New solutions to help nonprofits drive impact

As a company at the forefront of digital transformation, Microsoft is committed to bringing the benefits of technology to all. When we step back and look at challenges facing nonprofits, they struggle with the lack of technical capacity,scarcity of resources, and lack of partners and few technology solutions customized for their environment. Last fall, we announced Microsoft’s commitment to help nonprofits leverage technology for greater impact through Tech for Social Impact. This new initiative, powered by a sustainable social model where profits are reinvested into expanding support for nonprofits, is already gaining traction.
This week at Microsoft’s inaugural Nonprofits CXO Summit we are hosting non-profit leaders from around the world to exchange insights and practical guidance to help nonprofits achieve their missions and drive greater impact through digital transformation. We are announcing several new solutions, offers and resources, built hand-in-hand with nonprofits to meet some of their most critical needs. Collectively, these offerings put more advanced technology into the hands of nonprofits so they can increase productivity and efficiency—ultimately strengthening their impact on some of
the world’s most pressing issues. We’re excited to share these new offerings, and we are laying out an ambitious agenda at the CXO Summit to deliver even more value in the future.

Accelerating the cloud journey

Nonprofits typically have limited IT staff, making it challenging to maximize the full benefits of technology. Indeed, most nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) lack a comprehensive digital strategy, and nearly half of nonprofits say their
infrastructure is barely keeping up, according to a 2017 Digital NGO Member Survey by Net Hope. To help nonprofits jump-start their journey to the cloud, we’re announcing Azure Foundation for nonprofits. Within Azure Foundation are a series of accelerator packs, which come with prescriptive guidance, templates, blueprints and documentation designed to make it easier to adopt Microsoft Azure within a non-profit environment. For example, the Azure Foundation security accelerator pack helps nonprofits establish a solid security framework as they implement Azure, with a dashboard to monitor all their security-related information in one place. Additional accelerator packs help nonprofits manage hybrid networks and verify the identity of users logging on to the system.
Together, these accelerator packs make it easier for IT staff to follow best practices, creating a more secure foundation for growth in their journey to the cloud. To learn how Azure Foundation accelerator packs can strengthen your non- profit’s Microsoft Azure investment, please visit our Microsoft Nonprofits homepage.

Accelerating non-profit processes with Microsoft Dynamics 365

We’re also introducing a non-profit data schema on Dynamics 365 Common Data Service (CDS), which can accelerate
innovation for nonprofits and developers to build solutions on top of Microsoft Dynamics 365. For example, U.S.-based
consulting firm Wi-Fi is working with Team Rubicon to build a volunteer management system by tapping into the power
of Dynamics 365 CDS, to help organize its army of more than 80,000 volunteers. The new volunteer management
system will help the non-profit more effectively leverage the skills of military veteran volunteers to help communities
prepare for and respond to natural disasters. It will enable Team Rubicon leaders to see which volunteers are available
at any given time and to more efficiently deploy those volunteers to impacted communities, as well as manage
operations, training, equipment, donors and more.

Additional benefits include the integration of insights that nonprofits will be able to gain through this model. We’re
excited that many partners have already developed solutions specifically for nonprofits based on Microsoft Dynamics
365, and we encourage partners to add to the Microsoft AppSource marketplace as they complete more purpose-built
solutions for nonprofits based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 CDS.

Helping nonprofits identify critical trends

In addition to the challenge of combining disparate information, nonprofits tell us they need an easy way to visualize
mountains of data and identify important trends in order to increase impact. To help, we’re announcing Microsoft Power
BI templates for nonprofits, a selection of Power BI templates that help illustrate how nonprofits can leverage insights
and analytics in common use cases. The templates show how consolidating operational data onto a single screen within
Power BI allows nonprofits to identify and analyze trends in areas like grants management, volunteer management and
case management. With the ability to explore data in new and meaningful ways, nonprofits can quickly determine the
best course of action to maximize impact.
For example, the Ireland-based international aid charity GOAL worked with Microsoft to develop a Power BI Grants
Management Template that combines donor information from Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Excel and other
sources—visually presenting it as a dashboard in Power BI. With the ability to explore this information in one place,
GOAL can easily identify its repeat donors as well as net improvements or losses in support. “The template gives us a
helicopter view into key fundraising trends, which is going to help us better direct our fundraising efforts,” says Louise
Kelly, GOAL’s IT Director. The Power BI Grants Management Template and six other Power BI templates for nonprofits,
including case management, volunteer management, field resource management and donation management,
are available here.