For smaller nonprofits that have been curious about Microsoft Copilot but reluctant to start buying licenses, Microsoft has made experimenting with AI considerably easier. Through its “Copilot in 30” program, Microsoft is offering eligible organizations with fewer than 300 employees a 30-day free trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot Business for up to 25 users, available through December 31.

Twenty-five people. Thirty days. No long-term commitment. That is enough time—and enough users—to find out whether Copilot can actually make a difference in your organization.

But there is one important catch: Giving 25 people Copilot licenses and telling them to go play with AI isn’t really a pilot. It’s an experiment. And possibly a very messy one.

Before You Turn Copilot Loose

One of Copilot’s biggest advantages is that it works with information employees already have access to across Microsoft 365. It can help summarize meetings, draft documents, work with email and locate information scattered across SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams.

That’s also why organizations need to do a little homework first.

Copilot generally respects existing Microsoft 365 permissions. But if those permissions are too broad, outdated or simply forgotten, Copilot can make information much easier to find. A document that has technically been accessible to someone for three years but buried six folders deep suddenly becomes much more discoverable when that person can simply ask Copilot about it.

In other words, Copilot doesn’t necessarily create a permissions problem. It just reveals the one you already have.

For nonprofits dealing with donor information, financial records, HR documents, board materials or other sensitive data, that’s a very good reason to look before you leap.

Turn the 30-Day Trial into a Real AI Pilot

Rather than simply handing out licenses, CGNET can help organizations use Microsoft’s trial as a structured 30-day Copilot pilot.

We start with a pre-trial review of your Microsoft 365 data and permissions, looking for potential oversharing or other issues that should be addressed before Copilot is introduced. We can also help develop practical AI policies and acceptable-use guidelines, so employees know what they should—and shouldn’t—be doing with AI.

Then comes the fun part.

We’ll help select 25 appropriate trial users and identify three to five specific things you actually want Copilot to accomplish. Maybe it’s reducing the time employees spend digging through email. Maybe it’s summarizing Teams meetings, drafting routine communications, analyzing information in Excel or helping staff find documents faster.

The important thing is to decide what success looks like before the trial starts.

And Yes, People Need Training

Giving someone Copilot without training is a little like giving them Excel and assuming they’ll discover pivot tables eventually. Some will. Most won’t.

During the trial, CGNET can provide training and adoption support that shows employees how to use Copilot in the applications where they already work—Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the broader Microsoft 365 environment.

Just as importantly, we can help users understand when Copilot is useful, when its answers need to be checked, and how to use AI without accidentally creating new security or governance problems.

At the End of 30 Days, You’ll Actually Know Something

When the trial ends, you shouldn’t be left asking employees, “So…did you like it?”

CGNET can conduct a 30-day value and risk assessment that looks at what people actually used, where Copilot saved time, which use cases delivered measurable value, what security or governance issues emerged, and where adoption struggled.

From there, we can recommend whether it makes sense to expand Copilot, limit it to particular teams or roles, address additional Microsoft 365 governance issues first—or decide that you’re simply not ready to spend the money yet.

That’s a perfectly useful result, too.

Ready to Find Out?

Microsoft has made it easier for smaller organizations to try Copilot without making a major licensing commitment. The trick is making those 30 days count.

If your organization has been wondering whether Copilot is worth it, this may be a particularly good time to find out. CGNET can help you go into the trial with a plan, use it safely, measure what you get from it, and come out the other side with something more useful than 25 different opinions about whether AI is “pretty cool.”  Hit us up today for more information.

For over forty-three years, CGNET has provided state-of-the-art IT services to organizations of all sizes, across the globe. We’ve done it all, from IT and cybersecurity assessments to cloud services management to generative AI user training. Want to learn more about who we are and how we might be able to help you? If so, check out our website or send us a message!