National Digital Inclusion Alliance

Seven Star Communities is a new initiative to honor and celebrate Native nations accomplishing digital inclusion work. The Seven Star Communities program hopes to highlight outstanding work, and also provide an opportunity for Native nations to learn from each other. The application for Seven Star Communities 2024 will open towards the end of August. Seven Star Communities are Tribal governments, Native entities and organizations that are working toward digitally inclusive communities.

On July 24, 2024, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration published the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Competitive Grant Program. The Competitive Grant Program is the third (and final) set of funds available from the

To help millions of households navigate and evaluate low-cost internet plans, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) created a new rating system to evaluate a plan’s affordability and quality. NDIA GIG (Grading Internet for Good) reflects lessons from the Affordable Connectivity Program that contributed to the program’s success and evaluates plans on cost, transparency, speed, performance, and eligibility criteria. We’ve also updated our Honor Roll of Low

This is the third in a three-part series about the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program announcement from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

In 2020, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) convened a group of digital inclusion practitioners to establish a definition for the term “digital navigator.” The term described a model for digital inclusion built upon years of similar work, tailored for the new realities of the time.

Well, folks, the day we’ve been waiting for is finally here—the Digital Equity Act funds are finally making their way to communities around the country to support digital inclusion work on the ground.

Michigan is once again leading the country with its innovation. This time, however, the innovation isn’t new technology—but a funding strategy that would catalyze new technologies, and ensure access to jobs, healthcare, education, and government services are available and accessible in perpetuity.

The release of the State Digital Equity Capacity Grant Program Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) on March 29th triggered the countdown for the Digital Equity Competitive Grant Program. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) mandates releasing the Competitive Grant NOFO within 30 days of the first Capacity award, so we expect it by late summer/early fall 2024. We will not know all the specifics until the NOFO is released.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance has warned policymakers about digital redlining, a discriminatory practice that prevents certain populations from having internet access, since 2017. Thanks in part to these warnings and advocacy efforts, the creation of digital discrimination rules was mandated in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Digital Inclusion Coalitions have long been critical to creating robust and sustainable digital equity ecosystems. They collaborate to pool together resources and capacity to make things happen that one individual or organization alone could not do. Coalitions exemplify the spirit of our digital inclusion community because they represent the unique values and perspectives of the residents of their hometowns, regions, and states. But the efforts and outputs of Digital Inclusion Coalitions may not be known outside of their direct impact locally, let alone outside of the digital equity space.