How to Get Slack Free for Nonprofits

It’s no secret that here at Navigators, we love Slack! We were thrilled when Salesforce purchased Slack and have enjoyed watching the powerful new integrations between our favorite CRM and our favorite Communications app grow more powerful with each release. We’re looking forward to a bright future… maybe where Chatter is a thing of the past? 

While we’ve been gushing our enthusiasm lately, we have been shocked to learn from many of our friends in the nonprofit sector that they did NOT know about the Slack Grant program! If that’s you, then read on for all the juicy details about what you can get thanks to “Slack for Good.”

What Organizations Qualify

For starters, let’s take a look at just who can qualify for Slack’s largesse, because the restrictions are a bit different than Salesforce’s Power of Us Program. Just like with Salesforce, for starters your organization must hold a valid charitable status from the IRS, but that isn’t where the requirements end. As with Power of Us, your organization must not discriminate based on a number of factors. Unique to Slack, the organization also cannot promote a particular religious affiliation. 

There’s also a hard list of the types of organizations that do NOT qualify that’s more restrictive than Power of Us. These include political activities, churches, schools or colleges (but they do qualify for the Slack for Education discount), hospitals, government offices, and more. There is some confusing language in the restrictions, so be sure to check the relevant article in the Slack Help Center for all the nitty gritty details.

What Do You Get?

There are two options, and the right fit depends on the size of your organization and what Slack features you need. 

Option 1: “Free” Pro Plan

This option awards a free Slack Professional Edition Workspace for up to 250 or fewer members. Each member after number 250 is discounted at 85% off the standard price. 

Option 2: Discounted Business+ Plan

This option extends an 85% discount for Business+ Edition Workspaces of any size.

Knowing which choice is right for your organization means understanding the differences between these two plans, so let’s dig into that for a moment. 

About the Pro Plan

Pro is Slack’s first paid level, just above Free. At the Pro level, you unlock power tools like the Workflow Builder, Huddles, and Screen Sharing. You also get the ability to log in with Google, which can make setting up your users a whole lot easier. Finally, you can customize your retention policies for messages and files, which can be critical if you have certain regulatory requirements to meet. 

About the Business+ Plan

Business+ is the next level beyond Pro, but a step below Enterprise Grid. At Business+, you get all the features in Pro and a more supportive SLA, with two critical additions. 

First, Business+ includes what’s called “SCIM provisioning.” SCIM is an acronym for “System for Cross-Domain Identity Management.” That’s a mouthful, but all you really need to know is SCIM is like a common language for different systems to let each other know the identity of their users. It makes it easier for a particular app to provide an identity of a user to another app. Basically, the Identity Provider is allowed to vouch for a user back to Slack, and Slack accepts it based on this shared SCIM language. You may have even used services like this before; some examples include Okta or Google Workspace. The biggest reason you may choose to do this aside from the efficiencies involved is to be able to sync custom fields from your identity provider to Slack, such as a user’s department. If Slack knows these details, it can give you user reporting based on these details, making it possible to see information like channel usage by department. 

If the first advantage of Business+ is a bit wonky, the second most definitely is not. At Business+, admins can have access to a self-serve tool for exporting data; this access must be granted by the Workspace Owner. The tool exports messages from ALL CHANNELS, including private direct messages. This feature exists because many organizations have regulatory requirements that mean they need to access and archive these messages. It’s worth calling special attention to this feature of the Business+ level because most users don’t know if other people can or can’t read their personal messages. 

Finally, Enterprise Grid isn’t included in this program, so if you’re looking for all the extra security and identity management oomph that comes along with this plan, then you’ll be paying full freight. 

How to Get It

Step 1: Sign Up

The first step is to sign up for the basic Slack free plan by creating a new workspace. Slack is often running promos that mean you’ll get a certain amount of time on a Pro plan for free, so it’s possible you will never have to truly be using the more limited Free plan for very long or at all. 

Step 2: Apply

Once you have a plan, you’ll need to complete the Nonprofit Application. You will need to decide which plan you’re after, so do your homework and have any internal conversations you need first. This will also sign your organization up with TechSoup if you’re not already.  If you’re new to TechSoup then I have some great news for you. It’s a nonprofit organization itself that facilitates free or reduced cost technology. We could spend a whole blog series talking about how awesome they are, but for now, if you are just learning about this organization, I definitely recommend spending some time at their website.

Step 3: Provide Documentation

A Slack and/or TechSoup representative will contact you about any supporting documentation that might be needed and/or any questions they might have to determine eligibility as well as confirm if Slack will need to charge you any sales tax. This later bit is a function of what legal jurisdiction your organization falls under, so it depends. Once Slack has all the information they need, your application will go under review.

Step 4: Wait

Carry on using Slack. Once your application has been processed, Slack will contact you via email to let you know if you’re approved, and if so, will immediately apply any discounts to your account. You’re all done!

Next Steps On Slack

So now that you’re all set up with Slack… What’s next? Over the coming weeks we will talk more here about how Nonprofits can leverage Slack with Salesforce to get the most out of both tools. In the meantime, we highly recommend checking out Slack’s learning portal at SlackCertified.com. You can access bite-sized learning modules similar to Trailhead here, and even complete your Slack Certified Admin certification. 

Lastly, consider joining your local Slack Community Chapter, if you have one. These work basically like Salesforce’s Trailblazer Community Groups, only for Slack. If your town doesn’t have one, you can apply to start one. 

If your organization decides to apply for Slack, tell us about it! We want to hear all about your journey!