Connecting for the Unconnected

Each year, Rural LISC organizes and presents a multi-day Seminar for Rural LISC Partners and stakeholders. The Seminar provides rural practitioners the opportunity to gather and share challenges, opportunities, and emerging trends in the field.

8.02.2022 — LISC StoriesBlog

At our #RuralTalks Broadband Summit last month in Washington, we facilitated an important conversation about why collaboration is key to unleashing greater access to broadband and closing the digital divide.

It may sound like an industry-biased overstatement to say that the need for increased broadband access is at the heart of nearly every major issue facing Americans today. But it’s entirely true. Being able to access the Internet at broadband speeds (defined today by the FCC as 25Mbps / 3Mpbs) is currently the fuel for American success in business, education, healthcare, finance, and many other sectors. It’s also crucial to our everyday lives: it’s what allows us to easily deposit money and pay bills online, order groceries via an app, catch a ride somewhere, apply for jobs, work and learn remotely, or enjoy watching a movie in our homes.

Those of us who partner together to help improve broadband connectivity across the country know better than to take this for granted, as access to high-speed internet is still something that millions of American families lack. This is particularly the case in in rural areas, where 35% of communities do not have reliable, affordable broadband access. These unconnected communities are lagging behind.

Working to close this gap and bring about greater digital equity is a key mission for us at Rural LISC, and we know that this important work takes a village, as they say. We have formed many effective partnerships aimed at connecting unconnected communities and this collaborative approach was top of mind at our #RuralTalks Broadband Summit in Washington, DC, last month.

LISC CEO Lisa Glover hosted a discussion with Jasmine Thomas, Senior Director of the Airband Initiative at Microsoft, and Lynette Bell, President of the Truist Foundation, both of whom are helping to nurture innovative community solutions pertaining to broadband.

Here are four key insights from the discussion with Thomas and Bell about how partnerships can help us get to the end goal of shrinking the digital divide. (To watch the panel discussion in full, click here.)

Collaboration is key

In the broadband space, it’s increasingly clear that partnerships between nonprofit organizations, community foundations, banks, government agencies, and technology companies are the only way to effectively address these issues. Each organization working in this area has its own focus and priorities, but the collective impact is what really moves the needle, said Truist Foundation’s Bell, kicking off the keynote chat. “We need partnerships and collaborations to build the right resources and tools to help address these systemic issues,” she explained, adding that she’s particularly keen on working with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), "who are real innovators in this space."

At Microsoft, Thomas explained, the key partnership focus is on “being strategic about our collaborations and alliances to expand and maximize the resources available to support greater connectivity and communities across the country.” Thomas, who directs Microsoft’s ambitious Airband Initiative said she is “excited that the collaboration with financial institutions and other corporations can really be brought to bear in this broadband conversation.”

Partnerships should address more than just access.

Improving access to broadband in underserved areas is only one part of the digital equity picture. Bell and Thomas both underscored that point, defining a full spectrum that includes the following components:

Reliable, affordable broadband connections
Access to digital devices & equipment
Support for digital literacy
Digital skilling
Job creation

“Digital equity literally means: How do we make sure that [the internet] is available at broadband speeds and is affordable in communities with accessible digital skilling, that are also supported at a state and local level?” said Thomas. At Microsoft, she added, “we look to make sure that we’re funding and supporting not just the connectivity, but also the digital literacy and the digital skilling to really expand people’s abilities to conduct their basic transactions and their daily lives” through digital tools.

In addition, Thomas noted that true digital equity should also result in the support or creation of jobs that stay local to the community. She pointed to a recent $10 million grant from Truist Foundation that will improve connectivity for at least 5 million historically underserved Americans across the country and is also helping to create more than 1,000 network engineering and maintenance jobs. “So not only is it increasing the broadband access, but it’s also providing that digital economic mobility that’s needed to help people move up in their current situation and earn a living wage,” she explained.

Infrastructure needs to be physical and human.

In our world, we spend a lot of time thinking about the physical infrastructure that’s needed to strengthen rural connectivity, but Thomas stressed the importance of the human infrastructure and the skills that are needed to adapt to online capabilities as well.

“Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more… using technology as the thread,” said Thomas. That mission, she explained, includes funding initiatives that provide educational and economical support to people in historically underserved communities so that they can, in turn, contribute to making improvements in their communities.

The outcomes are even more powerful than you think.

As we at Rural LISC have seen many times, communities given greater access to broadband reap many benefits. While some of the gains from the improved connectivity are obvious, Thomas and Bell stressed that the ancillary and eventual outcomes of getting on a path toward digital equity are even more powerful.“It’s really thinking about social return as well as return on investment and putting that stake in the ground about what good investments look like and deliver,” Thomas said.

“It’s really thinking about social return as well as return on investment and putting that stake in the ground about what good investments look like and deliver.”

— Jasmine Thomas, Microsoft

Those “good” investments lead to incredibly powerful outcomes for rural and underserved populations, including:

Generational wealth / pathways for economic mobility
Thriving small businesses (particularly BIPOC-owned)
Improvements in the everyday lives of people in the community
Job creation

After all of our conversations at the #RuralTalks Broadband event, it’s clear that the path to digital equity is going to be paved by collaboration. It needs to be at the heart of all the policies, practices, funding, and programs we put into place in service of this achievable goal.

As an active change agent in this fight for digital equity, Rural LISC seeks to develop partnerships and investment opportunities that build community capacity, drive stakeholder engagement and yield successful outcomes. By pursuing partnerships with organizations like Truist, Microsoft and others, we have been able to identify connectivity gaps and help underserved communities gain affordable internet and device access, leading to broad community and economic development. Our recent success bringing $14 million in Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) broadband infrastructure grants to south central rural Virginia, for example, shows that delivering access, adoption and opportunity across rural America is more than just a aspiration.

When we lean in together, we can get this done.

If you’re interested in making your philanthropy dollars go further, reach out to discuss partnership with Rural LISC. We’re the human infrastructure powering digital infrastructure forward.