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Nonprofit organizations will have the ability to sign up for Office 365 for free or at a reduced price tag as portion of a new program Microsoft launched on Tuesday.

Appropriately certified nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in 41 countries can apply to the microsoft project 2010 for Nonprofits program. Microsoft expects to offer the program in 90 countries by July. "Nonprofits are seeing far more and far more the advantages of cloud computing, but they typically can't access it due to costs and also other reasons," said Lori Harnick, general manager of Microsoft's Citizenship & Public Affairs group.

While Microsoft has had a software donation program for years, this is the first time it is going to offer cheap windows 7 ultimate in this manner, she said. Buyers can subscribe to the Office 365 Enterprise E1 plan for free for an unlimited quantity of seats. This plan, which normally costs $8 per user, per month, includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online along with the browser-based Office Web Apps. For an added per user, per month charge of $2, buyers can get the full Office ProPlus productivity application suite streamed down and installed on users' desktops. Exchange Online Archiving costs $1 per user, per month further.

Buyers also have the selection of signing up for Office 365 Enterprise E3 at $4.50 per user, per month, a reduction from the regular price tag of $20 per user, per month. Later on, microsoft windows 8 Nonprofits will add two far more options particularly for organizations with 25 and fewer customers: Office 365 Small Organization for free, which normally costs $60 per user, per year (or $6 per user, per month); and Office 365 Small Organization Premium for $2 per user, per month, down from its regular price tag of $150 per user, per year (or $15 per user, per month).

While it's a superb move to cater to nonprofits with cheap windows 7 enterprise, Microsoft is following rival Google, which has had a free nonprofit edition of its Apps email and collaboration suite since 2007. "My take is that Google Apps for Nonprofits was undertaking quite properly within the market place, and Microsoft needed to combat Google's inroads with a far more attractive Office 365 no charge offer," Gartner analyst Matt Cain said via email. Even so, a difference is that Apps for Nonprofits is only available within the U.S., England, and Wales.

In addition to giving microsoft office 2013 a competing offer among nonprofits against Google Apps, the product earns Microsoft points for corporate citizenship, according to TJ Keitt, a Forrester Investigation analyst. "It supplies organizations performing public services an affordable tool for communication and collaboration," he said via email. Moreover, this nonprofit offering expands the pool of men and women exposed to Office 365, potentially creating future buyers for the paid editions, Keitt said. Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.