Digital Equity Funding Cycle Focus Areas

For this funding cycle, we will focus on organizations that are doing work in California.  We are interested in supporting initiatives that address the following: 

• Digital Discrimination – Internet Access as a Civil Right: Efforts that document and address the impact of different forms of digital discrimination on our most vulnerable communities. The projects should provide tools to combat digital discrimination and promote equitable access to broadband throughout California. We seek to grow awareness and uplift the needs of underserved communities that have been deliberately excluded from connectivity by systematic redlining and disinvestment. These may include, but are not limited to:
  
  • Efforts that highlight disparities in broadband access, and hold government and private institutions accountable to communities
  • Storytelling, surveying, and testimonial-gathering that helps direct public and private investments to communities to address digital inequities
  • Efforts that center community voices impacted by digital inequity through civic journalism, for community resilience and systems change
  • Data and research that contributes to transparency around internet service providers (ISP) practices and services for use in collective community advocacy efforts
    
    
• Broadband as a Utility – Policy Advocacy and Civic Engagement: Efforts that increase civic participation in digital equity policy-making and regulatory processes at the local, regional, or state-level with the goal of recognizing internet service as a public utility – and enabling universal access to high-speed, reliable, affordable broadband for all. This includes the education of state policy-makers on key digital equity issues.
  
  • Projects may feature efforts focusing on education, capacity-building, and the equitable implementation of digital equity policy.
  • This may include policy efforts that improve internet affordability, network reliability, and access to broadband.
    
    
• Digital Equity and Economic Mobility: Efforts that address digital inequity and its impact on economic mobility for all Californians, are scalable across the state, and bridge the digital divide in at least one of the following issue areas:
  
  • Higher Education (i.e.: Research on the impact of digital inequity on college students)
  • Economic Opportunity (i.e.: Workforce development; equitable access to seeking, applying, and securing jobs)
  • Access to Public Benefits (i.e.: Removing barriers to government service delivery) 
  • Housing and Renters’ Rights (i.e.: Access to fair and affordable housing, protection of renters’ rights to internet choice) 

Funding Cycle Details

• We will award grants of up to $25,000 in support of initiatives that address our focus areas.
• Given the complexity of securing funding for programs and initiatives that fully address digital inequity, we welcome proposals where Spark Grant funds are coupled with multiple funding streams.
• We will not fund initiatives that provide direct assistance to students during this round (e.g. laptops or hotspots for remote learning). While we realize there is a tremendous need for this type of direct support, we are leveraging our funding to effect broader systemic change.