Buying Microsoft licenses as a nonprofit: through a partner (CSP) or direct.

A nonprofit can buy Microsoft 365 the same two ways any organization can: directly from Microsoft, or through a Microsoft partner in the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program. Microsoft’s own Business Premium guidance puts the choice plainly: how you buy depends on your IT staff’s capability and whether you want to manage your own IT infrastructure.

Neither route changes the nonprofit price list or your eligibility. Both start in the same place: getting your organization validated. Full disclosure: Centered Networks is a CSP, so we have tried to keep this to what Microsoft publishes. For the prices themselves, see our guide to Microsoft licensing for nonprofits in 2026.

First, someone inside the organization registers.

Every nonprofit offer, bought either way, depends on your organization being validated in the Microsoft Nonprofit Program. That happens in Microsoft’s Nonprofit Hub, where you can run an eligibility pre-check, register a new or existing Microsoft 365 tenant, and, once approved, claim offers and manage grants.

Microsoft is specific about who may do this: the person completing the registration must be an employee or strategic volunteer of the nonprofit. A third-party IT provider, or any other entity working for the nonprofit, may not complete registration on its behalf. That includes your partner. A partner can help you gather the documents beforehand and manage the licenses afterward, but the registration itself is yours.

On the partner side, Microsoft’s rule is that the customer must be signed up through the nonprofit program before a CSP can sell it nonprofit offers. CSPs can manage a nonprofit’s licenses as a delegated administrator, but they do not own the nonprofit benefits and cannot resell them to ineligible organizations.

What each route offers.

Direct from Microsoft. Microsoft’s nonprofit plan pages let you start a purchase yourself, and the free Business Basic grant is activated from the Nonprofit Hub and then the Microsoft 365 admin center. Microsoft provides phone and email support for Microsoft 365, and its nonprofit pages offer a product specialist to help you choose and buy. You manage the subscriptions, renewals, and user assignments yourself.

Through a CSP partner. In the CSP program, the partner buys from Microsoft and sells to you. Microsoft describes the partner as owning the customer relationship end to end: the partner sets pricing and terms, bills you directly (Microsoft does not bill a CSP customer), provisions and manages your subscriptions, and is your first point of contact for support. Microsoft’s current nonprofit Microsoft Copilot (formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot) promotions, which stack 15%, 20%, 30%, or 40% offers on top of the nonprofit Copilot price through December 31, 2026, are CSP promotions.

Monthly and annual terms.

Microsoft publishes its nonprofit Microsoft 365 prices on an annual commitment, paid yearly. It does not publish monthly-term nonprofit prices on those pages. Here is what Microsoft does publish about terms:

• Not every product has a monthly term. Many Microsoft products come in monthly and annual terms, but not all of them support a monthly term, so the available terms depend on the specific product.
• Paying monthly on an annual term costs more. Since April 1, 2025, monthly billing on annual and three-year per-user subscriptions is priced 5% higher than paying upfront. Microsoft applies this whether you buy online, through a CSP, or under a Microsoft Customer Agreement.
• You can add seats any time, but reduce them only briefly. Through a CSP, licenses can be added at any point, while a reduction or cancellation (with a prorated refund) is possible only within seven days of the purchase, the added seats, or the renewal. After that, the term is billed in full. Direct purchases on a Microsoft Customer Agreement billing account have the same seven-day window for a prorated refund; after it, you can turn off recurring billing so the subscription does not renew. Older billing account types work differently, so check which one you have.
• Longer terms exist for some plans. Microsoft offers a three-year CSP commitment for nonprofit E3 and E5, billed annually or for the full three years.

The practical effect: on an annual term, the seat count you hold a week after renewal is the floor you pay for all year. That is the moment to right-size.

What a partner of record actually does.

When you buy through a CSP, that partner is the one on record for your subscriptions. In Microsoft’s terms, the job has distinct parts, and it helps to know which is which.

• The reseller relationship. The partner transacts your subscriptions, bills you, handles renewals and seat changes, and answers your licensing and billing questions. Because the partner owns the billing relationship, Microsoft does not send you subscription communications directly; they come through the partner. A reseller relationship on its own carries no admin access to your tenant.
• Admin access, if you grant it. To manage services for you, a partner asks for granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP). You approve the request in the Microsoft 365 admin center, the roles are limited to what the partner needs, and the access expires after the period requested.
• Support and escalation. Microsoft expects CSP partners to solve problems on the customer’s behalf and to hand Microsoft the issues only Microsoft can fix, such as service outages and bugs.

You stay in control either way. Under Settings > Partner relationships in the Microsoft 365 admin center, you can see every partner connected to your tenant and what roles each holds, and you can remove a partner’s admin roles while keeping the relationship in place for renewals.

When an Enterprise Agreement is relevant.

Microsoft describes the Enterprise Agreement as a volume licensing agreement designed for large organizations with 500 or more users or devices. Below that size, it is not the route.

Nonprofits that qualify for large-scale volume licensing can use an Enterprise Agreement, but the agreement does not replace validation: a nonprofit with an EA still has to complete the nonprofit validation process to receive nonprofit pricing under it, and benefits such as the Azure grant are still managed separately in the Nonprofit Hub. Groups with centrally managed IT across several organizations should also note that Microsoft allows them one grant account and points them to Microsoft for enterprise licensing options.

How to choose.

• Buying direct suits an organization with in-house IT that wants to manage its own subscriptions, renewals, and support cases with Microsoft.
• A CSP partner suits an organization that wants one party to handle billing, renewals, seat changes, and first-line support, or that wants access to the current CSP-only Copilot promotions.
• An Enterprise Agreement is worth a conversation with Microsoft only at 500 or more users or devices.

Whichever you choose, ask three questions before you sign: can this route transact nonprofit pricing for every product you need, what term and billing plan you are committing to, and, for a partner, which admin roles they will request and for how long.