ICYMI: Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork - Partner Launch Kitđ
Microsoft 365 Copilot Cowork is now generally available, helping organizations move from AI experimentation to real-world impact. It can plan and complete complex, multi-step work across Microsoft 365, helping teams spend less time on administrative tasks and more time advancing their mission. For nonprofit partners, this is an opportunity to help your customers identify high-value use cases, support responsible AI adoption, and accelerate value with Copilot-powered experiences. đ Download the Partner Launch Kit to learn more and access deployment resources. Have you started discussing Copilot Cowork with your nonprofit customers? We'd love to hear what use cases you're seeing. đDon't miss the next Microsoft Elevate Partner Community Call â This Thursday!
â° REMINDER â° The August Microsoft Elevate Partner Community Call is happening this Thursday. Join nonprofit and education partners for the latest Microsoft updates, opportunities, and community discussions designed to help you grow your impact. Bring your questions, connect with peers, and stay informed on programs, investments, and upcoming opportunities across the Microsoft Elevate ecosystem. đ Sign up here for the monthly seriesđ¨ Final Call: Help Amplify Microsoft Elevate for Educators Applications Before July 31, 2026
The Tier 2 application window for Microsoft Elevate for Educators closes July 31, and we're asking partners to help spread the word to educators and school leaders in your networks. More than 45,000 educators and nearly 700 schools have already applied for Expert Educator and Showcase School recognition. Let's help ensure strong candidates don't miss this opportunity. How you can help â Share the program with education customers and contacts â Amplify approved campaign content â Direct interested applicants to official resources and training sessions Resources Program overview: Microsoft Elevate for Educators Training sessions: Microsoft Elevate for Educators Training School leaders social post: Amplify Showcase School campaign Educator social post: Amplify Expert Educator campaign Thank you for helping grow and strengthen the global educator community.
Approved Microsoft Nonprofit - No Business Basic offers, canât create support ticket
We are an approved Microsoft Nonprofit organization in Germany. After the July 2025 nonprofit licensing transition our Microsoft 365 Business Premium Donation disappeared. Current situation: Nonprofit status = Approved Global Administrator Custom domain verified No Microsoft 365 Business Basic Nonprofit No Microsoft 365 Business Premium Nonprofit Billing â Purchase Services only shows trial products Cannot create a support ticket (only loops into the virtual assistant) Microsoft phone support redirects us back to the online support portal Has anyone managed to get this resolved or reached the Microsoft Nonprofit Licensing team? BANNEDUSERNAME Has anyone from the Microsoft for Nonprofits team seen this issue? It looks like our tenant lost its nonprofit licensing entitlements.đ Don't miss: Microsoft Elevate FY27 Partner Kickoff (Virtual Event)
The Microsoft Elevate FY27 Partner Kickoff returns this year as two focused, virtual experiencesâone for Nonprofit and one for Educationâso you can engage more deeply with the insights most relevant to your business. These sessions are designed to help you align early to FY27 priorities and accelerate your go-to-market strategy with clarity and confidence. Join to: Align to Microsoft Elevate FY27 strategy and investments Build and sell AI, Copilot, and cloud solutions Unlock programs, incentives, and co-sell opportunities Choose the experience that matches your business focus and gain actionable guidance to drive pipeline and stay competitive in the year ahead. đ Register here: FY27 Microsoft Elevate Partner Kickoff (Nonprofit) â September 1 FY27 Microsoft Elevate Partner Kickoff (Education) â September 2Microsoft Elevate Partner Community Call â This Thursday!
â° REMINDER â° The July Microsoft Elevate Partner Community Call is happening this Thursday. Join fellow nonprofit and education partners for the latest updates, opportunities, and community discussion designed to help you grow your impact with Microsoft. Bring your questions, connect with peers, and stay informed on programs, investments, and upcoming opportunities across the Elevate ecosystem. đ Sign up here for the monthly series
Modernizing Nonprofit Operations with Power Automate
Nonprofits often rely on manual processes because they feel simpler. But manual workflows create bottlenecks, inconsistencies, and unnecessary administrative burden. Power Automate enables nonprofits to automate routine tasks using lowâcode logic, connectors, and triggers. How Power Automate Works Power Automate uses: Triggers (e.g., âWhen a form is submittedâ) â Learn more: Triggers in Power Automate [learn.microsoft.com] Actions (e.g., âSend an email,â âCreate a SharePoint itemâ) â See: Create cloud flows and actions [learn.microsoft.com] Connectors (Microsoft 365, Dynamics, Salesforce, Mailchimp, etc.) â Overview: Power Automate connectors [learn.microsoft.com] Logic (conditions, loops, approvals) â Tutorial: Get started with cloud flows [learn.microsoft.com] This allows nonprofits to build workflows without writing code. Workflows Nonprofits Can Deploy Immediately (With Real Triggers) 1. Automated Donor ThankâYou Emails â Trigger: When a row is added (Excel Online â Business) Actions: Send personalized thank-you email (Outlook) Create item (SharePoint) to log donation Post message (Teams) to notify staff 2. Volunteer Application Routing â Trigger: When a new response is submitted (Microsoft Forms) Actions: Get response details Create item (SharePoint list) Condition: route based on program interest Send confirmation email Notify program manager (Teams) 3. Intake Form â SharePoint Database â Trigger: When a new response is submitted (Microsoft Forms) Actions: Get response details Create structured SharePoint record Condition: check urgency level Create follow-up task (Planner) 4. Social Media Scheduling â Trigger: When a file is created (properties only) (SharePoint) Actions: Retrieve file metadata Post content via connector Notify communications team 5. Event Registration Automation â Trigger: When a new response is submitted (Microsoft Forms) Actions: Send confirmation email Create Outlook calendar event Create SharePoint attendance record 6. Document Approval Workflows â Trigger: When a file is created (properties only) (SharePoint) Actions: Start and wait for approval Update file status Notify stakeholders Technical Best Practices Use environment variables for URLs and credentials Store data in SharePoint lists for scalability Use error handling and retry policies Document workflows for continuity Apply DLP policies to protect sensitive data Final Thought Power Automate gives nonprofits the ability to scale operations without scaling staff. Every workflow starts with a real trigger tied to a business event, ensuring automation runs instantly and reliably. By standardizing processes and reducing manual intervention, organizations can improve data accuracy, accelerate response times, and create more consistent experiences for donors, volunteers, and program participants. Automation also enhances visibility across teams, making it easier to track activities, measure impact, and make informed decisions. Most importantly, Power Automate frees staff from repetitive administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on higherâvalue workâbuilding relationships, delivering services, and advancing the organizationâs mission. In a resourceâconstrained environment, this shift is not just efficientâit is transformative.
URGENT: Tenant Linked & New Licenses Active, Need Manual Sync Triggered (Ticket #2606160040010375)
Hello Community Managers and Microsoft Moderators, I am writing to request an urgent escalation to a Data Protection and Billing Supervisor regarding our open case: TicketID#2606160040010375 for our nonprofit, R. Fathers M.A.D., Inc. Our legacy grant subscription lapsed on May 27, and we purchased our new active subscription on June 15âa lapse of exactly 19 days. Current Status: The Data Protection Team has successfully linked our accounts. Our new June 15 subscription is confirmed Active in our Billing dashboard. All new licenses have been successfully assigned to our active users. Frontline support ran an eDiscovery search that came back empty because the metadata indexing pointers were severed during the grant decommissioning. Because we acted within the initial 30-day window, our data sits well within the 90-day retention threshold. We have completed 100% of the front-end setup steps on our end. We need a Community Manager to internally flag TicketID#2606160040010375 so a Tier-3 engineer can manually trigger the backend data re-index. This will reconnect our intact SharePoint and OneDrive files to our newly mapped user profiles. Our nonprofit operations are completely halted until this sync is pushed. Thank you for your immediate help.A Practical, Technical Guide to Bringing AI Into Everyday Nonprofit Workflows
Nonprofits face increasing pressure to improve efficiency, strengthen reporting, and communicate more frequentlyâoften with limited staff and resources. Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 embeds AI directly into familiar tools like Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams, and PowerPoint, allowing nonprofits to automate knowledge work without adopting entirely new systems or hiring specialized AI teams. How Copilot Works Under the Hood Copilot is built on three core components: 1. Large Language Models (LLMs) These AI models generate, summarize, and transform text and other content. 2. Microsoft Graph Microsoft Graph connects Copilot to your organizationâs dataâincluding: Emails Files (SharePoint, OneDrive) Meetings and calendars Teams chats This provides context-aware responses based on your organizationâs existing content. 3. Microsoft 365 Apps Copilot is embedded directly inside: Word Excel Outlook Teams PowerPoint Together, these components allow Copilot to generate insights and content grounded in your organizationâs data. [learn.microsoft.com] đ Important: Copilot does not create new data silos. It respects existing permissions, so users only see data they are already authorized to access. đ Learn more: Microsoft 365 Copilot overview Requirements to Enable Copilot To use Copilot in Microsoft 365, organizations generally need: A supported Microsoft 365 plan (e.g., Business Standard, Business Premium, E3, or E5) A Copilot add-on license Proper data stored in Microsoft 365 (e.g., OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams) đ Copilotâs effectiveness depends heavily on how well your data is organized and accessible. Technical Use Cases for Nonprofits 1. Grant Writing & Reporting Automation Copilot can: Summarize program outcomes from documents (Word, SharePoint) Generate draft grant narratives Rewrite content to align with funder tone Extract insights from structured data (Excel, reports) â ď¸ Clarification: In many standard Microsoft 365 Copilot scenarios, Copilot does not directly query Power BI datasets. Instead, it relies on data embedded in documents, emails, or exported reports. However, newer integrations (e.g., Microsoft Fabric and Copilot Power BI integration) allow Copilot to access and answer questions using Power BI reports and semantic models, depending on licensing, environment, and configuration. Technical Advantage Copilot uses Microsoft Graph to pull relevant context from your organizationâs documents, reducing manual copy-paste work. How to Use Copilot in Word for Grant Writing Open Word Select Copilot icon to open the Copilot pane Choose Draft with Copilot (or start typing a prompt) Enter a prompt such as: âDraft a 2-page grant narrative using the attached program summary and last yearâs outcomes.â (Optional) Reference or attach relevant files from OneDrive or SharePoint Click Generate Review the draft Refine using Copilot commands such as: Rewrite (improve clarity) Expand (add detail) Adjust tone (formal, persuasive, etc.) 2. Outlook + Copilot for Donor Communications Copilot can: Draft personalized donor emails Summarize long email threads Rewrite messages for tone and clarity Suggest follow-ups Technical Note Copilot can use: Previous email threads Attached documents Calendar context to generate more relevant responses. How to Use Copilot in Outlook Open a new email Click Copilot icon in the tool bar Select Draft with Copilot Enter a prompt such as: âWrite a warm thank-you email to a donor who contributed $500 to our youth program.â Click Generate Review the drafted email Edit directly or use Copilot to: Rewrite Adjust tone (formal, friendly, etc.) Change length (shorter or longer) Select Keep it, then send when ready 3. Teams Meeting Summaries Copilot in Teams can: Generate meeting summaries Identify decisions and key points Extract action items Suggest follow-ups đ Copilot works from meeting transcripts and chat logs. How to Use Copilot in Teams Start or join a Teams meeting Enable Transcription (recommended for full Copilot functionality) After the meeting, open the meeting chat or calendar event Select the Recap tab Click Copilot Select or enter a prompt (e.g., "Recap the meeting") Review: key discussion points Decision Action items 4. PowerPoint Storytelling Copilot can transform content into presentations: Word documents â slide decks Meeting summaries â presentations Reports â visual narratives Technical Advantage Copilot uses semantic understanding to: Structure slides Generate speaker notes Suggest layouts and visuals How to Use Copilot in PowerPoint Open PowerPoint Select the Copilot icon to open the Copilot pane Provide a prompt or upload a document Copilot generates slides and notes Refine using design and layout suggestions Security & Compliance Copilot inherits Microsoft 365âs enterprise-grade security model, including: Role-based access control (RBAC) Data residency and compliance controls Existing permissions enforcement Zero Trust principles đ Important clarification: Microsoft states that customer data is not used to train foundation models. Data remains within your organizationâs tenant boundary. đ Learn more: Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Learn Important Implementation Considerations 1. Data Readiness Copilotâs quality depends on your data: Organized SharePoint libraries Consistent file naming Structured documents 2. Access Control Ensure proper permissions before rollout: Avoid overexposure of sensitive data Audit SharePoint and Teams access 3. Human Oversight Copilot generates draftsânot final outputs. Always review grant narratives Validate donor messaging Confirm factual accuracy Final Thought Microsoft Copilot is not a replacement for nonprofit expertiseâit is a force multiplier. By embedding AI into everyday tools, nonprofits can: Reduce administrative workload Accelerate writing and reporting Improve internal communication Focus more time on mission-driven work When implemented thoughtfullyâwith strong data practices, governance, and human oversightâCopilot can help organizations move faster, communicate more effectively, and make better-informed decisions. Ultimately, the goal is not just efficiency, but greater impactâfreeing teams to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time advancing the mission they serve.
