Digital Equity Spark Grants

Digital Equity Spark Grants is sponsored by Michelson 20mm Foundation. Supports California organizations pursuing systems-level digital equity initiatives addressing digital discrimination, broadband policy advocacy, and digital equity’s effects on economic mobility.

Spark Grants - Michelson 20MM The Spark Grants platform is an innovative just-in-time grantmaking process that enables organizations aligned with our focus areas to receive funding within weeks. This rapid funding approach supports initiatives that would be impossible under traditional grant decision timelines. The Student Basic Needs Spark Grants funding cycle is closed.

We look forward to announcing the Spark Grant recipients in August. Check back soon for more information about our next funding cycle: Digital Equity! We support systems-level strategies that can create impact at scale and inform public policy.

We prioritize demonstrating the viability of groundbreaking ideas, seeding innovative initiatives that are still in the proof of concept phase. We are committed to advancing or declining an LOI within one week of when the call for proposals closes. Grants are awarded within six weeks of the call for proposals closing.

In the spirit of acting quickly, grants are reviewed on a rolling basis. Below is a rough timeline of when each cycle’s call for proposals opens: Open Educational Resources (Q1 of 2026) Student Basic Needs (Q2 of 2026) Digital Equity (Q3 of 2026) Smart Justice (Q4 of 2026) For our Spark Grant cycles, we generally focus our impact on organizations doing work in California.

Organizations whose work does not impact California are likely ineligible, but please review our call for proposals each cycle.

Faculty Professional Development Bootcamps on OER Supporting Workforce Development for Formerly Incarcerated Individuals in Forestry and Firefighting Careers Educating Decision Makers on How SNAP Benefits Help Students Meet Their Basic Needs Healing and Justice Center Supporting Justice-Impacted Parents Through Trauma-Informed, Healing-Centered Programming Launching the California Justice Leaders Postsecondary Pathways Program (CJLP3) Expanding their Returning Relatives program to reduce incarceration and promote community healing Local Bandwidth Speed Tests to Inform State Policy Implementation Analysis of California’s $6B Broadband Investment Through SB156 Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition Building a Student Coalition to Combat Automatic Textbook Billing U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund Study Revealing the Limited Choice and Uncertain Savings of Automatic Textbook Billing University of California, Irvine LIFTED Piloting the First UC Degree-Granting Program in Prison Student-Led Research Ensuring Effective Implementation of California's Investment in Community College Basic Needs Centers