Co-op Member Scot Henley is on a mission to put a computer in every home

More than 33 million people in America do not have a computer available at home, a disproportionate number of whom are students, older adults, veterans, people with disabilities and low-income households. A Co-op member from Madison is at the forefront of a national effort to bridge that “digital divide.”

After several stints with nonprofit and corporate organizations, including nearly 10 years as the Executive Director of the Mount Washington Observatory, Scot Henley has brought his considerable energy to the role of Executive Director of Digitunity, a nonprofit that solicits donations of used computers and works with community-based organizations to refurbish and distribute them nationwide.

“We see our role as the connective tissue from the sources of supply to the community organizations that serve people in need.” Henley explained.

Over the last three years, Digitunity has generated donations of over 150,000 items of technology. Last year, it facilitated the donation of 51,152 devices across 323 communities through 131 nonprofits in its practitioner network, supporting individuals and families who lacked the technology needed for daily life.

“One in seven households in America don’t have access to a computer,” Henley said. “We firmly believe that the only way to solve this is not by going after grants to buy 100 computers and giving them out. That’s a moment-in-time impact. That’s not long term. The only way to solve it is to change the existing systems that aren’t meeting the needs of everyone. What we’re talking about is policy change, a national network of community organizations providing free or low cost devices, and influencing the corporate sector to treat their IT assets differently and to make it really, really easy for them to do it.”

That approach has led Digitunity to partner with large corporate sponsors like H&R Block, which works exclusively with Digitunity to supply secondhand computers and equipment that are still usable.

“When they close an office or if they do a refresh of an office anywhere in the country, they reach out to us and say, hey, we’ve got 500 computers in San Antonio. Can you find a home for them? And then we get to work to locate the most appropriate recipient organization,” Henley said.

Computer ownership is one leg of the stool. Full participation in the modern economy also requires digital skills and widely adopted, affordable internet service. Efforts like the Co-op’s subsidiary NH Broadband to build fiber-optic networks that provide broadband internet to underserved Co-op members are essential nationwide to bridging the digital divide, Henley believes.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to put fiber in the ground. That’s infrastructure that’s going to serve every corner of this country,” he said. “Computer ownership enables adoption of that massive investment.”

Henley returned last month from “Good Tech Fest,” a gathering of 100 leaders of tech companies, tech nonprofits and tech philanthropies. He came away with a meaningful phrase that reflects well on the relationships Digitunity has built over 40 years with nearly 1,700 organizations around the country that get needed technology into the right hands.

“Progress moves at the speed of trust,” he said. “There’s a pathway to actually solving this issue at scale, and it’s not even a far-fetched idea.”