Empowering Communities with Microsoft TechSpark
A local community engagement framework that brings together organizations and resources to foster inclusive economic growth.
Together, We Achieve More
Partnering for local societal impact.
Microsoft's mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more has never been more urgent or more necessary. The challenges facing the world are complex, and no one company or industry can solve them alone. That's why we activate resources from across our business and our ecosystem and work with our employees, partners, and customers to foster inclusive economic growth and maximize positive impact.
Founded in 2017, Microsoft TechSpark is a locally focused initiative designed to foster inclusive economic opportunity, job creation, and innovation. Since its inception in seven rural and remote communities across the US, more than $125 million in community funding has been secured, 3,300 jobs created, and 50,000 people have accessed digital skills.
Tackling the digital inclusion is complex and requires a strong, collective local efort. We're sharing our framework, resources and learnings so that interested community stakeholders can create inclusive economic opportunities in their communities.
Defining the Problem
Closing the digital divide
Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Rapid advances in technology are creating new opportunities, but for many, they remain out of reach.
Understanding the digital divide starts with data
Explore the data in your community
Each input selected generates an index value between zero and one for each census tract relative to all census tracts in the state. For multiple inputs, zero to one values are added together equally to calculate the total index value.
Data sources and attributions:
US Census Data: 2019 American Community Survey, Internet Service Provider data furnished by BroadbandNow, Broadband Usage Data: Microsoft Corporation: AI for Good, Code.org (2021) Compute science access report data.
Partnering in Communities Across America
Our work in communities has taught us that collaboration between government, business and nonprofit partners is the most important component of driving change in a community.
Digital Inclusion
Microsoft uses a Community Engagement Framework to create and support long-term community partnerships. This approach is not intended as a prescriptive method for program creation, instead, it is designed to be a guiding framework that community leaders ca use to shape their thinking and apply in the ways that make sense for their specific community.
