions.

Microsoft Teams for nonprofits and Zoom aren’t the only options available for video conferencing, popular as they are. For GSuite/Google users, there is Hangouts for group video calls.  

If privacy and nonprofit cybersecurity are the utmost requirements then solutions such as Signal or Keybase can be used to ensure the privacy of your communications. These solutions are known as “zero knowledge” encryption solutions where the service provider doesn’t hold the encryption keys for the data that flows through their platform. Google also provides Duo for end to end video calls

Need other remote working solutions?

At Community IT, we have supported nonprofits as they have moved to the cloud, and helped enable remote workers for years. We know that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for remote support that works. We accurately assess, implement, and manage cloud solutions for nonprofit organizations so that you can spend your time building your remote team, not worrying about the technology to support them.

We created this roundup of remote work tips and resources to assist our community.

And we always consider cybersecurity concerns front and foremost as we help our clients and community work successfully from home.

Ready to support your staff working from home?

At Community IT Innovators, we’ve found that many nonprofit organizations have already made moves to not just allow remote work but actually embrace remote workers and develop a supportive culture.

Our techs are well-versed in supporting organizations that support remote work. We constantly research and evaluate new technology solutions to ensure that you get cutting-edge solutions that are tailored to keep your organization thriving. And we ensure you get the highest value possible by bringing 25 years of expertise in exclusively serving nonprofits to bear in your environment.

If you’re ready for nonprofit IT support that supports your remote workers, whether Microsoft Teams for nonprofits or other options, let’s talk.