Microsoft Philanthropies has fulfilled its three-year commitment to donate $1 billion in cloud computing resources to help non-profit organisations digitally scale their impact and better serve public good – a year ahead of schedule. These cloud resources have helped 90,000 non-profits and researchers at 700 universities around the world, advance social good initiatives.
Building on this effort, the company now aims to triple the number of non-profits served over the next three years to over 300,000 organisations. Leading this commitment is a new organisation within Microsoft Philanthropies, called Technology for Social Impact.
Technology for Social Impact will help non-profits move to the cloud and digitally transform to raise funds, improve productivity, accelerate innovation and ultimately have a greater impact on their beneficiaries.
Nigerian non-profits experience the benefits of digital transformation
In Nigeria, Junior Chamber International (JCI) is already seeing the benefits of digital transformation.
JCI Nigeria is the leading movement for youth development and active citizenship across Nigeria’s 36 federal states. Its focus is on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to make informed decisions and take action.
By deploying Microsoft Office 365 (a full suite of Microsoft office software) and Power BI (an interactive data visualisation business intelligence tool) to improve internal operations within the organisation, JCI has been able to make an even bigger impact in Nigeria as a modern non-profit running on cloud technology.
In 2016, JCI Nigeria implemented over 100 community-based projects in Nigeria, positively impacting the lives of more than 2000 people.
Inspired to keep on making an impact
“We’re inspired by these kinds of stories, as they demonstrate the potential of technology to help transform how non-profits pursue their missions and drive impact,” says Akin Banuso, General Manager at Microsoft Nigeria. “Too many non-profits have been left behind in the digital revolution that’s reshaping business and society, but many have a strong desire to adopt the latest technology. That’s why we’re working to help more non-profits around the world more fully leverage the power of the cloud.”
The Technology for Social Impact team will also build comprehensive new offerings for non-profits. This begins immediately with Microsoft 365 for Non-profits which includes: Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility plus Security, as well as discounts on Surface laptops.
With millions of non-profits serving communities around the world, these tools can help them bring the power of Microsoft’s most advanced technologies to bear on some of the world’s toughest problems.
“This is only the beginning,” says Banuso. “In the coming months, we will build upon these offers and on our longstanding commitment to non-profits. We will also engage with startups and incubators to enable them to build solutions that meet non-profits’ unique needs.”
Perhaps, this is part of what they have in mind in their partnership with Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurs which we wrote about on Monday.
To find out more about how non-profits have made an impact with Microsoft’s cloud technologies, as well more details on the new offers, click here.