A Right Way For Tech Companies To Kill Or Shrink Nonprofit Programs?

Forbes

4 days ago

As a business-building strategy or a type of corporate philanthropy (or in many cases a bit of both), numerous tech companies offer nonprofits free or discounted access to their products.
Often that is a budget-stretching good thing for beneficiaries, but it's not without its complications as a move by Microsoft this month changing the terms of such a program demonstrated.
In mid-May Microsoft sent an email to impacted nonprofits that it was discontinuing elements of a 12-year-old program providing nonprofits with free licenses for certain versions of its 365 productivity program.
If that description sounds complicated it's because the move was complicated. It would be much easier to describe the change if Microsoft was simply killing the program and all beneficiaries would soon have to pay for tools they had received for free. That is not the case.
For purposes of this post, it is sufficient to say that 1) Microsoft is doing away with grants for licenses of a version of 365 that allowed up to 10 of a nonprofit group's employees to work easily offline and online and 2) Microsoft is still offering free access for up to 300 of an organization's employees to a different, purely cloud-based version of 365 as well as discounted nonprofit access to other products.
The anger this move unleashed focuses primarily on the way it was handled rather than Microsoft's right to make changes.
Leading the protests is George Weiner, founder of Whole Whale, a digital marketing agency for nonprofits and former chief technology officer of DoSomething.org.
'When trillion-dollar companies treat nonprofit infrastructure as disposable, it signals to every tech giant that social responsibility is negotiable,' said Weiner.
Weiner estimates that 400,000 nonprofits take advantage of this program and that the terms of tens of thousands of licenses per month will be downgraded starting in July. For those whose licenses expire in July that means the May announcement gave them only a few months to develop strategies to adjust to the changes.
Some small nonprofits or groups that work in areas with poor internet access may have to pay Microsoft monthly per employee fees to maintain access to offline capabilities that they formerly received for free, according to Weiner. In a recent video podcast, Weiner criticized this move by Microsoft as 'nickel and diming nonprofits while they are down.'
This is far from the first time that tech giants have created problems of change management or expense for nonprofits by altering generous programs the groups had come to rely on. Two examples:
It is perhaps unfortunate, but inevitable that companies will pare back programs that benefit nonprofits. Most important, Weiner contends, is that they do so thoughtfully so that nonprofits have the time and support they need to adjust.
Weiner suggests that companies provide at least six months of advanced warning for minor changes and 12-to-18 months for major moves. 'Nonprofits operate on annual budget cycles and need time to plan,' he said.
Bigger picture, Weiner argues that 'If you're going to offer something free to nonprofits, either commit to it long-term with clear sustainability plans, or don't do it at all. Microsoft had this program since 2013 - nonprofits built their entire infrastructure around it.'
Long-term free access to products builds dependency, Weiner said, so he suggests that companies provide at least 1 month of notice for each year that free access is provided.