Learn more about our efforts.

TECHdotMN was launched in January 2010 with an ingrained commitment to donate time, money and energy towards initiatives which increase digital literacy skills for Minnesota’s youth. Inspiration was grounded in the desire to create a measurable, cost-effective and scalable solution to a real problem facing Minnesota’s economic future: the urban digital divide.

The digital divide threatens our youth, our tech industry and our economy overall. An understanding and application of modern communication tools, information access and online community involvement will only happen through greater adoption. While it's hard to quantify the exact number of digitally illiterate students metro-wide, we know that there are at least 4,000 homes with school-age children that lack access to the Internet in the Minneapolis Public Schools district alone.

For the past year, we worked diligently to develop a curriculum and system for resolving this problem on a one-to-one basis. We are fortunate to have these great organizations join our efforts:

1. Project for Pride in Living: PPL’s mission is to work with lower-income individuals and families to achieve greater self-sufficiency through housing, employment training, support services, and education. PPL is a 501(C)3 nonprofit.
2. CTEP AmeriCorps: CTEP helps recent immigrants and low-income communities in Minneapolis and Saint Paul use technology to better access social, civic, educational and economic opportunities.
3. Mobile Citizen: This Denver-based organization provides high-speed WiMAX mobile broadband service exclusively to education and non-profits at low cost.

Together, we've pooled our resources and combined our experiences to craft a replicable approach. We've tested the program with seven students and their families, and proved that we could help them become digitally citizens for $1,000 per participant.

Now it’s time to scale. Join us, and let’s make an investment into our future.

How the money is spent...