Microsoft is gracious enough to provide a yearly $2,000 grant to all 501c3 nonprofits that apply for it. The problem is that the steps to apply the grant to your Azure subscription aren’t intuitive. Every year I dread reapplying for the grant since I end up google the process. Not this year! I’m going to document this process here so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
- Registered 501c3 entity with EIN number
- Azure Account
- Azure Subscription
- Credit Card (this is a backup in case you use up grant before renewal)
Create your Azure account
Receiving the Azure grant won’t do you much good if you don’t have an Azure account to apply it to.
To open an Azure account goto https://azure.microsoft.com and choose Sign Up with $200 credit. (signing up with $200 credit won’t affect your grant application)
NOTE: If you already have an Azure account and/or Subscription can skip this section.
Create a Subscription in Azure
In order to apply the Azure grant to your account you have to setup a subscription within Azure. Subscriptions are containers that allow you to allocate services for different requirements.
(Example: I want to charge some services to my work credit card and others to my personal credit card so each credit card would have their own subscription)
Log into your Azure account and under Cost Management + Billing click on Billing then Subscriptions and choose + New subscription
Once you hit Add you’ll need to choose Select offer under Pay-As-You-Go unless you have that option under Free Trial.
After hitting Select offer you’ll be sent to this page. Agree to the terms and hit Next.
The free account we setup doesn’t allow us to create a subscription so you will need a credit card for this Pay As You Go account (just in case your grant runs out you don’t want your services to stop)
I know, why do I need a credit card if I signed up for an account with $200 credit? The credit card is a backup if you use all of your credits and all of the funds from your Azure Grant.
After you hit Sign up you’ll be taken to several screens before you get back to the main console. To verify your new subscription navigate back to Cost Management + Billing, Billing then choose Subscriptions. You’ll see it listed as “Pay-As-You-Go”. (You can change the name if you wish.) Make note of the Subscription ID.
Apply for Azure Grant
Now that we have a subscription we can apply for the Azure Grant by navigating to https://nonprofit.microsoft.com/en-us/getting-started and choosing Apply if you don’t already have an Azure Grant. If you do choose Sign in button.
Here’s where you’re done if you are applying for the grant the first time. You’ll be asked questions to verify your 501c3 status and watch for an email telling you that you’ve been approved.
For everyone who is renewing hit Sign in. After the page opens scroll down to Azure and choose Learn more
After hitting Learn more you’ll be sent to a status page for your grant. Now choose Claim now >
Check Azure Grant Status
Whether you’ve been approved for the first time or just renewing your grant you need to verify that your subscription is covered under the grant. First, let’s navigate to the grant status page at https://www.microsoftazuresponsorships.com/
Once you login you see two tabs, Balance and Usage. Let’s goto Balance to verify our subscription is covered. You can choose to cover as many subscriptions as you want with the grant as you’ll see I have three covered.
Associate Subscription with Azure Grant
Now we can see what subscriptions are associated with our grant. Let’s go back to the Azure console and associate a subscription. This time we’ll access Subscriptions from the home page.
Choose + Add from this page.
After hitting Add you’ll see the page below. Open up All other offers and choose Check eligibility under Microsoft Azure Sponsorship.
After you hit Check eligibility that button will change to Select offer. Hit that button again and it should allow you to choose the subscription you want to add to the grant.
I can’t hit this button again since I’m already signed up, but you’ll be asked a few questions and might get a scary popup that says “don’t use this for a production account since services will stop of grant funds run out”, but you can disregard that since you associate a credit card with your subscription.
Conclusion
You thought I was kidding when I said it’s not a simple procedure.
After setting this up I would continue to monitor the status page at https://www.microsoftazuresponsorships.com/
to make sure the grant funds are being used. If the funds are not getting used or they are getting used from the wrong subscription you’ll need to open a ticket with Azure support.