What These Three Funders Can Teach Philanthropy About Funding Nonprofit IT

While reporting on the Technology Association of Grantmakers’ new guidelines for funding nonprofit IT earlier this year, I couldn’t help but ask outgoing TAG Executive Director Chantal Forster which funders are doing solid work in the field right now. Without hesitation, Forster said that in her view, three foundations — the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation — are on the “front lines” of supporting grantees’ IT needs.

But what, exactly, does it mean to support nonprofit IT, especially considering the huge range of potential needs that could refer to? Some nonprofits may not even have modern computers, while others need funds to pay for their cloud subscription services, and yet others may have those issues covered, but instead require the tools and training to adopt AI applications to streamline their ability to provide services.

When I started reporting about funding for nonprofit technology in 2021, I quickly got a sense of how varied funder approaches in this area could be. While both foundations I covered at the time agreed on the importance of dedicated IT funding, the Shavlik Family Foundation required its grantees to do their own extensive research before writing a check to cover IT costs, while the Pierce Family Foundation sent its chief technologist to grantees’ offices, equipped with his own thumb drives, to do everything from backing up data from nonprofits’ ancient computers to ordering computers and other hardware and software on the spot.

Likewise, a quick look at the three foundations Forster cited also reveals a variety of approaches, all of which could help inform funders that are considering either starting, or building upon, nonprofit tech support programs of their own.

Nonprofit IT funding, diverse funders and three paths in

Despite its Silicon Valley roots, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation isn’t primarily known for IT and tech funding – though its Cyber initiative awarded $20 million in 2022 to “cultivate a field that develops thoughtful, multidisciplinary solutions to complex cyber challenges and catalyzes better policy outcomes for the benefit of societies around the world.”

When it comes to supporting nonprofits’ tech needs, though, that money comes from a different (and highly appropriate) source: Hewlett’s own IT department, which awards roughly $100,000 a year through its special projects budget. The fund’s 2023 grantee, Fast Forward, is dedicated to helping emerging tech nonprofits get off the ground and running.

While Hewlett’s Cyber initiative and its giving via its IT department are just two programs within a larger foundation with numerous other focus areas, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation’s priorities might be most simply described as all tech, all the time. McGovern, which reported $1.6 billion in net assets in 2021, aims to bridge “the frontiers of artificial intelligence, data science and social impact.” Those may sound like esoteric goals, but the funder is also aware of the down-to-earth, day-to-day IT needs its grantee partners face.

McGovern’s president Vilas Dhar said that the foundation’s support spans general operating grants, technical support and “learning resources, accelerator programs, access to technical experts, and grants that provide access to devices, data access and cloud storage, machine learning and computer resources.” Dhar stressed the wide variety of work that McGovern’s support of nonprofit tech makes possible, including digitizing paper records, hiring software engineers and paying for cloud infrastructure to help nonprofits afford for their own AI products and tools, and even making it possible to raise more money from donors.

I couldn’t help but notice that these grantmakers aren’t operating in one small “tech” or “IT” funding niche. Rather, their missions and overall work cover a lot of ground. Hewlett is a multiprogram funder that wants to help “ensure that everyone has a meaningful opportunity to thrive” by backing several areas including climate and pro-democracy work. McGovern is all about an optimistic view of the potential for tech and data science to improve social conditions. Meanwhile, the third funder Forster cited, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, focuses on preparing people for success in their jobs and careers to enable them to achieve financial stability, upward mobility and economic prosperity.

Kauffman jumped on the nonprofit tech bandwagon a few years ago, according to Director of Technology Donell Hammond, after the COVID-19 pandemic alerted the foundation to the “critical technology requirements of low-income families, students and aspiring entrepreneurs.” Kauffman, which reported $2.4 billion in net assets in 2021, has committed $500,000 in the past year and a half to work like developing tech strategies for nonprofits and providing reliable internet access to students and families. Some of Kauffman’s nonprofit IT funding reminded me of the Pierce Family Foundation’s hands-on efforts in this area — specifically its “PCs for People” program, which provided laptops and computer hardware, and its work to install Google Fiber and set up computer labs in learning centers.

Kauffman, which isn’t currently accepting grant applications while it reorganizes under new leadership, didn’t directly answer my question about whether it’s committed to continuing its support for nonprofit IT needs. Instead, Hammond said, “We understand that technology barriers continue to be a significant issue, and we are dedicated to finding effective solutions that align with our mission and the needs of our community.” But whether or not this funder’s next moves align exactly with what has come before, the fact that it obviously understands that IT is integral to the kind of work it seeks to fund is cause for optimism.

Everyone’s a tech funder, whether they know it or not

When I asked TAG’s Forster for her perspective, she said something that struck me as both fundamentally true and so obvious that it’s almost certainly something that a lot of people (and funders) are completely overlooking: “Being a funder in 2023 means you're inherently a technology funder, whether or not your organization acknowledges this.”

Tech and IT platforms are crucial to most nonprofits’ day-to-day functioning, whatever their mission and whoever their funders. And every foundation that provides general operating support, for example, is almost certainly helping to fund its grantees’ IT needs. Forster’s frontrunners Hewlett, McGovern and Kauffman — which, again, are not narrowly IT-focused in terms of their missions and overall funding — have leaned into the role. As Forster put it, “Holistic funders are piloting multipronged tech funding programs that invest in a nonprofit's operational effectiveness behind the scenes, not just the obvious front-facing, program-related tools.”

What’s the bottom line? Funders’ money is already being spent on nonprofit IT. Now they need to ask themselves two questions: Do they want to see that money spent effectively, and are they willing to fund more proactively, beyond and in addition to providing general support, to make that happen? If so, these three foundations (and they're not the only ones) are good examples to keep in mind.

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