New grants announcement 2020/21 - digital inclusion initiatives

It’s our pleasure to share with you our latest grantees. 

We are committed to supporting digital inclusion initiatives to move the needle towards digital equity and empowerment in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Our latest grant round sought to increase the evaluation capabilities within the Aotearoa digital inclusion community. Taking a more relational approach and emphasising whanaungatanga, we invited a small group of applicants to submit their work  in this round. Approximately $265,000 has been distributed, with priority given to initiatives from organisations with strong evaluation planning or needing to increase their evaluation capability and capacity, and kaupapa Māori organisations. 

We aim to help those delivering meaningful initiatives, design or evolve their mahi with evaluation front of mind - to share how impactful they are with themselves, us, other funders, and to those they serve. 

These grantees will all benefit from working with our evaluation experts, Standard of Proof, to continue developing a practical approach to evaluation that meets the needs of evidence-based policy makers and funders which we have been developing.

3BF Digital Tech Careers Programme

KidsCoin, $55,000

Employment initiative that retrains people with technology skills, providing income and career pathways alongside learning to design and analyse evaluation. Focus on Māori and Pasifika.

Understanding digital resilience in groups most at risk of digital exclusion

Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa, $50,000

Using evaluation framework developed with Standard of Proof to explore lasting impacts of three digital inclusion initiatives.

Improved data analytics for the Alexa library

Blind Low Vision NZ, $50,000

Creating and improving analytics and the evaluative data from library devices to understand what content is most valuable to library users and help inform decisions about future content. 

Native Industries

Digital Natives Academy, $40,000

Pilot programme for rangatahi who are wanting to explore digital tech more deeply with an eye to studying or working in the industry. 

Making evaluation front of mind for SeniorNet

SeniorNet, $40,000

Undertake an evaluation approach to the SeniorHangouts initiative, which provides a friendly and secure digital environment to inspire confidence for those who cannot take advantage of physical SeniorNet Learning Centres. 

Te Hiko Tākaro: For communities (electric play)

Gamefroot, $30,000

Train the trainers model of running Game Dev Clubs for 13-15 year olds in Masterton and Gisborne regions.

InternetNZ

Each year InternetNZ gives out community grants to provide support for community-led initiatives that extend the availability, use, and benefit of the Internet and its associated technologies and applications in Aotearoa.