December 2019 Newsletter

This newsletter contains information on:

Partner Profile: Computers 4 Kids

For 13 years Computers 4 Kids in West Sacramento, California has been recycling, refurbishing, and repairing computers. Through dedicated volunteer time and talent, they  have distributed over 2000 computers. They became a PBDD partner in 2015.

Maryanna Milton recently spoke with Kristin Winters because we were curious to hear how their work has been going. Very often smaller non-profits do tremendous work with very few resources and a few very motivated volunteers/part time staff. Computers 4 Kids is no exception. Click here for our full partner profile of Computers 4 Kids

Plans for Portland in April, 2020

There is a lot of planning going into events around digital inclusion which will be taking place in early April in Portland, Oregon.

  • Net Inclusion 2020, held April 7-9,  welcomes digital inclusion community practitioners, advocates, academics, Internet service providers, and policymakers to discuss:
    • local, state and federal policies and policy innovations impacting digital equity,
    • sources of financial and programmatic support of digital inclusion programs,
    • and digital inclusion best practices from across the country.

Net Inclusion will begin Tuesday, April 7th with workshop events in the morning and Digital Inclusion Site Tours in the afternoon. The Site Tours are included in the cost of registration of Day One. Wednesday, April 8th will be a full day of interactive sessions. Thursday, April 9th will be a half-day of interactive sessions and will conclude at 1:00 PM. Click here to register.

  • The Alliance for Technology Refurbishing and Reuse (AFTRR) Annual Meeting takes place on April 5-7 in Portland. AFTRR members meet, share, and learn from fellow nonprofit refurbishers. Admission is free. Partners who refurbish equipment are encouraged to join AFTRR and attend the meeting.
  • PBDD will be hosting a Digital Inclusion Passover Seder on Wednesday April 8 starting at 5:30. This seder will be non-traditional, interactive and creative.
    We will be reinterpreting the traditional rituals and symbols within the context of digital inclusion and looking at digital inclusion through the framework and traditions of a Passover seder. For example, the hardships imposed on us by the Pharaoh could include lack of Lifeline for Broadband and auctioning of EBS Spectrum; the seder plate will include items that represent aspects of digital inclusion or exclusion. If this interests you, please contact us. You do not need to be Jewish to attend. Space is somewhat limited, and we need to plan so please sign up as soon as you can, with a final deadline of Wednesday, April 1, 2020. There is no cost to participate.

Reminder about MAPPINGS.

We still have a funds available for the MAPPINGS program,  a funding initiative for busy agencies. Thanks to the Jack & Lucy Rosenberg Donor Advised Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation, we have available funds for a limited number of $500 grants. The application is an electronic postcard via web page form or email. Our goal  is to provide our smaller non-profit partners the incentive and opportunity to ask themselves what they can do to better provide digital inclusion services within their communities.

Just tell us in ONE or TWO sentences: What could you do with an extra $500 to help bridge the digital divide.

Two partners have already received grants and are moving forward with implementation, so don’t delay.

Upcoming Experience Papers

Early next year, PBDD will be requesting input for our next experience paper focused on digital inclusion training. Keep an eye out for it in your email, and if you have questions you’ve been struggling with, please share them with us, and we’ll work on incorporating them.

And for those partners involved in computer refurbishing, do you have experiences or suggestions for dealing with loss of income from recycling? If so, we would love to hear from you.

An end of year fundraising story- our letter to donors

We had the opportunity to send an unusual letter to our supporters this year, which was sent with the subject line “Are you sitting down?” Following is an excerpt, which I share with you in the hope that you too will be able to send such a letter.

As the end of the year approaches and giving Tuesday approaches, I wanted to thank you for your past support of Partners Bridging the Digital Divide, share with you an update on PBDD, and (this is the surprising part) will not be asking for donations.

PBDD has continued to grow and thrive through 2019.  We now have three dozen partner agencies across North America and have continued to grow the resources on our web pages. We participate in the national discussion about digital inclusion, and have started initiatives to assist our partner agencies in participating in the national discussion and in enhancing their programs.

Last year, we provided scholarships to help our partners participate in the Net Inclusion Summit, and introduced MAPPINGS, a program to provide $500 grants to our partners to try out new things.

For your past support in helping us do this work, we are grateful. We recently received a significant grant from Capital One, so while we ask you to keep us in your thoughts, we will not be making an appeal for contributions this year.