We are now going to look at the next step for transforming my grassroots football club with Microsoft 365.
Once your registration is approved
You now have a choice to make between two options
Selecting Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Selecting Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Understanding Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Microsoft 365 Business Basic option allows you to have 300 licenses to utilize for your club. So you can give every single coach and volunteer in your club an official account to represent the club.
One of my biggest bug bearers is seeing clubs advertise an email address similar to this; – walsalllionsunder10@gmail.com – telfordtigerstournament2023@hotmail.com
This doesn’t provide the club a lot of flexibility or control over the information that is sent to their email addresses.
I have picked out a number of key products under Microsoft 365 Business Basics plan which I will discuss
Microsoft 365 Map of all features available with Microsoft Business Basics Plan
Azure AD for Office 365
Azure AD for Office 365 is how user identities are created and managed including guests that you may want to allow access to resources in your Microsoft 365 tenant
Exchange Online is the platform for managing email accounts. Each user mailbox requires a license but if you are running a tournament for example and require multiple people to access the mailbox. Instead of using a license on a “User Mailbox” you would get a created “Shared Mailbox” which doesn’t require a license.
There will be an article going into Exchange Online in more depth.
Screenshot of the Exchange Online Admin Console
Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms enables users to create surveys to gather data, a good usage scenario would be collecting player information or information about teams wanting attend your tournament.
Screenshot of Microsoft Forms – Blank Form
There will be an article going into Microsoft Forms in more depth, as I will demonstrate how I collect player information in an attempt to track their journey at the club.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has become a very popular platform for grassroots leagues to host league meetings virtually. All Microsoft Teams features are immediately available but there may be some functionality that might require additional licensing at cost, for example Direct Calling to UK Domestic Numbers.
Office for the Web
With this license you only have access to the online versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, etc… but however, while you don’t have a license to install the full client on a laptop or PC. You can utilize the mobile apps from all Andriod, and iOS devices with no issues.
OneDrive for Business – Plan 1
Microsoft OneDrive for Business is Microsoft’s cloud storage and file sharing solution and competes with Google Drive Enterprise, Dropbox Business, and other professional-focused solutions. Each user that has a license within the Microsoft 365 will have access to 1TB of cloud storage.
Power Automate for Office 365
Power Automate is a platform that can automate tasks if an action has happened, for example;
When a Microsoft Form is submitted, send an email to X
When a document is updated, send an email to X, Y, Z
I will be going into detail later in this series on how I am keeping the Player up to date via Microsoft Form submissions.
SharePoint Online – Plan 1
This is probably one of the most important parts of the whole tenant, SharePoint is an internal website for your club. You can add nearly anything you would like. In my screenshot you can see;
Links to Club Contacts
Wholegame System
Club Documents
Training
Links to different leagues
Understanding Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Microsoft Business 365 Business Premium has all the above functionality but with Premium, you get access to a lot more but are limited to 10 free licenses. You would then need to pay for any additional licenses if required.
I believe Premium would be overkill for most clubs but ultimately the decision is yours
Microsoft 365 Map of all features available with Microsoft Business Premium Plan
In Part 3 – Add a custom domain so your username, and email address don’t contain onmicrosoft.com.
Outside of my normal career as Senior Office 365 Architect, I run a football team called Wyrley Junior Ravens at the Under 10s level (Season 2022/2023). We are one of the numerous teams that are associated with Wyrley Juniors at the grassroots level.
Wyrley Juniors are a community club located in Staffordshire. They have 60 different teams registered across the leagues within the local area.
I decided to take it upon myself to look at how the club operates with communication and data retention. During my team with the club, I have found it hard to locate some information I need in order to really support my team.
In this article series, there will be multiple parts as I show how to leverage Microsoft 365 licensing.
So where did I start?
I have always been aware that Microsoft offers licenses for not-for-profit organizations so immediately I got to work understanding the process of how I could apply?
One of the key things that were so important to my application was that Wyrley Juniors are a registered UK Charities and are able to accept donations that help support the club’s goal to develop a safe environment for children within the community to play football.
Getting Started
First of all, your organization needs to be eligible under the following;
Public library that provides general library services without charge to all residents of a given community, district or region; or
Public museums, including public or private institutions, open to the public, that conserves and exhibit tangible objects for purposes of cultural preservation, education, or aesthetic enjoyment.
In addition to the organization criteria, eligible organizations must also operate on a not-for-profit basis and have a mission to benefit the local community that could include but is not limited to – providing relief to the poor; advancing education; improving social welfare; preserving culture; preserving or restoring the environment; promoting human rights; establishment of civil society.
Any organization that does not meet the criteria outlined above for eligible nonprofit missions is ineligible for Microsoft nonprofit programs. Visit Microsoft Licensing for more information about licensing options for ineligible organizations. Examples of ineligible organizations include, but are not limited to:
Nonprofit organizations that have not obtained recognized legal status in their respective country;
Governmental organizations or agencies, including international governmental organizations, and United Nations Entities;
Schools, colleges and universities including formal educational institutions, nonprofit schools, and academic museums;
Healthcare organizations including, but not limited to, hospitals, healthcare networks, health plans, and ambulatory/outpatient healthcare organizations;
Public Utilities, including public transportation, telecommunications, and utilities;
Financial institutions, including banks, insurance providers, and pension and retirement funds;
Professional, commerce and trade associations;
Professional and semi-professional sports organizations, including governing bodies, Olympics, and national or international tournaments;
Political, labor, and fraternal organizations;
Refurbishers that will be installing the software on refurbished computers to be distributed or donated to nonprofits or schools. Please email oemmar@microsoft.com for more information about the Registered Refurbisher Program;
Individuals.
Nonprofit discounts and grants are permitted for specific employees and volunteers. Nonprofit beneficiaries, donors, and members (such as members of a church, club, or sports team) are not eligible for nonprofit offers.
Grants vs. discounted licenses
Depending on the employee’s status and role in the nonprofit there is a difference between available offers:
Grants – Granted licenses are only permitted for paid employees and unpaid executive staff if all organization eligibility is met. User amount limits do apply and vary by the availability of country of usage. Additionally, organizations are expected to regularly remove unused granted licenses from their subscription. Adherence to policy guidance is encouraged and tenant may be subject to audit by Microsoft.
Discounts – Discounted licenses are permitted for all staff, including volunteers and temporary staff of the organization. Eligible nonprofits may access discounted pricing on commercial cloud offers, and some on-premise offers. Discounts vary by product, and/or quantity
Paid employees
Paid staff includes employees on mandatory unpaid time off but who remain employees of the nonprofit, often referred to as furloughed staff. It does not include staff whose employment has been terminated or is subject to layoff. Paid staff are permitted to use granted and discounted licenses.
Unpaid executive staff
The unpaid executive staff is defined as unpaid staff that acts as senior leadership for the nonprofit. Eligible unpaid executive roles are board of directors, president, officer, executive director, and executive program directors. Eligible unpaid executive staff is permitted to use granted and discounted licenses.
Volunteers and temporary staff
Volunteers is defined as all other non-executive unpaid staff and general volunteers. Discounted nonprofit offers are permitted for all nonprofit staff and volunteers.
Type
Non-profit Grant Offers
Nonprofit Discount Offers
Volunteer Use Benefit
Paid Employees
X
X
Unpaid Executive Staff
X
X
X
Volunteers
X
X
Contracted Staff (temporary, third-party)
X
Beneficiaries, Members, Donors
License Restrictions
Organizations cannot share, transfer, rent, or resell nonprofit licenses or subscriptions with/to other organizations or individuals even if they are part of the same group. If the group has both nonprofit and for-profit organizations in its legal structure, nonprofit offers are only permitted for eligible nonprofit organizations. Additionally, groups with centrally managed information technology (IT) systems are only eligible for one grant account. Please contact Microsoft to learn more about enterprise licensing options.
Information Overload
So I can appreciate the information overload above but all details have to be outlined to ensure you are fully aware of the do’s and don’ts
The most important part of all the information above, I highlighted in Blue
In addition to the organization criteria, eligible organizations must also operate on a not-for-profit basis and have a mission to benefit the local community that could include but is not limited to – providing relief to the poor; advancing education; improving social welfare; preserving culture; preserving or restoring the environment; promoting human rights; establishment of civil society.
Grassroots football is and always has been about delivering benefits to the local community by providing football to local young children.
Populate all of the required fields as shown with the red asterisk
You will be prompted to provide a verification code to the email address you specified above
Once you have entered the verification code, you will move on to step 2.
Step 2 – Tell us about your organization
Populate all of the required fields as shown with the red asterisk
Organisation Budget in USD – Change to 1
Add your Charity Number and any supporting documentation you may have.
Step 3 – Help us verify it’s you
Provide your number to verify you via text message or phone call
Step 4 – Create your Account
You are now required to create an account which will be given Administrator access to the Microsoft tenant.
Please Note: Under Your Company, please enter your club name for example wyrleyjuniors.
Microsoft will evaluate your potential eligibility. Registration review may take up to 7 days. You will receive an email notifying you if your registration has been approved.
While waiting for your registration review results get a head start with technical training through the Nonprofit Digital Skills Training, and more learning paths for nonprofit employees.
Once your registration is approved, you can access the Nonprofit Hub to take advantage of customized offerings to ensure the collaboration, productivity, and security of your organization.
Regards Andrew Moran
In Part 2 – I run through the options of selecting the correct licenses plan for your club.
Users will have the option to call back on a missed call directly from their activity feed. This will help users complete the underlying task quickly and improve triaging of activities.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 102236
When this will happen:
Preview: We will begin rolling out mid-January and expect to complete by late January.
Standard Release: We will begin rolling out early February and expect to complete by mid-February.
>How this will affect your organization:
There are no tenant level settings. Defaults will not change.
There is no action needed to prepare for this change. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.
The process for moving your wiki is incredibly easy and I will show you how its done.
First of all, open your Microsoft Teams Channel where you have a Wiki present and Click Get Details
Click Export Notes –> Process will then start –> Click Finsh to complete
A new tab called Notes will appear
One of the cool features I like about this is that, all the Wikis you export from your Channels will appear in this tab so as per my screenshot above you can get my General channel which also contained a Wiki
So that is how you move your Wiki to OneNote, yes if you have multiple wikis across millions of channels its a manual process. As least Microsoft have create an export feature and you dont have to copy/paste everything out.