Digital Equity Accelerator Participants
Meet the organizations accelerating digital equity for people in their communities
Fundacja 2do2 (2do2 Foundation), Poland
Developing IT solutions for Polish NGOs, catering to grassroots organizations, 2do2 Foundation offers cost-effective tools designed for users with limited digital skills and provides comprehensive support, including help-desk assistance, financial management training, and tailored mentorship programs. 2do2 aims to enhance its communication strategy, expand its reach, and prepare a new tailor-made IT solution for rural grassroots organizations.
Access to Success Organization, Canada
Providing unique programming, support, and resources to help scale accessibility technology (AT) and enable everyone. The Toronto-based not-for-profit organization runs ATS Labs, Canada’s leading accelerator for accessibility startups. Access to Success aims to develop new masterclasses on digital equity-focused AT solutions and create a Centre for Accessibility Innovation, an in-person co-working hub for AT entrepreneurs.
Associação Nova Escola (Nova Escola Association), Brazil
Empowering public school teachers across Brazil with quality pedagogical tools (e.g., lesson plans), self-paced courses, news articles, and other materials, delivered through its platform, free of charge. Nova Escola aims to encourage Brazilian literacy teachers to adopt technology through customized lesson plans, facilitating the integration of digital tools to improve learning results.
Associação Vaga Lume (Vaga Lume Association), Brazil
Empowering children within rural communities in the Brazilian Amazon by fostering literacy and community libraries as sharing places. After 22 years of promoting access to books and reading, Vaga Lume operates 95 community libraries, reaching more than 109,000 children. Vaga Lume aims to increase community libraries’ engagement in the Brazilian Amazon and implement two new libraries in the region.
Chapter One Canada, Canada
Using innovative technology to bring proven high impact tutoring to marginalized communities, closing the reading gap so all children can have the literacy skills needed to thrive. Chapter One aims to triple the number of children receiving its 1:1 high impact tutoring on families’ smartphones and double readership of its Global Free Library by December 2025.
Institute for Discourse and Dialogue (INDID), Poland
Providing media literacy training and educational tools for youth and educators across Poland working to improve their digital skills and empower youth. INDID’s media monitoring program engages youth volunteers to foster their critical thinking competencies. INDID aims to scale a comprehensive digital education program by training educators based in rural areas and equipping them with access to the teaching app, curriculum, equipment, and mentorship.
Jays Care Foundation, Canada
The charitable arm of the Toronto Blue Jays uses baseball to give kids a place on a team where they belong. The organization believes that baseball for development programming can play an important role to address pressing mental and physical health challenges for kids. To scale its training outreach, Jays Care Foundation is establishing a comprehensive and accessible e-learning platform that hosts modules and videos for coaches and educators across Canada.
OpenStax Poland, Poland
Publishing open access (free), peer-reviewed academic textbooks to lower the education costs for students. OpenStax Poland works to remove barriers in education and popularize access to reliable sources of knowledge on the Internet. OpenStax aims to publish and promote a free, university textbook on Nursing, with special emphasis on empowering female students.
The Trust for the Americas, Brazil
Empowering vulnerable communities in the Americas through access to technology and training in digital, technological, and life skills, while also promoting job readiness and entrepreneurial skills, with a focus on those at risk of digital exclusion. The organization aims to strengthen The Trust’s and the POETA program’s capacity to promote digital equity across the Americas, with a particular focus in Brazil.
Fundacja Rozwoju Społeczeństwa Wiedzy (Think! Knowledge Society Foundation), Poland
Fostering 21st-century competencies and contributing to the development of the knowledge-based society and economy. Think! supports young people and adults by increasing their skills and abilities, as well as focus on lifelong learning of adults. Think! aims to strengthen 4C competences (communication, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking) of high school educators and students in smaller municipalities, providing digital skills education, lifelong learning, and consulting.
Digify Africa, South Africa
Working to address youth unemployment by reaching “high potential, low opportunity” young people across South Africa and providing them vocational programs, digital skills education, and job pathways. Their solution includes Digibot, a WhatsApp Chatbot. Digify Africa reached 51,000 people (May-September 2023).
Dignity for Children Foundation, Malaysia
Providing access, education, and support for students and teachers across Malaysia to bridge digital gaps in a changing world. They have a focus on marginalized populations, including refugees, lower-income, indigenous, and stateless children. Dignity created a computer lab classroom as part of the Accelerator program.
E-Cubed, South Africa
(DBE-E³) Working with South African educators and youth. Through TeacherConnect, a WhatsApp chatbot and online community, it provides tools to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset and inspire success for young people. E-Cubed reached more than 4 million people (May-September 2023).
IIDEAC, Mexico
(Instituto de Investigación para el Desarrollo de la Educación, A. C.) Scaling Modelo Integral de Educación Digital (MIED), a comprehensive digital education model, deploying it to public elementary schools serving Mayan communities of the Yucatan. IIDEAC reached nearly 30,000 people (May-September 2023).
La Cana, Mexico
(Proyecto de Reinserción Social, A.C.) Providing education, training, and technical tools for incarcerated and released female prisoners, working to improve their social integration, and enabling them to support their families upon release. More than 80% of women in the program have increased their technical knowledge on how to use a computer.
National Cancer Society of Malaysia, Malaysia
The first not-for-profit cancer organization in Malaysia providing education, care, and support services, and aims to create an online database to enable early detection of cancer. It has a special focus on people in underserved communities including marginalized, aging populations, people with disabilities, and those at high risk of cancer. The organization reached over 68,000 people (May-September 2023).
SOLS Foundation, Malaysia
(Science of Life Studies) Creating new modules teaching digital skills, professional and personal development, English and life skills, and run learning workshops in Orang Asli and urban poor communities. The organization’s focus is on improving digital awareness and job opportunities for youth at risk of economic exploitation across Malaysia. Programs working with rural indigenous youth have increased digital literacy, safety, awareness, and accessibility.
Siyafunda Community Technology Center CTC, South Africa
Working to scale their Community Knowledge Centers by training existing community organizations and equipping them with curriculum and equipment. Their digital skills-building work focuses on unemployed youth, persons with disabilities, women and girls, and teachers and learners across South Africa. Siyafunda expanded to nine new computer hubs in peri-urban and rural communities and reached over 15,000 people (May-September 2023).
Startup Lab MX, Mexico
Scaling its Digital Transformation Program for women-led, low-income, and rural small businesses across southeast and central México, providing workshops, consulting, digital marketing material, and connecting them with capital and new clients. Equipped 100 entrepreneurs with laptops and 150 people were trained with digital skills or provided digital services through the Accelerator program (May-September 2023).
UNETE, IAP, Mexico
Working to scale its “Modelo Integral UNETE (MIU)” program, designed to eradicate digital illiteracy in Mexican public schools through hardware, training, mentorship, and more. They aim to focus on communities with large populations of older people, women, and children. Accelerator funding enabled UNETE to support three schools and 26 teachers, serving 625 students. (May-September 2023).
Douar Tech, Morocco
Helps strengthen the resilience of youth from rural and peri-urban areas, particularly women, by expanding digital access and delivering trainings on digital literacy, social entrepreneurship, and app development. More than 3,300 young women participated in the Douar Tech program or completed one of the workshops in 2023, an increase from 900 women served in 2021.
E4 Youth, United States
Engages young people who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, empowers them with digital tools to tell their community’s stories on their own terms, and levels the playing field when it comes to economic opportunities in the digital world. Through the Accelerator, E4 Youth doubled the number of K-12 students served while also adding depth to the skills and experiences of the students.
E-Stem Morocco
Provides women and girls with tools to help them pursue careers in science and technology. More than 1,000 girls have been trained and mentor, and nearly 3,000 had registered and engaged on a new digital platform supported by the Accelerator. The platform is able to reach more rural areas and, in partnership with NGOs, E-Stem is able to provide girls with first-time access to STEM program.
Fourth Wave Foundation, India
Empowers children with disabilities and special needs to find their own spaces within the education system through the use of innovative technologies. Funds and technology from the Accelerator were used toward a capacity-building program to support inclusive education for children with disabilities. Training for 800 participants across nine districts reached over 116,000 students across 391 schools.
Mobile Pathways, United States
Leverages an innovative and evolving mobile platform to uplift immigrants seeking critical legal assistance and other forms of aid on their path to equity. Accelerator funding helped build technology to retrieve and send legal case information, training partners on the technology, and data analysis. Number of people served by the platform increased from 795,000 to about 1.5 million.
Oasis Institute, United States
Expanding a new virtual platform to educate and assist aging adults as they take charge of their health and give back to their communities. Through the Accelerator, Oasis expanded a technology education program, including curriculum development and staffing. Their reach increased by 30%, reaching nearly 13,000 aging adults and benefiting nearly 70,000 household and extended family members.
Digital Empowerment Foundation, India
Digital Empowerment Foundation provides women from rural communities with critical digital literacy skills, tools to fight back against disinformation and online harassment, and the support needed to help many more families do the same. Through the Accelerator, DEF supported staffing, training, and devices for infopreneurs to provide digital literacy training.