Google is well-known it make it impossible for churches to take advantage of their free non-profit software and advertising.
Microsoft, however, seems to leave way for religious organizations to discriminate on the basis of sex, religion, etc. In Google’s terms it is explicitly denied to religious organizations, in Microsoft’s it simply says “The laws or exemptions that apply to your organization depend on your organization and its practices.” and references Title VII and Obergefell.
Our church doesn’t, but I know of a church that uses Office 365 nonprofit pricing.
I admittedly don’t understand what you are referring to with Google—you should still be able to qualify if your church is 501c3. I did some Google searching and wasn’t able to find evidence that churches are being regularly denied non-profit pricing, even conservative ones.
I take the view that when we are asked, “do you discriminate against ___,” we can honestly answer no, even though we know they are indirectly asking “do you celebrate pride month, hire gay pastors, etc.” So I’d assert we meet terms where others wouldn’t and make them tell lies about us when they kick us out. But perhaps they ask more direct questions now.
A few months ago there was an extra clause in Google’s terms for non-profits. It used to have an additional note that religious institutions were not exempt from the discrimination hiring policies. This made it impossible for an honest church to use their non-profit suite. Have they been forced to reconsider?
Spending some time just now, they no longer have the second line - I wonder why? Microsoft explicitly answers the question of whether a religious organization may be exempt - and says, “maybe.” Google used to say “absolutely not.”
Google has also switched to using TechSoup to verify 501c3 status. That is a switch from a year ago. Maybe they are related?
@ldweeks I know you’ve written about this previously. What was the end result from years ago? Did TRC switch out of Google? Do you think we could use it now as long as we aren’t required to say “no” to the question of discrimination and therefore lie?
I’m not sure how you answer no to that. We absolutely discriminate against groups when hiring (women, gay, trans, etc.) How are you able to say you don’t do that?
Yes, I just went and looked, and I was shocked to see very different terms than I remembered. Hadn’t had time yet to see if I was simply mis-remembering.