The Michelson 20MM Foundation is inviting applicants for the 2022 Digital Equity Spark Grant to support systems-level strategies with potential to create positive impact at scale and inform public policy.
Donor Name: Michelson 20MM Foundation
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 03/01/2022
Size of the Grant: $25,000
Details:
The foundation vision is to introduce a process that can fill urgent needs for education organizations that are well-aligned with the focus areas. They seek to fund highly impactful initiatives that would not be possible if they needed to wait through a traditional grant decision timeline.
Focus Areas
- Efforts that inform, engage and bring together diverse groups to elevate and take action against industry’s false narrative that improving speeds for ”underserved” communities or building infrastructure in urban areas is “overbuilding.” Said efforts must address the needs of “underserved” communities in California and address the impact that inadequate broadband has in areas that may superficially appear to be served.
- Efforts that take digital navigator models beyond basic digital literacy (device/internet use) and leverage them to help end-users connect to supplemental resources (education, health, workforce) scaled across the state of California.
- Efforts that uplift the experiences of students and their families in navigating digital inequity and highlight the intersectionality of the digital divide to affect systems and or policy change.
- Landscape analysis/literature review of existing digital inclusion resources for scaling/ translating
- Efforts that can be taken to scale across the state focused on the points of intersectionality for advancing digital equity and addressing inequities that exist in education, healthcare/public health, and civic engagement.
Funding Information
Grant ask is up to $25,000.
Baseline Grant Criteria
- They welcome proposals where Michelson Spark Grant funds are part of a larger overall project with multiple funding streams.
- For this cycle of funding, they have decided to focus their impact on organizations that are doing work in California. Organizations whose work does not impact California will be ineligible for this opportunity.
- Preference will be given to grants that cover a specific self-contained milestone focus including inflection points, things that may open up a new foothold with a partner (i.e. enabling a new partnership with a market leader), or new proof of concept.
- For this funding cycle, they will not be funding general operating expenses such as rent, utilities, server costs, etc.
- They will not be funding initiatives that provide direct assistance to students during this Michelson Spark Grant round (e.g. laptops or hotspots for remote learning). While they realize there is a tremendous need in their communities for this type of direct support, they are leveraging their funding to effect broader systemic change at this time.
For more information, visit Michelson Spark Grants.
