Most charities already have Microsoft 365, often free or discounted, but use little beyond email. The biggest gains come from organising Teams and SharePoint around services and projects, locking down sensitive records with permissions, managing devices with Intune, giving volunteers the right accounts and backing everything up. Once that's in place, Copilot can save time on reports, minutes and funding bids, with clear rules and a person checking the output.
Why Microsoft 365 is more than email
For a charity, Microsoft 365 is a secure workspace for staff, volunteers and trustees wherever they are. It replaces shared drives, personal Dropbox folders and email attachments, and it's the platform most other charity systems connect to.
How charities use each Microsoft 365 tool
Microsoft Teams
Set up a team for each service, project, region and the board. Conversations, files, meeting notes and calls stay in one place, and trustees can join board meetings and read papers without separate systems. Guest access lets partner organisations work with you on a shared project without full accounts.
SharePoint and OneDrive
Shared documents live in SharePoint, with version history and permissions. Sensitive areas, such as safeguarding, HR and case records, get their own sites with access limited to named people. Personal working files stay in OneDrive.
Microsoft Intune
Intune manages laptops, tablets and phones centrally: security policies, encryption, updates, software and remote wipe. For volunteers using their own phones, Intune app protection can keep charity data inside Outlook and Teams without taking over the whole device. Intune is included in Business Premium.
Security and compliance
Business Premium adds conditional access (for example, blocking sign-ins from unmanaged devices), Defender for Business (protection against viruses and ransomware) and sensitivity labels that mark and protect confidential documents.
Automation
Power Automate handles approvals, expense claims, volunteer sign-up forms and notifications. Microsoft's nonprofit programme also includes Power Apps free for up to 10 users, useful for simple data-collection apps.
How should charities use Copilot and AI?
79% of charities now use AI in some form (Charity Digital Skills Report 2026), often through free tools where staff paste in information. That's the main risk: beneficiary data ending up in a tool the charity doesn't control.
Microsoft 365 Business Basic includes Copilot Chat, which works inside your Microsoft 365 account with enterprise data protection. Microsoft 365 Copilot, which also works across your own emails, files and meetings, is a paid add-on available at a discounted nonprofit price. Practical uses:
- Meetings: board and team meeting summaries and action lists
- Funding: first drafts of bids and reports to funders, reviewed by a person
- Admin: summarising long documents, drafting letters and newsletters
- Information: finding policies and past reports quickly
Before rolling out Copilot, tidy up SharePoint permissions. Copilot can surface anything a user already has access to, so an over-shared folder becomes an over-shared answer.
Using AI responsibly
Write a short AI use policy covering which tools are allowed, what data must never be entered, and that a person reviews anything AI produces. Tell trustees how AI is used, and consider whether beneficiaries should be told too.
How to measure success
Less time searching for documents, faster volunteer onboarding, fewer emailed attachments, higher licence usage (Microsoft expects 85% of assigned nonprofit licences to be active), fewer support requests and simpler board reporting.
How Indigo does this. Indigo Unified Communications is a Microsoft Solutions Partner for Modern Work, based in Glasgow, with more than 100 Microsoft 365 migrations completed. For charities we check nonprofit eligibility, move people onto the right licences, set up Teams and SharePoint around how your services work, and manage devices with Microsoft Intune. Microsoft 365 is backed up with Datto SaaS Protection, because Microsoft's own retention isn't a backup.
Frequently asked questions
Can volunteers have Microsoft 365 accounts?
Yes, but not on the free grant. Microsoft's free Business Basic grant is only for paid staff and unpaid executive staff such as trustees. Volunteers can have discounted nonprofit licences, or join as guests with a personal Microsoft account. Give each volunteer their own account, never a shared login, limit access to what their role needs, and turn the account off when they leave.
Is Copilot safe to use with beneficiary data?
Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot work within your Microsoft 365 account's security and data protection, unlike free consumer AI tools. The bigger risk is over-shared files, since Copilot can show anything a user can already access. Fix permissions first, write an AI use policy, and keep a person reviewing the output.
Sources: Microsoft, Technology and software grants and discounts for nonprofits (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/nonprofits/offers-for-nonprofits) · Microsoft, Grant usage and recurring notifications (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/industry/nonprofit/microsoft-for-nonprofits/grant-usage-recurring-notifications) · Microsoft, Nonprofit eligibility (licence usage: grants vs discounts) (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/nonprofits/eligibility) · Zoe Amar Digital and Think Social Tech, Charity Digital Skills Report 2026, July 2026 (https://charitydigitalskills.co.uk/).
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