Funding to Bridge the Digital Divide: U.S. Philanthropic Giving to Digital Equity Causes

Analysis demonstrates that philanthropic organizations in the US have given little--less than 1% of overall giving by large foundations--to digital equity funding. Funding barriers may be overcome with greater participation of US institutional philanthropic giving to digital equity. Other key takeaways include:

• Giving towards digital equity has remained largely stagnant over the past decade
• Recent digital equity funding has largely come in the form of relatively small grants
• Climate change receives nearly 10 times as many grants as the digital divide
• The most common support strategy for funding digital equity is through programs
• Economically disadvantaged groups are most often listed as populations in need of grants
• The majority of funding by US funders goes to domestic causes in California, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington DC