Benton Institute For Broadband And Society Cause Iq

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 6, 2025, 9:20 AM

benton institute for broadband and society cause iq

© 2025 Nonprofit Metrics LLCTerms of Service and Privacy Policy Learn About the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act In the absence of federal leadership, state governments are working to ensure that every household can afford to get and stay connected. We engage in long-term planning and provide practical, day-to-day resources to strengthen the public benefits of broadband, protect democratic values, and communicate why it matters. Our articles are curated by Executive Editor Kevin Taglang who has 30 years of experience in this field. Benton provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, connecting communications, democracy, and the public interest.

The daily digest is delivered via email Monday-Friday mornings. The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, until 2019 known as the Benton Foundation, is a nonprofit organization set up by former U.S. Senator William Benton and his wife, Helen Hemingway Benton. Their son, Charles Benton, served as chairman and CEO until his death in 2015.[2] The Benton Foundation was the owner of the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1974 until 1996, when it was bought by Jacqui Safra.[3] The formation of the Benton Foundation was announced at the bicentennial banquet for the Britannica in 1968.

The mission of the Foundation was re-vamped somewhat in 1981 by Charles Benton, but it has always focused on using media for the public good, particularly for educational purposes. Since 2001, Benton is home for the US center for OneWorld.net, a global information service, search engine, and network of organizations working for sustainable development and human rights.[4] The foundation has been most famous for its championing of digital access and for demanding public responsibility by mass media. The Benton Foundation has pushed for a national broadband policy at the highest levels of U.S. government. It has also been pushing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to determine the public interest obligations of digital television broadcasters.

Finally, it has sponsored studies that suggest that concentration of media ownership in a few hands is not in the interests of the United States. In this episode of The Intelligent Community, ICF Co-Founder Lou Zacharilla speaks with Adrianne B. Furniss, Executive Director of The Benton Institute. “Our goal is to bring open, affordable, high-performance broadband to all people in the U.S. to ensure a thriving democracy,” says Adrianne Furniss. In a rare interview and her first podcast, the Executive Director of the Benton Institute discusses the current state of rural broadband in the United States and her view of how to build capacity...

The work being done by Benton and the research this famed institute relies on continue to launch what many call the “rural renaissance.” https://www.benton.org/.Adrianne Benton Furniss is Executive Director and Board Member of the... They strengthen local, state, and national leadership by providing the timely information, rigorous evidence, practical guidance, and advocacy needed to articulate and implement a broadband for all agenda. They inform and give policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and advocates information they need to advance a broadband for all agenda. They research and build knowledge by providing a body of research and best practices to guide our field’s work. They partner and engage with communities to develop strategies for ubiquitous, high-speed, reliable, and affordable broadband to meet larger community goals. And they advocate and advance a broadband for all agenda at all levels of government through policymaker education, legal and regulatory filings, and coalition participation.

The Intelligent Community Forum® (ICF) is a network of communities and partners in the business and nonprofit sectors that provides economic development, training, certification, membership and consulting services. In a century dominated by digital, our mission is to help communities build innovative, inclusive and prosperous economies and cultivate strong social connections and rich and meaningful cultures. We do it for communities large and small, in urban clusters and outlying suburbs and rural places. We believe that digital connectivity and technology create the opportunity for almost every community to develop economic, social and cultural vitality – giving them all a chance to be great places to live, work,... This Form 990 has pages in it. Cause IQ only displays the first 40 pages in our online Form 990 viewer.

To view all pages of the Form 990, download this PDF, or you can request a demo of Cause IQ to explore all that Cause IQ has to offer. We have that! Download Excel and CSV files of organization details, individually or in bulk. For multiple years worth of information, too! And benchmark client organizations to their peers. Request a demo and see Cause IQ in action!

Log in to see a complete profile, including all key personnel, structured data XLSX downloads, vendors, and organization reports. © 2025 Nonprofit Metrics LLCTerms of Service and Privacy Policy In the absence of federal leadership, state governments are working to ensure that every household can afford to get and stay connected. How states worked with Tribal Nations in the BEAD Program When the Affordable Connectivity Program ended, the question for most people was not whether to keep service but how to keep it while juggling other household needs. Many more Americans are online today than in 2017.

Digital health applications, from tele-mental health services to remote patient monitoring to health portals, have the promise of improving people’s access to health care. But in order to ensure that patients can benefit from these advances in technology, they need robust, affordable internet connections, devices, and the skills to use these technologies safely. William devoted large portions of his income and the income from Encyclopaedia Britannica stock to the support of philanthropic activities, especially those concerned with communications and education. His experience at the University of Chicago had convinced him of the importance of organized research as the essential ingredient in the promotion of a stable future world. His experience in advertising and politics had given him the confidence to commit himself to an educated and enlightened public as the base for modern democracy. Marjorie and Charles’ 62-year partnership was dedicated to public service, civic engagement, and impact philanthropy.

Their lifelong commitments and contributions to improving the lives of underserved people and communities—rooted in the Benton Institute’s values of access, equity and diversity—have supported a stronger, more equitable, and more just America. Read More about Marjorie & Charles Benton For 40 years, the Benton Institute has helped strengthen communities by advancing communications policy in the public interest while providing day-to-day support and resources to the community of people who care about “broadband for... Our work takes the long view to help envision a public interest-focused broadband policy agenda. At the core of our mission is protecting democratic values. That means championing fast, fair, open broadband for all as the infrastructure of opportunity.

It means educating people about broadband’s promise to deliver education, healthcare, economic equality, civic engagement and more. The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society launched four new research projects to investigate the complex challenges that stand in the way of universal, affordable, and equitable broadband access. These fellows are asking essential questions about how climate risk, accountability mechanisms, and our institutions and policies can impact people’s ability to access and use the internet. Dr. Jesse Andrews, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will examine the relationship between inland flood risk and broadband access among households in vulnerable communities in Nebraska. By integrating device measurements, survey responses, and spatial analysis of flood risk, Dr.

Andrews will illuminate the relationship between broadband infrastructure, environmental hazards, and social vulnerability, contributing to more equitable and resilient broadband deployment strategies. Dr. Arpit Gupta of the University of California Santa Barbara and his team are addressing issues of broadband data transparency and accountability through the Broadband Querying Tool (BQT), which extracts and analyzes data on broadband... The team’s previous audit of the FCC’s Connect America Fund (CAF) uncovered significant discrepancies: 55% of addresses certified as served remained unserved and 33% of addresses received download speeds below the FCC’s mandated 10... Dr. Gupta will expand the use of BQT to examine NTIA’s BEAD and Middle-Mile Grant programs, starting with an analysis of California’s implementation.

BQT gives communities, regulators, and researchers the tools to verify broadband claims and ensure that funds are going where they are needed most. Community anchor institutions (CAIs)—such as public libraries, schools, and nonprofits—are essential to digital equity. But how prepared are they to lead efforts in expanding digital connectivity and competency for their community members? Dr. Yeweon Kim from the University of Maryland will focus on CAIs across Maryland, assessing their strengths and structural barriers in delivering sustainable, community-driven solutions to advance digital inclusion. Broadband has quickly emerged as the most transformative technology of our generation — delivering opportunities and strengthening communities.

As broadband’s capability to transform lives and society has grown, so too has it become the driving mission of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Connecting our entire nation through High-Performance Broadband will bring remarkable economic, social, cultural, and personal benefits. In the Digital Age, open, affordable, robust broadband is the key to all of us reaching for — and achieving — the American Dream. Since the mid-1990s, the U.S. has struggled with a persistent dilemma called the digital divide — the unfortunate reality that for too many people, meaningful connectivity is out of reach. As we enter a new decade, America encounters three inter-locking challenges:

Closing the Geographic Divide. In both rural and urban areas, millions of Americans are waiting for the deployment of robust broadband networks. Broadband is advancing in some places, which is good, but the fact is we don’t have an accurate count of how many people are on the wrong side of the digital divide and where... What we know is that places without robust broadband are falling further and further behind. We cannot let where we live determine our potential to connect. Harnessing Competition.

Even in areas that are served by adequate broadband networks, consumers lack choice of providers. Without competition, consumers are threatened with artificially high prices, lower-quality service, and little innovation. We cannot let lack of choice harm consumers.

Benton Institute For Broadband And Society Cause Iq

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