News for charities: Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Office 365 E1 grants are being discontinued
2 minute read
Becky Brown and Greg Dean
May 15th, 2025
Microsoft recently announced that the Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Office 365 E1 grants are being discontinued. Here’s everything you need to know.
The Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Office 365 E1 grants will be discontinued on your next renewal on or after 1st July 2025. Licences will expire on your next renewal date.
This applies to CSP customers and those who have purchased direct online with Microsoft. This does not impact customers on Enterprise agreements.
Microsoft will continue to provide:
- Up to 300 granted licences of Microsoft 365 Business Basic
- Discounts of up to 75 percent on many Microsoft 365 offers to nonprofits, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium
In response to these changes, we advise transitioning your users to a different Microsoft 365 offer for nonprofits before the subscription is cancelled to avoid disruption and data loss. If your subscription ends without action taken, you could face:
- Loss of access to essential services such as email, OneDrive, and SharePoint
- Potential data deletion after the grace period
- Interruptions to daily operations that rely on Microsoft 365 tools
Taking proactive steps now ensures continuity, preserves your data, and keeps your organisation compliant with Microsoft’s nonprofit licensing requirements.
Get in touch with our specialists to ensure a smooth transition and avoid any impact on your data and users. We recommend transitioning your users from the legacy Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant to the Business Basic grant or another Microsoft 365 offer for nonprofits.
Avoid paying more than you need for Microsoft licences
We’re supporting charities like yours to make smart, data-driven decisions. Our ITAM and FinOps solution connects to your Microsoft 365 system, showing how your team is really using their licences.
We’ll match each user to the most appropriate plan, helping you reduce waste, cut costs, and ensure you only pay for what you truly need.
Frequently asked questions
Our goal in Tech for Social Impact (TSI) is to ensure every nonprofit can benefit from the industry leading solutions that are critical to ensuring the highest level of organisational security and productivity. Microsoft regularly assesses the available grant portfolio, and the Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Office 365 E1 grant offers are being retired to streamline our grant offerings and simplify our grant portfolio. We are transitioning to provide up to 300 licences of Microsoft 365 Business Basic and discounts of up to 75 percent on many Microsoft 365 offers to nonprofits, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Office 365 E1. This change only affects those on the grant offer.
No. There is no change to the Azure grant, Office 365 E1 grant via Enterprise Agreement, or any of the pricing on our nonprofit offers at this time.
The Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant offer will be discontinued for customers on their next renewal after July 1, 2025. Licences will expire at the customer’s renewal date on or after this date. Microsoft will continue to provide up to 300 granted licences of Microsoft 365 Business Basic and discounts of up to 75% on many Microsoft 365 nonprofit offers. These changes only affect free licences and do not impact paid ones.
Nonprofits can transition to the Microsoft 365 Business Basic grant (up to 300 free licences) or purchase discounted seats, up to 75% off, for many Microsoft 365 nonprofit offers, including Business Premium.
Customers will have a 30-day grace period to access their subscriptions after the renewal date. After that, access to the licence is lost, and they’ll have 60 days to activate before data is deleted, following Microsoft’s standard retention policies.
About the author
Becky and has been leading the Microsoft Licensing practice since 2016. With her extensive experience in managing Enterprise Agreement contracts and customers’ licensing requirements, Becky has built one of the largest Microsoft Licensing Teams in the channel.
In 2022, Becky’s role expanded to include leading Phoenix’s regional strategy. She has been successful in strengthening our relationships with both Microsoft and customers in the North-West and North-East regions, expanding our available office space to these areas through the development of partnerships with customers in region.
About the author
Greg is Phoenix’s Charities and Housing Sales Manager with over 20 years’ of industry experience working with UK organisations. Greg is passionate about supporting charity and housing associations across the UK, focused on delivering against our customer’s transformation strategies and leveraging the very best technology available today.