Support for Microsoft Office 2010 is scheduled to end on October 13th, 2020, with no extension or extended security updates from Microsoft. If your nonprofit is among the majority of companies still using Microsoft Office 2010 programs, it’s time to start planning your next Microsoft Office upgrade before October in order to avoid security risks. The good news is that your nonprofit has plenty of free and affordable upgrade options, such as free and discounted subscriptions to Microsoft 365, or Microsoft Office Standard 2019 from TechSoup Canada.

[ NOTE ] Support for Windows 7 ended on January 14, 2020. Even though Microsoft Office 2010 will be supported until October 13, 2020, Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft since January 2020. If you’re still using Windows 7, we highly recommend that you upgrade your operating system as soon as possible!

What does End of Life mean?

Microsoft has a support lifecycle for all of its programs, during which they provide fixes to known issues, bugs and security patches. This lifecycle typically lasts 10 years and starts from the date of the product’s initial release.

When a program reaches the end of its support lifecycle, Microsoft will no longer provide:

Bug fixes for issues that are discovered
Security fixes for vulnerabilities that are discovered
Phone or chat technical support for issues (and existing support content will be retired)
The ability to download end of life products from the Microsoft store or VLSC

What happens after October 13th, 2020?

While your Microsoft Office 2010 programs will continue to function, you will be exposing yourself and your organization to serious and potentially harmful security risks by using an unsupported program. Because Microsoft Office 2010 will no longer receive security updates after October 2020, we strongly recommend that you upgrade before the end of life deadline.

What are my options?

The best way to protect yourself and your organization is to upgrade to a newer version of Office:

On-premise upgrade: Microsoft Office Standard 2019
Cloud upgrade: Free and discounted subscriptions to Microsoft 365

Microsoft Office Standard 2019

Microsoft Office Standard 2019 is available to eligible charities and nonprofits on a donated basis from TechSoup Canada. It is the latest version of the on-premises version of the office suite, and includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and Publisher.

Microsoft Office Standard 2019 may be a good option for you if:

Your nonprofit is not ready to move to the cloud version at this time
You only need to install Office programs on 1 device (PC or Mac)

*NOTE: You need to have Windows 10 as your operating system in order to install Microsoft Office Standard 2019

Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is an all-in-one cloud solution with a number of different licensing options to fit your organization's needs. Many cloud subscriptions also include installed versions of the application so you can have the same look and feel of the Office applications you are accustomed to using, but built with more robust features and benefits.

Microsoft 365 may be a good option for you if:

You’d like the ability to work from anywhere and at any time
You’d like the option to install Microsoft Office programs on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets and 5 mobile devices
You no longer want to worry about the end of support deadlines. Since Microsoft 365 is updated on a regular basis, cloud subscriptions are automatically updated to have the newest features, applications and security updates.

Basic versions of Microsoft and Office 365 are available to nonprofits at no cost. To get started, simply complete TechSoup Canada’s Microsoft Cloud Solutions form and one of our Account Managers will walk you through the process.

Not sure which subscription is best for your nonprofit? We recommend small to medium-sized organizations (up to 300 staff/volunteers) to consider Microsoft 365 Business Premium. This specific license comes with desktop versions of Office apps: Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote (plus Access and Publisher for PC only), as well as the Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security components. It is designed for small and medium-sized organizations under 300 users. The best part is that eligible nonprofits can get the first 10 seats at no cost. Additional benefits include:

One license allows you to install Office apps on up to five mobile devices, five tablets, and five PCs or Macs per user.
Each account comes with 1 TB of cloud storage for online file sharing and cloud backup on OneDrive for Business.
It includes all the features of Office 365, plus advanced security and device management features with apps like Microsoft Defender and Conditional Access.
It also features instant messaging and online meetings with Microsoft Teams.
You can easily add security to mobile devices, tablets, and computers that connect to your organizational data with an app called Intune.
You can control access to sensitive information using encryption to help keep data from being accidentally shared.
Eligible nonprofits can obtain Microsoft 365 Business Premium with up to 10 seats at no cost and then pay $6.40 CAD per additional user/month.

To find out more, download the free ebook, Crash Course in Microsoft 365 Business for Nonprofits.

Want to improve your Office skills?

Regardless of the version of Microsoft Office you decide to use, TechSoup US has powerful online courses designed to help nonprofits improve their digital skills. These courses are self-paced and feature contextualized learning with real use cases in bite-sized segments.

If you’re looking to improve your Microsoft Office skills, or would like to become an expert in Excel, the Microsoft Digital Skills Center features free beginner and advanced courses on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and also very affordable courses on Microsoft Teams and Power Bl, Microsoft’s data visualization tool. Check out some of the most popular course tracks below!

We hope these tools and resources will be helpful for you to decide which Microsoft Office upgrade is best for your organization.