How Charities Can Automate Processes with Power Platform
Mercurius IT: Microsoft Solutions Partner
A Safe Pair of Hands
Navigating a world of limited budgets and growing demands, every charity faces a familiar challenge: how to achieve more with less.
Admin-heavy tasks, outdated processes, and disjointed systems can quietly drain time and energy that should be focused on the people and causes that matter most. But there is a way forward, and it doesn’t require a complete technology overhaul.
The Microsoft Power Platform is helping charities and non-profits by offering a low-code way to streamline operations, improve data visibility, and automate repetitive tasks – without requiring a team of developers.
This article will explore what the Power Platform is, how it works, and where charities are already seeing the impact of using these solutions.
What Is The Power Platform?
To put it simply, Microsoft Power Platform is a suite of tools that allows you to build apps, automate processes, analyse data, and create virtual AI agents, with minimal coding involved.
It includes:
Power Apps: Build custom apps to capture or display data.
Power Automate: Connect systems and set up workflows to automate routine tasks.
Power BI: Turn your data into interactive dashboards and reports.
Power Pages: Create AI-driven business portals with built-in agents.
Together, these tools help organisations like yours simplify processes, reduce admin, and create better experiences for donors, staff, and beneficiaries alike.
What makes the Power Platform special for Charities?
Charities often operate on tight budgets and limited resources. There isn’t always room for large IT projects or expensive custom systems, but the need for efficiency is just as great, if not greater, than in the private sector.
Microsoft’s Power Platform helps bridge the gap.
Whether you're tracking grant deadlines, managing volunteer engagement, or trying to get a clearer view of donor trends, these tools make it easier to centralise, streamline and respond in real time.
Best of all, Power Platform integrates directly with the wider Microsoft ecosystem, meaning it works naturally with tools many charities already use, such as Outlook, Teams, Dynamics 365, SharePoint and Excel.
Real Use Cases: Power Platform in Action for Charities
Here are just a few ways charities are already putting Power Platform to work:
1. Immigrant Services Society of British Columbia (ISSofBC) ISSofBC supports newcomers with services ranging from housing to language classes. Using Power Apps and Dynamics 365, they:
Built custom apps for teachers and caseworkers to access and update client records
Created a unified client view across services
Automated government reporting, cutting manual admin time
2. San Diego Workforce Partnership Faced with a surge in enquiries during COVID-19, this organisation built a chatbot using Power Virtual Agents to:
Offer 24/7 multilingual assistance on unemployment, jobs and training
Automate the intake process and guide users to relevant services
Free up staff for more complex support tasks
3. SOS Children’s Villages To support caregivers across multiple countries, SOS built “Rafiki” – a digital assistant using Power Platform and Azure Bot Services that:
Provides mobile-based training and emotional support to frontline workers
Operates in several languages to serve a diverse global audience
Can be updated and scaled easily to expand its reach
Getting Started: Where to Begin
One of the best things about Power Platform is that you don’t need to start big. Many charities begin with a single process - a form, a dashboard, an email automation - and then scale from there.
The key is to look at your organisation’s current pain points. Where is time being wasted? Where is data going missing? What could be simpler if it weren’t being done manually?
From there, the possibilities are almost limitless.
Partnering for Success
At Mercurius IT, we have worked with multiple charities and non-profits across the UK to unlock the potential of the Microsoft ecosystem, including Power Platform, Azure, and Dynamics 365.
We understand that every organisation is different, and we tailor each solution to your goals, capacity, and budget. Whether it’s building a low-code app, automating a workflow, or creating a custom dashboard, we’re here to help you move forward – at your pace.
If you're looking to get started with the Microsoft Power Platform, please get in touch. Our expert team will be happy to help.