Major Federal Funding to Close the Digital Divide Won’t Succeed Without Philanthropic Support

If the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, or BEAD, program is to be a game changer for digital equity, grant makers must ensure government dollars go where they’re needed most. They should start by looking at the growing movement of community connectivity providers whose primary purpose is to help people meet their digital needs at affordable prices. These municipal and community networks and social enterprises are demonstrating that they can deliver low-cost, high-speed internet for all households. All but one of the 10 fastest internet service providers in the United States run on municipal or community-owned broadband infrastructure. While such providers are in a far better position than big telecom companies to reach America’s least connected communities, they have historically lacked access to the necessary financial capital. BEAD is an opportunity to inject billions of dollars to overcome those funding challenges. But these community connectivity providers need far greater support to stand a chance of competing for government dollars against big telecom. A new study from the nonprofit Connect Humanity, on whose board we both serve, found that just 0.05 percent of overall giving from large U.S. foundations went to digital-equity programs from 2010 to 2019. Now is exactly the moment for grant makers to step up their support for these efforts.

[Lynette Bell is president of the Truist Foundation and serves on the board of Connect Humanity. Larry Irving served as assistant secretary of commerce and head of the agency’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration under President Clinton. He is a board member of Connect Humanity.]