Pathways Forward: Learnings and Takeaways in Digital Access

Regardless of a funder’s mission, addressing the pressing concerns of digital access touches everything we do as a society. With great interest from funders with diverse missions, The Patterson Foundation (TPF) launched a series of eight funder workshops cohosted with The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. This report shares our learnings, takeaways, and resources from each Funder Workshop. Targeting data from funder workshop participation in the three essential elements of digital access: connectivity, devices, and a combination of skills, support, and literacy allowed us to understand how funders support digital access. By adding two additional areas of interest, advocacy and tech support, we gained a full picture of where funders spend their time considering investing in the digital divide. The current results reflect a considerably even level of investment in the three essential elements; connectivity (29.3%), devices (25%), and skills/support/ literacy at 30.7%. Raising the confidence in funder investment in these areas is essential.