Hello Reader,

Following on from my previous post

Transforming my Grassroot Football Club with Microsoft 365 – Part 1 Understanding the basics

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

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 – Plan 1

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.

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.

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

In Part 3 – Add a custom domain so your username, and email address don’t contain onmicrosoft.com.

Regards
Andrew Moran

Hello,

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.

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;

A nonprofit or non-governmental organization with recognized legal status in their respective country (equal to 501(c)(3) status under the United States Internal Revenue Code);

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.

Register

Head over to the following URL

https://signup.nonprofit.microsoft.com/en-us/welcome-policies

Step 1 – Tell us about yourself

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.

Transforming my Grassroot Football Club with Microsoft 365 – Part 2 Selecting the correct license plan

Message Summary

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.

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What you need to do to prepare:

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.