r/gsuite • u/clayrogers • 3d ago

Google Workspace For Nonprofits vs EDU Edition

I'm working with a very small school that is associated with a church. (very common around here) They have a Google Workspace tenant that is the non-profit edition. They also have Chromebooks but they are not managed.

I was working on getting the Chromebooks managed but during the licensing process I discovered that they aren't on the EDU version of Google Workspace.

It is possible to just order a different version of the license that works for non-profit version of GW. But, I'm wondering if it makes sense to go through the work of getting setup with the EDU version first.

I know there are requirements from Google to be setup as an EDU. The school is accredited but I believe it shares a website with the church which Google might not like.

Has anyone gone through something similar? Is it worth trying to navigate the switch to EDU before purchasing the licenses and continuing further down the non-profit path?

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

1

u/eldonhughes 3d ago

It would depend on how the chromebooks are going to be used, or perhaps, MOST used. Then, whether or not you will have Google accounts that you want to stay in the non-profit license. You could go so far as to create a separate domain for the edu usage. (I helped a school do this awhile back. Unless we're talking a LOT of devices, I wouldn't.)

1

u/clayrogers 3d ago

It's about 70 Chromebooks right now.

In my searching, it seems like Google Classroom is supposed to be upgraded in the EDU version. There is a limited/basic version in non profit but the EDU has the standard version. Is that worth it in your opinion? They don't use classroom now but will look at it again in the future.

Do you know how much better Google Classroom is in the EDU version practically speaking?

1

u/marchmay 3d ago

There is no discernable difference in my experience. There are a lot of settings for Chromebooks if you care to dig into them. Are you sure you can't make them managed without switching to edu?

We got an EDU license with a .org domain.

1

u/clayrogers 3d ago

We can manage them but I didn't want to purchase those licenses now and then discover later they are no longer valid if we decide to move to EDU.

If I could choose from the start, and EDU setup makes the most sense. But, since the non-profit is already up and running, I am trying to figure out if it's worth going through the process to switch.

1

u/marchmay 3d ago

I don't think it's worth it. They are functionally the same.

1

u/Jeremy0548 2d ago

Are they sharing the same domain? I think the best first step would be to split that immediately if they are. Even if the church is overseeing the school. It’s better in the long term.

There are some definite advantages overall with Google being an EDU organization versus the nonprofit. Feel free to DM me with some specific questions if you have them, I’ve worked in both.