Truist Foundation in Charlotte, North Carolina, has announced a $10 million grant to Connect Humanity to advance digital equity among historically marginalized communities.

The grant will be used to strengthen the organization’s efforts in providing financing, tools, training, and network builds to eliminate the digital divide, which is likely to otherwise expand as more organizations and individuals adopt fully remote and digital work and barriers to entry deepen. Connect Humanity, a fiscally sponsored fund of the Tides Center, an incubator for progressive organizations supported by the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, will use the grant to expand existing models that increase local ownership of the internet within communities. As a result, communities supported by this investment will experience higher-speed internet at lower prices, and local ownership and operation will ensure the network benefits the community, expanding economic opportunity for all.

According to Truist Foundation, which was reorganized in 2020 following the merger of BB&T and SunTrust banks, more than 30 percent of African, Hispanic/Latinx, and rural Americans are not connected to the internet. Yet, as the number of remote jobs and new openings posted almost exclusively online increases, opportunities for good-paying jobs for low-income families, rural residents, and people of color will become harder to find.

“We're committed to ensuring communities have the resources they need to break out of the cycle of digital poverty and achieve digital equity,” said Chris Worman, the co-founder, chief partnership, and strategy officer of Connect Humanity. “This grant allows us to begin partnerships that have the potential to support at least 100 communities, improving connectivity for at least five million historically underconnected Americans and spurring roughly $500 million in economic opportunity; while creating at least 1,000 jobs in network engineering and maintenance.”

“Following previous grants and partnerships with organizations such as Internet Society, Truist Foundation understands the commitment that's required to eliminate this digital divide. Therefore, in addition to providing this $10 million grant, we've also established an ongoing partnership with Connect Humanity to eradicate this systemic injustice and allow communities to stabilize, revitalize and prepare for the future of the digital economy,” said Truist Foundation president and Connect Humanity board member Lynette Bell. “This active partnership brings the best of philanthropy and finance to this cause, providing underserviced and marginalized communities with access and training in broadband technology, which given our growing digital world, is in many ways a basic human right.”

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