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How to Combine Academic and Nonprofit Microsoft 365 Tenants
Question details
An organization needs to consolidate academic and nonprofit Microsoft 365 licenses into a single tenant and share one email domain across users.
- Product
- Microsoft 365
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Consolidating distinct organizational Microsoft 365 tenants (Academic and Nonprofit) to utilize a single unified email domain.
- Observed behavior
- Microsoft 365 domains are typically restricted to one tenant at a time, requiring tenant consolidation and mailbox migrations, or specialized cross-tenant SMTP sharing features to share a domain.
Ensure you have Global Administrator privileges for both the Academic and Nonprofit Microsoft 365 tenants, and verify that all necessary licenses are provisioned in the target tenant before initiating any changes.
Perform Tenant Consolidation and Mailbox Migration
Since a custom domain can normally only be associated with one tenant, migrating all users to a primary tenant is the most reliable method to combine licenses and share a domain.
To combine Academic and Nonprofit licenses under one domain, you must choose a primary target tenant. All users, mailboxes, and data from the secondary tenant must be migrated over.
Be aware that removing the custom domain from the source tenant is required before it can be added to the target tenant, which may cause temporary email routing disruptions.
Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center of your chosen primary tenant and ensure you have purchased or activated the necessary Academic and Nonprofit licenses to cover all incoming users.
In the secondary tenant's Microsoft 365 admin center, navigate to Settings > Domains. Select the custom domain and remove it. Ensure all user aliases tied to this domain are changed to the default '.onmicrosoft.com' domain first.
Log back into the primary tenant's admin center, go to Settings > Domains, and click 'Add domain'. Follow the DNS verification steps to register the shared domain to this tenant.
Use the Cross-Tenant Mailbox Migration feature in the Exchange admin center to securely move mailboxes from the secondary tenant into the primary tenant.
Verify Exchange Cross-Tenant SMTP Domain Sharing Status
If you cannot consolidate tenants, you may rely on Exchange cross-tenant SMTP domain sharing (Feature ID 67161) to allow two distinct tenants to use the same domain.
Simplify Your Workflow with WPS Office
Managing complex Microsoft 365 tenant consolidations and cross-tenant license routing can be a highly technical and time-consuming burden. If your organization is looking for a lightweight, hassle-free document productivity solution, WPS Office is an excellent alternative.
- 1. Download the software: Visit the official WPS Office website to download the lightweight installer for Windows, Mac, or Linux.
- 2. Install and start working: Follow the on-screen instructions to install the suite and immediately start creating and editing documents without managing tenant accounts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have one custom email domain verified in two Microsoft 365 tenants at the same time?
By default, Microsoft 365 only allows a custom domain to be verified and active in a single tenant at any given time. To use one domain across two tenants, you must utilize advanced routing features like Exchange cross-tenant SMTP domain sharing, or consolidate all users into a single tenant.
What is Microsoft 365 Feature ID 67161?
Feature ID 67161 refers to Exchange cross-tenant SMTP domain sharing on the Microsoft 365 roadmap. It was designed to allow organizations to share a single email domain namespace across two separate Microsoft 365 tenants without performing a full migration.
How do I move my nonprofit users into my academic tenant?
To merge users, you must perform a tenant-to-tenant migration. This involves creating user identities in the target academic tenant, removing the custom domain from the nonprofit tenant, attaching it to the academic tenant, and using the Exchange admin center's Cross-Tenant Mailbox Migration tool to migrate the mailbox data.
