Lately there’s been a lot of buzz around Microsoft in the nonprofit sector. If you caught our recent blog post and webinar, you know that Microsoft just announced the arrival of Fundraising and Engagement for Dynamics 365 Sales, an open source fundraising application specifically built for nonprofits. But we won’t get ahead of ourselves. With this new Dynamics 365 nonprofit app on the horizon, we thought we’d highlight some powerful ways you can already leverage Dynamics with the Microsoft tools you may already use to become more productive and effective as an organization.

Let’s dive into the second part of that name (a mouthful, we know) for an overview of Dynamics 365. Then we’ll look at some real-world examples of how Dynamics can work with other tried-and-true Microsoft products you may already use to deliver powerful solutions that lead to mission success.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Nonprofits is a name you're likely to hear very frequently in the nonprofit tech space over the next several years.

As Microsoft's own cloud-based CRM platform, Dynamics for Nonprofits offers a new technology option for organizations of all sizes. If you're already using a range of Microsoft products (or have heard of Microsoft's generous Tech for Social Impact initiative) but haven't yet heard of Dynamics, you're definitely going to want to have it on your radar.

When your company is worth more than $1,200,000,000,000 (I had to count the number of zeros, just to make sure I had it right), you have a unique opportunity to shape a better world. Some might go as far as to say it’s a responsibility to do so.

But what do you tackle?

Well, if you’re Microsoft, and you can scale the benefits of your services and products around the world, the sky’s the limit! Getting focused, and delivering actual solutions that can be used to do good requires insight and expertise working with those on the front lines. Plus, a good bit of leadership.

It’s no surprise then that Microsoft announced the launch of Microsoft Philanthropies in December 2015 to lead this charge, with among other things a plan to donate $1 billion of the company’s cloud services. Then, in September 2017, Microsoft Philanthropies announced the launch of Microsoft Tech for Social Impact (Microsoft TSI), with a focus to help more nonprofits around the world more fully leverage the power of the cloud.

As we enter 2020, the Microsoft TSI train seems to have picked up steam as the nonprofit community takes notice. But what exactly does Microsoft TSI plan to do?