Plan and prepare for Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit in 2021 release wave 2

Important

This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, go to Dynamics 365 nonprofit accelerator. For the latest release plans, go to Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.

Important

The 2021 release wave 2 plan covers all new functionalities planned to be delivered to market from October 2021 to March 2022. In this article, you'll find the product overview and what's new and planned for Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit.

Overview

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit empowers scalable and transformative mission impact by helping nonprofits to engage with their donors and supporters, deliver effective programs, and accelerate mission outcomes.

By combining the power of fundraising and engagement with Dynamics 365 Marketing, nonprofit organizations and UN agencies can cultivate valuable donor relationships through a guided journey to campaign segmentation and analysis. Our volunteer management app combined with a Power Apps portal app enables nonprofits to perform all their key functions in one seamless experience, including program execution, project management, program design, and volunteer management. Finally, Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit helps organizations to bring data into view from disparate systems and applications, including CRM data.

RSS Subscription Updates to Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit 2021 release wave 2.

Investment areas

Investment areas

Know your donors and supporters
Nonprofit development operations and database administrators will benefit from faster and more secure donation processing. As we continue to invest in leveraging Microsoft platform capabilities, we have further redesigned the architecture of fundraising and engagement to ensure Azure is delivering real-time processing and market-leading transaction security.

Nonprofit organizations and UN agencies that leverage Dynamics 365 Marketing and Cloud for Nonprofit will benefit from a nonprofit marketing template that will provide a guided journey to campaign segmentation and analysis.

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit provides:

  • Constituent management: Attract, retain, and grow donor and supporter bases.

  • Personalized engagement: Connect through compelling content by using the most proven channels.

  • Donation and award management: Payment processing, fund accounting, and designation management to support fundraising efficiency for simple to complex funding types.

Deliver effective programming
Nonprofit and UN program staff wear many hats: program execution, project management, program design, and volunteer management, for example. In 2021 release wave 2, we'll launch two volunteering applications:

  • A volunteer management model-driven Power App for nonprofit staff to manage engagement opportunities. Volunteer management enables volunteer coordinators and volunteers to collaborate and match skills with needs.

  • A Microsoft Power Apps portal app that integrates with nonprofit websites to ensure that volunteer recruitment efforts span far and wide, and that the most diverse and committed audience members possible commit their time and talents. Volunteer management staff who leverage Microsoft Teams will be able to manage engagement opportunities and streamline volunteer onboarding without ever leaving Teams.

Accelerate mission outcomes
Data management is critical to every nonprofit organization on the planet, and nonprofits have long been promised "data truth" without the delivery.

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofits provides you with the following capabilities:

  • Unified data: Unify fundraising, program, finance, operations, and disparate data across the back-office and frontline.

  • Constituent analytics: Understand which supporters and constituents are most likely to engage through which channels and at optimal times.

  • Program impact: Gain program health metrics and mission insights by unifying data across fundraising, programs, finance, operations, the back office, and the frontline.

To learn more about the entire set of capabilities being delivered during this release wave, check out the release plan for Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit below:

For application administrators

User-impacting features to the user experience enabled automatically
User-impacting features should be reviewed by application administrators. This facilitates release change management and enables successful onboarding of new capabilities released to market. For the complete list, look for all features tagged "Users, automatically" in the release plan.

Features that must be enabled by application administrators
This release wave contains features that must be enabled or configured by administrators, makers, or business analysts to be available for their users. For the complete list, look for all features tagged "Users by admins, makers, or analysts" in the release plan.