Six times in our forty-year history, Benton has invested in defining long-term policy solutions in service to our values of access, equity, and diversity and our goal to ensure that everyone is able to use the communications systems of the day. In 1989, Benton commissions eight papers to address issues that federal policymakers would face in the 1990's, which help shape early public policy strategies for the internet age.
Benton awards multi-year grants to the Campaign Finance Research Institute (now a division of the National Institute on Money in Politics) to develop a research library on Money in Politics.
The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in favor of a measure that addresses a lack of reliable high speed internet, primarily in western Loudoun, VA. As part of the county’s Emergency Broadband Implementation Plan, the county administrator was directed to apply for a Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) grant in partnership with All Points Broadband for the extension of broadband into unserved portions of the County.
Benton publishes Justice for All: A Guide to the Supreme Court of the United States for C-SPAN.
Benton awards a series of multi-year grants to protect and expand public access to vital government information by supporting "Right-to-Know" projects at the American Library Association, OMB Watch, and People for the American Way.
President of the League of Women Voters (1982-1986) and President & CEO of the Council on Foundations (1996-2005), Dorothy S. Ridings, joins the Benton Board of Directors.
Benton awards NPR a two-year grant for coverage of, and commentary on, communications and information technology issues.
Benton provides seed money for the development of Point-of-View Documentary Films (POV), the acclaimed and long-running anthology series of nonfiction programs from independent producers on PBS.
Alert to new public interest issues raised by emerging communications, Benton awards multi-year grants to the American Civil Liberties Union's Project on Computer Technology and Privacy (now the Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology) and the ACLU's Project on Information Technology and Civil Liberties.
From the start, Benton makes media education and capacity building for non-profit organizations central to its mission. Communicating in the '80s: New Options for the Nonprofit Community is a primer on new technology applications.
Benton collaborates with the Council on Foundations to produce the video, We Don't Fund Media, and the publication, How to Fund Media, to encourage and challenge foundations to support media projects.
With the conviction that an educated and enlightened public is the base of modern democracy, Benton makes an early investment in the just-launched C-SPAN and publishes Gavel to Gavel, A Guide to the Televised Proceedings of Congress. It is the first viewer's guide for the network, which televises live, gavel-to-gavel proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and, later, the U.S. Senate.
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