Microsoft Deletes Nonprofit Data in SaaS Blunder

Microsoft's decision to retire its Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant for nonprofits has led to an unexpected issue. The company offered eligible organizations ten free licenses and discounted pricing for other plans, but when it announced that the grant would not renew after July 1, 2025, some customers were left with deleted data.

According to an email seen by The Register, Microsoft admitted that 'due to an error,' it had deleted remaining data before the retention and export window closed. Attempts to recover the data failed, and Redmond cannot determine what was lost or whether any data was deleted at all.

The company confirmed the premature deletion and apologized for the impact. It offered affected nonprofits a free 'concierge service', a meeting with a Microsoft specialist to help set up a new Microsoft 365 environment and answer questions.