How Can I Find Technology Funding?

Try the following resources:
Upcoming Deadlines | Software | Hardware | In-kind | Cash

This collection of nonprofit support opportunities with a national scope will help your organization get the technology resources it needs.

• Before you apply check out these recommendations compiled by NPower: Technology Fundraising Resources.
• Enabling Technology Funding: Issues for Grantmakers (and Grantseekers), from IT Resource Center, outlines how and why technology should be built into nonprofits' approach to funding and into grantmakers' expectations. This document also includes models for proposals and guidelines.

Upcoming Deadlines

• Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) has opened a new grant round. TOP seeks applications that demonstrate innovative uses of digital network technologies in underserved communities.

Discounted Software

• CompuMentor's Software Program provides high quality software to schools and nonprofits nationwide at significantly reduced cost.
• Gifts In Kind International provides quality products and services to nonprofits around the world, including hardware and software.

Recycled Hardware

• Computers 4 Kids donates refurbished computers to schools and nonprofits mainly in the northeast.
• Computers for Learning provides surplus Federal computer equipment to schools and educational nonprofits.
• Computer Recycling Resource List maintained by Philanthropy Journal.
• PEP, an informational site for parents, educators and publishers of children's software, maintains a national directory of Computer Recycling programs.
• The National Cristina Foundation donates used computer equipment to nonprofits in need.
• Share the Technology connects potential donors with organizations seeking computer equipment through a national computer donation database.

In-Kind Contributions

• Conservation Technology Support Program awards hardware and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to conservation organizations.
• Environmental Support Center subsidizes training and donates hardware and software to environmental organizations. See also their Lotus Software Donation Program.
• WebLab, with support from the Ford Foundation and PBS, is a new approach to technology funding (specifically Web site building), following a book-publishing approach rather than direct grantmaking.

Hard Cash

• AOL Time Warner Foundation provides grants to programs that address civic involvement, the digital divide, interactive education and rural telecommunications.
• Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation seeks programs and projects that exemplify innovation.
• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helps community organizations and libraries increase their access to and use of communications technologies.
• IBM Philanthropy makes funding and expertise available primarily for K-12 education initiatives.
• Markle Foundation promotes lifelong learning and informed citizenry through innovative uses of media and communications technology.
• Microsoft supports higher education, youth programs, nonprofit technology solutions, public libraries and the creative community to create greater access to information technology in disadvantaged communities worldwide.
• Progressive Technology Project awards grants to support the efforts of nonprofits using technology to achieve their goals.
• RealNetworks Foundation funds programs that make innovative use of the Internet to promote free speech, enable technology access for underserved communities, or enhance the quality of life in specific geographic regions.
• The Technology Opportunities Program (TOP), formerly TIIAP, is a grantmaking arm of the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Their annual grant round tends to accept applications in the early part of the calendar year.
• The U.S. Department of Education's Community Technology Centers promotes programs that demonstrate the educational value of technology in urban, rural and economically distressed communities.
• The U.S. Department of Education's Technology Innovation Challenge Grants is a very competitive grant program (it makes only about 20 grants each round) to support teacher preparation and professional development efforts that integrate educational technology into curriculum.
• The newly established Verizon Foundation provides grants as well as in-kind donations, volunteers, Internet training and Web hosting services to qualified nonprofits.