Microsoft has admitted to accidentally deleting nonprofit customers' data from Microsoft 365 before their data retention period had expired, with no possibility of recovery. The error occurred during the retirement of Microsoft's Microsoft 365 Business Premium grant programme in July 2025, after the company offered affected organisations alternative nonprofit plans and urged them to export any data they wished to keep. This incident represents a significant failure in data protection, leaving nonprofits without recourse to recover potentially critical information.

The company cannot determine what data was deleted, which organisations were affected, or the root cause of the error. Microsoft announced the grant's retirement in May 2025, offering eligible nonprofits up to 300 free Microsoft 365 Business Basic licences with discounted premium pricing options. The only remedy offered is a complimentary "concierge service" – a consultation with a Microsoft specialist to help organisations establish a new Microsoft 365 environment – which provides no assistance in recovering the lost data.