Getting error: You are not eligible for sponsorship benefit

Question

Getting error: You are not eligible for sponsorship benefit

Alyssa Bowlby 5

Hi,

I recently applied for Azure credits for my nonprofit startup and they were approved. In the Azure for Nonprofits portal, I can see that the credits are active, and under offers the Azure grant claimed is shown as Approved.

However, when I try to use Azure (clicking the email link with admin access), I receive the following error:

You’re not eligible for the sponsorship benefit.

This is a limited Azure benefit that’s only available by email invitation.

What do I need to do to re-activate my nonprofit credits and apply them to my existing sponsorship? I would like to redeem my nonprofit offer to the existing subscription with ID:

I also tried to create a support ticket but was unsuccessful.

Thank you for your help
edited pii information

Praneeth Maddali 12,670 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-12-10T07:10:57.16+00:00
HI @Alyssa Bowlby

Thanks for reaching out — I know it’s confusing when the Azure for Nonprofits portal shows your grant as Approved but the Azure portal still returns “You’re not eligible for the sponsorship benefit.” This error typically happens when the nonprofit credit has not been successfully redeemed into an Azure subscription, or when the activation link is opened using an account or tenant different from the one approved for the grant.

Below are the steps to resolve this:

Sign in using the same admin email approved for the nonprofit grant:
Go to: https://nonprofit.microsoft.com
Make sure you sign in with the exact Primary Contact / Admin email you used when applying for the Azure for Nonprofits credits. If a different Azure AD account is used, the sponsorship validation will fail.

Redeem the Azure nonprofit credit from the correct place:
Once signed in:

After signing in:

Go to Benefits

Choose Azure Credit Grant

Select Activate Azure Credits

You’ll be taken to Azure — make sure to select the correct tenant and billing profile

This step will either create the Azure Sponsorship subscription or apply the credit to the right tenant.

About applying credits to your existing subscription:
Azure nonprofit sponsorship credits cannot be applied to an existing Pay‑As‑You‑Go subscription unless that subscription was originally created during the nonprofit redemption process. Microsoft’s system does not allow attaching nonprofit sponsorship funding to an unrelated existing subscription.
Here are our options: Option A — Recommended Redeem the grant, which will create a new Azure Sponsorship subscription. Next, move resources from the old subscription to the new sponsorship subscription. (Most services allow you to “Move to another subscription.”) Option B — Only if necessary If you need to keep the current subscription ID, you can reach out to Azure Billing Support to request manual linking, but approval is not guaranteed.

If you were unable to create a support ticket:
Billing support is always 100% free, even without a support plan.
Open a ticket using: https://azure.microsoft.com/support/create-ticket Choose:

Issue type: Billing

Problem type: Credits / Offers

Subtype: Sponsorship / Nonprofit Credit Activation

This routes your case directly to the Azure billing specialists who can fix account/tenant linkage issues.

Reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/industry/nonprofit/microsoft-for-nonprofits/support-troubleshoot#common-registration-errors

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-for-startups/benefits/azure

https://portal.startups.microsoft.com/signup?drawer_open=true

Getting error: You are not eligible for sponsorship benefit

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