For Mariama Kabia, the job never gets boring. Each year, Kabia and her team identify and provide funding, technology and support for nonprofits working to promote digital inclusion in the U.S. and abroad. The nonprofits and their missions vary widely — as do the populations they serve and the innovations they develop — and for Kabia, that keeps it interesting.
“There has never been a moment when we’ve been bored,” said Kabia, who holds the position of Worldwide Lead, Digital Equity Accelerator, Social Impact at HP Inc. “We’re always so impressed by the nonprofits that apply. Through the Digital Equity Accelerator, we’re able to identify organizations that are doing really great work and provide them with the resources to scale and amplify that work.”
The HP Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the multinational information company HP Inc. Since the Digital Equity Accelerator was launched in 2022, it has provided support for 27 nonprofit organizations in nine countries, helping them scale and expand their reach. The program selects organizations working to provide more equitable access to education and economic opportunities for communities that typically lack that access.
This year, the program will focus on nonprofits serving disconnected youth and adults in Greece, Indonesia, Nigeria and Spain. (HP is still accepting applications for the Digital Equity Accelerator through February 12; the 2025 cohort will be announced in April (see details).
“We started with a unique mission: How can we, as HP, support nonprofits that are scaling digital equity solutions?” Kabia said. “We look for great things that are happening in communities and then provide the funding, the hardware and the capacity building to take them to the next level.”
As the apparent withdrawal of billions in support by the U.S. government throws the future of global philanthropy into extreme uncertainty, what private funders can do to lean into their strengths as overseas funders takes on even greater importance. HP Inc. and the HP Foundation’s support for digital inclusion provides one case study.
HP Foundation’s Silicon Valley origin story and international focus
HP Inc. was created in 2015 when information technology giant Hewlett-Packard was divided into two companies. Founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard, who created Hewlett-Packard in 1939 in a garage in Palo Alto, are integral to Silicon Valley’s origin story. (Today, the HP Garage is a museum and displays a plaque calling it the “Birthplace of Silicon Valley.”) Hewlett and Packard both built foundations of their own: the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation are among the largest philanthropies in the country, and not to be confused with the HP Foundation.
When Hewlett-Packard was split in two in 2015, the personal computer and printer business was named HP Inc., while the information products and services business became Hewlett Packard Enterprise. HP Inc. and the HP Foundation work closely together and both participate in the Digital Equity Accelerator. The program has an international focus, but as a global enterprise with operations around the world, HP has the capacity to act both locally and globally: The company and the foundation share the goal of accelerating digital equity for 150 million people by 2030.
HP is far from the only grantmaker out there focused on closing the digital divide — big, private foundations as well as major tech and communications firms have pursued similar goals. In the U.S., that includes the Knight Foundation and corporate funders like Google.org and Comcast-NBCUniversal. When the pandemic pulled back the curtain on the lack of digital access in many communities, funders mobilized in California and cities including Chicago, Flint and Philadelphia to provide students with computers and high-speed internet so they could attend school online. And a number of funders have supported EducationSuperHighway’s campaign to bring the internet to millions of American households.
On the international front, the Indigo Trust is tackling the digital divide in Africa, Microsoft Philanthropies works to increase access to technology around the world, and the Ford Foundation’s Global Network for Social Justice and Digital Resilience seeks to enhance technological resilience and minimize risk for human rights organizations with an international focus.
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What is HP Foundation backing through the Accelerator?
The nonprofits selected to participate in the Digital Equity Accelerator each receive $100,000 in capacity-building grants, HP technology worth another $100,000, and six months of access to training, mentorship and technical support.
Choosing where to focus each year isn’t easy, Kabia said. “It’s difficult because there are so many countries in the world, of course, and so many different needs to balance. Also, what’s interesting about an accelerator program is that you’re trying to build a cohort and you want diversity. We try to make the process as robust as possible, knowing that we have limited resources so we have to make tough decisions.”
Picking out nonprofit participants is also a challenge. “We look for organizations that are solving big problems, problems that are systemic, and that, if not solved, could lead to disastrous outcomes,” Kabia said. “We want to know what problem the organization is trying to solve, what is the scale and scope, and what the effect will be if it’s not solved. And what makes that organization primed for this right now. I think there are many reasons an organization could use an accelerator, but why this accelerator? And why now?”
Some examples of past Accelerator participants include Digify Africa in South Africa, which aims to boost youth employment skills and opportunities. Nova Escola Association in Brazil provides public school teachers with access to free teaching tools and other resources, and Mobile Pathways United States helps immigrants understand the law and connects them to legal aid and other resources. Chapter One Canada works to boost third-grade reading skills, and E-Stem Morocco provides support for women and girls in that country who want to pursue stem careers.
The countries chosen this year — Greece, Indonesia, Nigeria and Spain — all have populations that lack digital skills and access. In Indonesia, for example, close to 26% of young people are unemployed and not participating in education or training programs; female youth have twice the unemployment rate of their male peers. Only 28% of the population in Nigeria uses the internet, depriving many of education and employment opportunities. And while digital access is higher in Spain, there are gaps in access and job skills in its underserved communities.
Numbers like these appear to be more the rule than the exception, as the HP Foundation pointed out when it announced this year’s Digital Equity Accelerator rollout: Only 40% of primary, 50% of lower secondary, and 65% of upper secondary schools around the world have internet access. And in Africa, only 36% of the population has access to the internet.
We can only hope that as global philanthropy comes to terms with severe disruptions out of Washington, D.C. — including around human services even more vital than digital access — progress on this front won’t also grind to a halt. Clearly, when it comes to closing the global digital divide, there is a lot more work to do.
