Microsoft 365 Setup and Nonprofit Support – Volunteer Assisting UK Nonprofit Organisation
Dear Microsoft Support Team, I am a volunteer supporting a UK-based nonprofit organisation with its IT and Microsoft 365 setup. The organisation would like to establish a Microsoft 365 environment and, if eligible, take advantage of the Microsoft for Nonprofits grants or discounted licensing. I would like to work with Microsoft Support to ensure that the organisation is registered correctly and that the Microsoft 365 tenant is established in the nonprofit organisation's own name and under its ownership. I am providing technical assistance as a volunteer and am not the owner of the organisation. Could you please advise us on the following: What are the eligibility requirements for this UK-based nonprofit organisation? What documentation does the organisation need to provide for nonprofit validation? Should the organisation create a new Microsoft 365 tenant, or does it need to register an existing tenant? What Microsoft 365 nonprofit grants or discounted plans are currently available to the organisation? Which licences can be provided through a nonprofit grant and which would require payment? Are there specific Microsoft 365 offers available for volunteers supporting the organisation? Can I, as a volunteer, assist with the Microsoft 365 technical configuration? What is the recommended way for the organisation to provide me with appropriate administrative access while retaining ownership and control of the tenant? Can Microsoft Support work with me as the technical volunteer while the authorised representative of the nonprofit remains the account owner? Are there any costs associated with Microsoft Support, tenant creation, nonprofit registration, or Microsoft 365 setup? What DNS/domain information will be required to configure the organization’s email? What security configuration does Microsoft recommend for the initial setup, particularly MFA and administrator accounts? Organization information Legal organization name: ADAM SMITH GLOBAL FOUNDATION UK charity/nonprofit registration number: SC042981 Organization website: https://www.adamsmithglobalfoundation.com/ Organization domain: http://adamsmithglobal.org/ Number of users/staff: 3 Number of volunteers requiring access: 7 Existing Microsoft 365 tenant: NO Existing Microsoft subscription: NONE Authorized organization contact: Justyna Majewska Organization contact email: mailto:email address removed for privacy reasons, mailto:email address removed for privacy reasons My details Name: Lagna Ray Role: Volunteer / Technical Volunteer Relationship to organisation: Volunteer providing IT support Email: email address removed for privacy reasons Telephone: +447459740743 We would like to ensure that the Microsoft 365 tenant, nonprofit benefits, domain and subscriptions remain under the ownership and control of the nonprofit organisation, while I assist with the technical implementation. Please advise us on the correct registration and support process and let us know whether an authorised representative of the organisation needs to initiate or approve the request. Kind regards, LAGNA RAY Volunteer / Technical Support
Changing Microsoft 365 billing frequency from monthly to yearly unexpectedly increased the price
Hello everyone, I would like to raise an issue with Microsoft 365 Business Standard that I find very difficult to understand and even harder to explain to my customer. I manage two Microsoft 365 Business Standard licenses for a customer. The pricing history was as follows: Until May 2026: €23.40/month total for 2 users From June 2026: €21.66/month total for 2 users This means the annual cost at the latest monthly rate was €259.92/year On September 28, 2026, I changed only the billing frequency from monthly to yearly. During this process, I was not shown any clear warning that the actual subscription price would increase. After the change, Microsoft created a new annual subscription with: €145.56 per user/year €291.12/year for 2 users So simply changing from monthly billing to yearly billing increased the annual subscription price from the equivalent of €259.92 to €291.12. This is particularly confusing because the Microsoft website normally presents annual billing as the cheaper option. I contacted Microsoft Support today. According to the support agent: this behavior is the same worldwide the billing change cannot be reverted the agent cannot revert it it cannot be escalated to a supervisor who could revert it there is apparently no email address or written complaint channel where I can formally dispute the change What concerns me most is not only the price increase itself, but the fact that I was apparently moved to a higher price simply by changing the billing frequency, without a clear indication during the process that the subscription price itself would change. I now also have to explain to my customer why their Microsoft 365 costs suddenly increased, even though no additional licenses or services were requested. From my perspective, changing how often a subscription is billed should not silently result in a different commercial price without a very clear confirmation beforehand. Has anyone else experienced this? I would especially like to know: Is this expected Microsoft behavior? Why does changing the billing frequency trigger a new, higher price? Is there any official escalation or written complaint process for Microsoft 365 billing issues? Is there really no way to revert such a billing-frequency change shortly after it was made? I would appreciate clarification from Microsoft, because at the moment this leaves both the reseller/admin and the customer in a very poor position. Regards
MC1269241 - Can't turn off antropic for agentmode
Hi, I’m trying to figure out how to turn off the new feature where Anthropic is enabled by default for everyone in the EU for agent mode in excel and powerpoint, as described in the Message Center news in the title. It is not possible to press Save when you have unchecked the setting unless you also consent to the terms of use, it is greyed out. Since we want the feature turned off, we do not want to agree to any terms of use. Has anyone found a solution? This seems to be misconfigured.MS support "unable to reach you loop" for locating only GA account.
For 5 day in a row I've received this response to my support case "I am writing this email in reference to case ID 2609070010000261. I was unable to reach you at your contact phone number provided. Please let me know the best time frame and phone number to call you back by replying to this email. " I do not have any missed calls on my phone, I have provided an alternative number, I have stated what I'm looking for in the email response, I have tried calling the number in the email but get to a " provide an update online " and hung up prompt. I have a tenant Ive paid for. I'm trying to attach a domain that is my mostly unique last name to it that I forgot I had on another tenant ( that wasn't paid for yet and has my first name last name) and I dont know the GA username on the tenant, I've tried every iteration I can think of for a username. I'd just love for a password reset email be sent from that tenant and I think I would get the email, reset it, release the domain, and move on. however I dont see that tenant's onmicrosoft url in any of my emails either if that's a possible secondary issue. If anyone has suggestions for getting into the tenant or getting something more than " unable to reach you" I'd greatly appreciate it!
M365 only admin locked out MFA error 53003
I am learning this the hard way....so here it goes. Currently I am locked out of as the only admin on the tenant with error 53003. I was updating some Microsoft MFA default policy settings in Entra and mistakenly deleted the admin user from the exclusions list, and got locked out. Thankfully I have another tenant, not as big the one locked out. Initiated several support tickets for which everyone calls, and despite of subline mentioning the issue says that they have to assign this ticket to Entra. Then the ticket gets updated and noone has been assigned every since. I have initiated severity A support tickets from Azure portal but no one has called in last 24 hours to help. We area business with Business Premium licenses with over 20 users, and now completely locked out. I have looked almost everywhere online. There is no phone number that takes you to a support agent - PLEASE HELP........
Looking for Microsoft 365 best practices for a large dynamic company group
Looking for Microsoft 365 best practices for a large dynamic company group I'm a Microsoft 365 admin trying to figure out the best architecture for a company-wide group (100+ users) and I'm wondering if there's a better approach than what I'm currently doing. What I need I want a single company group that can: Automatically include users through dynamic membership Share SharePoint sites, files, OneDrive content, Teams resources, etc. Allow sending company-wide emails Allow sending required Outlook meeting invitations (not optional) Have moderation/approval for announcements, meeting invites, or posts Allow certain trusted users to bypass approval while everyone else requires approval Scale as employees are hired/terminated automatically Current setup Dynamic Distribution List Used for company-wide emails and Outlook meeting invites. Membership is dynamic using an Exchange recipient filter based on US users. Private Microsoft 365 Group Used for SharePoint, file sharing, and collaboration. Membership is dynamic through an Entra ID Dynamic Membership Rule. I had to use PowerShell to configure some permissions because the portal didn't support everything I needed. Problems I'm running into I now have two separate groups that should always contain the same people. The Dynamic Distribution List works well for email/meetings but doesn't provide SharePoint, Teams, or file collaboration. The Microsoft 365 Group provides collaboration but doesn't seem to support everything I need for company-wide communication. I haven't found a clean way to have approvers/moderators, while allowing a few designated people to post or send meeting invites without requiring approval. I also haven't found a good way to make Outlook meeting requests "required" from the sender side other than relying on attendees not changing their RSVP. My questions Is there a better Microsoft 365 architecture for this? Should I be using a Dynamic Distribution List, a Microsoft 365 Group, a Mail-enabled Security Group, Teams, Viva Engage, or something else? Is there a supported way to have dynamic membership + SharePoint + company email + moderated announcements/meeting invites all in one solution? How do large organizations typically handle company-wide communications while keeping membership automatic? Is maintaining two dynamic groups (one for collaboration and one for email) simply the recommended approach? I'd love to hear how other Microsoft 365 admins have solved this in production. Thanks!
Lost Global Admin
Is there anyway to contact support? Here is how the geniuses at microsoft have made the experience ten times worse. I click reset password, it says you are not a global admin, I click locate the admin and it says it can't find it. Brilliant. Then I call the fake AI support and it proceeds to tell me I have to be a global admin. That being said, now my email is down because there is something wrong with my account. I swear this experience has to be one of the dumbest things I have seen to date from y'all. Its not even AI. So is there any way besides calling some retarded number that hangs up on me? Because I cant open a case from the tenant and if I switch tenants they told me they cant help me. To call the number that hangs up on me. The domain is chadbarnettlawfirm.com
Why is Microsoft 365 setup (Groups + SharePoint + Domains) still so complex?
Microsoft 365 Setup Feedback Summary Summary of Experience: Setting up two small business workspaces (Cork & Clarity and Stone Clarity Consulting) in Microsoft 365 required navigating multiple disconnected systems including the Admin Center, Outlook, SharePoint, and an external DNS provider. The process was significantly more complex than expected and not intuitive for a non-technical user. Key Issues Encountered: 1. Identity and Account Confusion - Unclear whether to create separate users or use one account with aliases - Creating multiple users caused login confusion, broken permissions, and access issues 2. Domain and DNS Setup Complexity - Required switching between Microsoft and external DNS (Looka) - Instructions were unclear and required manual troubleshooting - No clear distinction between required and optional DNS records 3. Default Domain Confusion - New groups defaulted to the wrong domain - No visible option to change domain during group creation - Required changing global default domain (non-intuitive) 4. Inconsistent Group Behavior - Outlook groups and Teams-backed groups behave differently - No indication of differences or consequences - Groups appeared in some places but not others 5. Membership and Ownership Issues - Group creator was not consistently added as member - Ownership did not always persist after changes - Groups existed but were inaccessible or invisible 6. Outlook UI Limitations - Groups not visible despite existing and being correctly configured - No clear instructions on how to 'activate' or 'follow' groups 7. SharePoint Site Not Created Automatically - SharePoint sites were not created when groups were created - Required hidden steps: Outlook → Files → Open in SharePoint - No indication that the site did not exist yet 8. SharePoint Discovery Issues - Sites do not appear until manually accessed or followed - No onboarding or guidance for discovering sites 9. Ghost/Deleted Items Still Visible - Deleted group (Cork & Clarity Hub) remained visible - No clear distinction between deleted vs followed sites 10. Fragmented User Experience - Required switching between multiple platforms - No single place to manage or understand setup status - High cognitive load for basic configuration Conclusion: While Microsoft 365 is a powerful platform, the initial setup experience is overly complex and fragmented, especially for small businesses. Simplifying group creation, making SharePoint provisioning automatic and visible, and improving UI consistency across apps would significantly improve usability and adoption.
File Sharing between licensed account holders
From a starting point of this year, we have been finding that any to most file shares that happened between licensed MS account users are being flagged and quarantined by the anti-malware policy. This should be, we are looking to resolve this issue. Has anyone else experienced this issue and what was your resolve. At the moment we have to monitor the quarantines and manually go in to release the share notifications.
