Doing more with less: how Microsoft 365 Copilot is changing the game for charities

The pressure on charities is real, and it’s not going away

Charities are under enormous strain. Rising demand for services, staffing challenges, tighter grant funding, and increasing pressure to prove impact… it’s a lot to carry. And yet the expectation to do more, communicate better, report faster, and fundraise harder never lets up.

Technology has always promised to help. But too often, it adds complexity rather than removing it. Copilot is different. Because it doesn’t ask you to change how you work, it slots into the tools your teams are already using every day.

So, what is Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Think of it as an AI-powered assistant that lives inside Microsoft 365. It understands your organisation’s data, your workflows, and your content. And it helps your people work smarter, not harder.

Ask it to summarise a meeting you missed. Draft a funding bid. Turn a spreadsheet of donor data into a compelling report. Pull together a presentation from scratch.

Organisations using Copilot are spending up to 25% less time on menial tasks such as meeting prep. A recent study found that Microsoft 365 Copilot increased fundraising output for nonprofits by up to 20% over three years. And a Forrester-commissioned study on behalf of Microsoft found that 90% of an entire employee base used Copilot at least once without any encouragement; because when people see the value, they use it.

Where Copilot makes the biggest difference in charities

Fundraising and grant writing
Bids take time. Great bids take even more time. Copilot helps fundraising professionals draft stronger proposals faster. Fundraising professionals can execute campaigns and win grants at faster speeds and higher success rates. For resource-stretched teams, that’s more than a nice-to-have.

Administration and reporting
Administration and project management are the most common uses for AI technology at an organisational level in the charity sector, with half of charities using AI doing so for documents and reports. Copilot is built for exactly this.

Data and impact measurement
This is where many charities are leaving huge value on the table. The 2025 Charity Digital Skills report revealed that only 17% of charities are using AI tools for impact and evaluation, while just 9% use it for strategic planning. Copilot can help you change that. It analyses complex data, identifies trends, and turns numbers into narratives.

Meetings and collaboration
How much time does your team spend in meetings, and then more time afterwards trying to work out what was decided? Copilot in Microsoft Teams captures discussions, surfaces action points, and creates summaries in real time.