Author: Dan Lammot, CEO & Co-founder threshold.world
The purpose of this post is to share my opinion about, and recommendations for customers affected by, Microsoft's decision to retire Fundraising & Engagement (F&E) as of 12/31/2026. You can read Microsoft's official announcement here.
First, some context:
Before establishing threshold.world in 2018, I worked for a company that was a partner of Salesforce.org for 9 years. Throughout that period, both our team and our clients directly experienced numerous significant changes in product and partner strategies from Salesforce and other technology companies, which had an impact on customers and partners within their ecosystems. While some transitions were smooth, others were not. The key point here is that change is inevitable and occurs more frequently than we may prefer. While I understand that this may offer little comfort, it is a reality that we must acknowledge and be ready to plan for.
For the past six years, threshold.world has been a Microsoft Tech for Social Impact (TSI) partner. That is not changing. We will continue to engage nonprofit, healthcare, and social impact teams to leverage technologies that accelerate fundraising, grant management, and program outcomes. From where we sit, and even in the context of this news, Microsoft is still the best option for our customers. Why? For the following reasons:
Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit solutions are and will continue to be based on the sector defined common data model for nonprofit which connects data across the nonprofit operational context. No other platform offers this breadth.
Microsoft is the only platform that offers connected data solutions from productivity (think Microsoft 365 & Teams) to Marketing to CRM to back-office, backed by the scalability and security of Azure.
Microsoft is far ahead of the competition with access to AI across its portfolio, which we believe is the best opportunity for accelerating outcomes in a generation.
Microsoft is authentically committed to its partner ecosystem (both consultants and ISVs), where we believe the best solutions can be created because partners are the point at which technology innovation meets purpose.
On average, our customers experience a 25-35% lower total cost of ownership on Microsoft than they would on other platforms.
Second, my perspective on Microsoft's decision:
In short, I support Microsoft's decision and at the same time, I acknowledge it will negatively impact customers in the near-term.
Behind this perspective is an understanding of Microsoft's mission, which is "to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more." From where I sit, Microsoft is prioritizing what it does best:
Making data interoperable across the enterprise.
Investing in platform infrastructure and security.
Lowering the barrier for app developers to create transformational apps.
Accelerating AI accessibility.
Empowering and investing in a trusted partner community that directly engages customers to imagine and deliver solutions of consequence.
This means deprioritizing investment in F&E. While Fundraising & Engagement has been a key component of Microsoft's entrance into the nonprofit market (because it was more easily compared to competitive fundraising offerings), it is not the only app in Microsoft's Cloud for Nonprofit, and from what we know Microsoft remains committed to the other apps. Some of these include the common data model for nonprofit, new template apps (to be released in August) for fundraising, grants, and outcomes, Volunteer Management & Engagement, AI sample apps, and Community Training.
Third, we see multiple options for customers:
At some point, customers will need to migrate from Fundraising & Engagement to another solution. That is a fact. The silver lining is that this migration does not need to happen tomorrow, and Microsoft (through their partners) is offering support over the 29 months prior to retirement on December 31, 2026.
One of the support offerings Microsoft will make available in August 2024 (again, through partners) is a Transition Assessment program. This process will itemize the work to be done and enable customers and partners to intentionally schedule that work into a customer's roadmap over time. This will minimize the effort required to transition. threshold.world will leverage this program and intends to launch a Transition Assessment process in August and will work with our existing F&E customers to determine which of the options described below is the best for each customer over time.
We see the following options:
Customers can migrate to an existing Microsoft partner solution for fundraising. These are available today on Microsoft's marketplace.
Customers can transition in place to a custom, common data model for nonprofit + Microsoft Dynamics Sales/Insights-Journeys solution.
Customers can wait for Microsoft to release the fundraising template app, and consider it as a baseline app for the transition.
Customers can migrate to another platform or fundraising app. This will require a wholesale migration of data, processes, and change management.
Conclusion & next steps:
From my perspective, the following are key next steps:
Where possible, build your solutions into Power Platform, Dynamics 365, and Azure. This will minimize the weight of the future transition.
Schedule your Transition Assessment to determine which option is best for your team. We'll be proactively reaching out to our F&E customers to talk through this process and determine when the best time is to conduct the Assessment.
I also want to share that while this change presents some meaningful disruption in the near term, I believe it will be counterbalanced by incorporating this change into your roadmap over the next 29 months. Short-term pain, long-term gain.
Comments