Technology grants for nonprofits: what the big programs really give

A technology grant is a product the company provides at no charge, inside limits it publishes. A credit is a set allowance you spend on a cloud service; when it runs out or expires, normal charges start. A discount is a lower price than the commercial list, and your organization still pays.

Most nonprofit technology programs mix all three. Before you tell a board or a funder that something is free, check which of the three it is and write down any limit, such as a user cap or a yearly renewal.

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic, listed as free for up to 300 users.
• An annual Azure grant in the form of Azure services credit for eligible nonprofits.
• Power BI Desktop at no cost, and Power Apps at no cost for up to 10 users.
• Windows 11 Pro grants of up to 50 licenses through TechSoup.
• Microsoft 365 Business Premium, E3 and E5, Copilot, Dynamics 365 and most security add-ons are discounted for nonprofits, not granted.
• Microsoft lists who qualifies and who does not on its eligibility page. Government bodies, schools and universities, and most hospitals and health systems are among the groups it excludes.

• Google for Nonprofits lists Google Workspace for Nonprofits, Google Ad Grants, the YouTube Nonprofit Program and Google Maps Platform credits at no charge, plus nonprofit discounts on paid Workspace editions.
• Your organization must be a registered charity in a country Google supports and be verified by Goodstack, Google's validation partner.
• Not eligible: government entities, hospitals and health care organizations, and schools and universities. Charitable foundations of health care organizations and philanthropic arms of schools can be eligible.
• Google Ad Grants has its own website and account rules on top of this. Our Google Ad Grants guide walks through them.

• The AWS Nonprofit Credit Program gives eligible nonprofits AWS Promotional Credit. The current maximum is on the AWS page.
• AWS lists 501(c)(3) and several other 501(c) designations as eligible, plus qualifying public libraries. K-12 schools, colleges, universities and trade schools are not eligible.
• In the United States the credit is requested through TechSoup. AWS allows one request per fiscal year, July 1 to June 30.
• AWS says the credit is valid for at least one year. Once it is used up or expires, the account is charged for what it uses, so set a billing alert on day one.

• Salesforce Power of Us: 10 Nonprofit Cloud licenses at no cost for eligible nonprofits.
• Canva for Nonprofits: Canva Pro features free for one team of up to 50 people.
• Slack for Nonprofits: Slack Pro free for workspaces with 250 or fewer members, validated through TechSoup.
• Cloudflare Project Galileo: free advanced security protection for at-risk public interest groups such as human rights, civil society, journalism and democracy organizations.

• TechSoup is a 501(c)(3) that connects nonprofits, charities and libraries with no-cost and discounted technology from many companies.
• TechSoup Core membership is free. TechSoup Plus is a paid annual membership with extra discounts and guidance.
• Many offers in the TechSoup catalog carry an administrative fee per item, shown on each offer before you request it.

• Your legal name, tax ID and IRS determination letter (or group ruling) are at hand, and the name matches your registration exactly.
• Your website is live on your own domain and shows your mission, programs and a way to contact you.
• One named person owns each vendor account, with multi-factor sign-in turned on and a second admin as backup.
• You have listed who needs a license: paid staff, unpaid executive staff and volunteers can be treated differently.
• You know which items are grants, which are credits and which are discounts, and who approves any paid item.
• Renewal, re-validation and credit expiry dates are on a shared calendar.