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Unbuffered explores Internet access, digital equity, and local technology solutions, but with a broader lens on how tech shapes our lives, our communities, and our sense of agency. We make technology and technology makes us.
Christopher Mitchell (00:01)
Welcome to Unbuffered. We're back at the Unbuffered podcasts. I'm Christopher Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. And today I'm talking with a very happy and smiling Samantha Schartman. Welcome to the show, Samantha.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (00:13)
Thanks, Chris. Great to be here. Great to see you as usual.
Christopher Mitchell (00:17)
Yeah, so we're gonna be talking about ⁓ a a guide that has your name all over it, has your fingerprints throughout it with a lot of great collaborators. but first I should tell us tell people that you are the Director of Philanthropic Programs at Connect Humanity. and I realize I never put this in the notes and then I always tell people, can just give us like, you know, the the synopsis of what Connect Humanity is for people that are not familiar with it?
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (00:33)
That is correct.
Sure. So Connect Humanity is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, but we are also an emerging CDFI. So that's a Community Development Financial Institution. We're on the track to becoming that. Basically, we were created to provide access to capital for broadband, for community-centered broadband projects. So we want to make sure that the people that are most interested in delivering equitable.
access and meaningful use to to communities, have the access to capital that enables those plans to move forward everywhere, not just where it's most prof profitable.
Christopher Mitchell (01:24)
And we have a history of working together, both you and I, but then more more ⁓ significantly Connect Humanity and ILSR on on some of these projects. So we're we're big fans of everything that y'all do. and now you have published the Alt Funding Field Guide, Building Sustainable Funding for Digital Adoption, which is remarkable and and just a really wonderful ⁓ contribution, I think, to where we have to go. ⁓ since we're out of money.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (01:30)
That's right.
And likewise.
Christopher Mitchell (01:54)
What do we do? We get creative. We have to figure things out. That's the subject of of this report, right?
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (01:59)
That's correct. Yes. So the Alt Funding Guide really came out of a recognition of a pattern that has been going on in the digital equity inclusion fields for a number of years, really since its inception. ⁓ and saying we have there's gotta be a better way, something ⁓ a way to sustain this work so that we're not constantly
building bridges and then falling off funding cliffs at the end and having to rebuild all over again. So the Alt Funding Guide goes sector by sector. We have six chapters, so six chaff six sectors. ⁓ I'm sure we we anticipate doing more in the future. ⁓ but we go into those sectors by thinking about the inverse of what we typically think about in this field, which is
We do such great work for the individual and the individual ⁓ social impact ⁓ of you know we helped someone get a you know get a house, get a new job, or you know right. Yes, we do all these great social impact things. ⁓ instead we are talking about what value beyond that person are we creating in the local economy? And
Christopher Mitchell (03:05)
Right, by we, I think you mean like social worker types, right?
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (03:19)
in the various sectors. So how does having people digitally and meaningfully skilled and connected, how does that impact healthcare and the healthcare in the local healthcare providers and stakeholders? How does that impact your affordable housing sector? How does that affect your local workforce sector? ⁓ etc etc and there's number of different stakeholders within those sectors. ⁓ there's different value propositions for each of those
We break it down ⁓ each chapter at a time.
Christopher Mitchell (03:52)
Right. And I think the words that we're talking about in a little bit, we're gonna go a little bit into your history, but we're gonna come back to the report and and the alternative model. ⁓ is not just basically being like, we have to figure out how to get other people to write us checks. It's it's actually it's actually more involved than that. And and I think the term co investment that comes up a lot starts to to make that case. ⁓ and so I think it's important for people to know that this report isn't just sort of saying, Hey, like a bunch of this stuff would be nice.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (04:08)
Yes.
Christopher Mitchell (04:21)
You you have guides from written by people that have been working in the in each field for a long time, and it has practical advice for how people in a community could go out tomorrow or today if they speed read and they can go and start having conversations to put some of this into practice.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (04:33)
Ha ha ha.
That's right. ⁓ we want it to be actionable. But the one thing I always want to start off with, because we got to set expectations. It's not a quick fix, right? None of this is a read the report, plug in a new concept, and all of a sudden it's raining cash, right? That's not gonna happen. These are long-term relationship development.
you know, pro opportunities that we're surfacing and allowing you to think more strategically about how you position the value of digital skills and connectivity programs to a different set of stakeholders that haven't traditionally been looked at as co-investors in the work.
Christopher Mitchell (05:22)
Right. And I think one of the challenges will be just the the ⁓ how do we bring them off the sidelines? And so that's something that we'll be talking about. ⁓ but I did want to enable label them. I'm not gonna ask you to do it off the top of your head, so I wrote it down. But the six areas in which you have poured your life into for the past year or so have come out to be currently education, healthcare, telecom, which you can think of as being like the industry around the Internet Service Providers, ⁓ workforce development, housing.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (05:36)
Ha ha.
Christopher Mitchell (05:52)
And local government. And housing is super meaty. It's one of the it's I the only two that I haven't listened to yet are workforce development and housing. ⁓ and ⁓ I'm I'm getting through those. ⁓ but I did notice that housing was the most significant
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (05:53)
That's correct.
Yes, it is. That one there's just so many different stakeholder groups and different financial ⁓ mechanisms at work within affordable housing. ⁓ everything from new market tax credits to, you know, C D BEAD G, you know, grant you know ⁓ awards and
Different actors, there's the developers and then there's the managers. So there's just so, so, so many ⁓ different aspects to the work. It it became quite a meaty sector. To be honest, the healthcare sector was pretty big too. ⁓ we I just were I think we're able to narrow it a little bit more than we were successful at doing the same for housing.
Christopher Mitchell (06:54)
Well, they're all terrific that I've heard so far. ⁓ housing could be terrible. We've had Catherine ⁓ Crago ⁓ on before and she's wonderful, but she she could have I mean, I just like to throw little surprises in here for people that listen. I don't want these interviews to go
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (07:04)
Right. I mean Catherine's is gonna be clearly horrible. No, she is phenomenal and she is
She's so brilliant in her knowledge of the sector and the way the finances work within it that it's just a lot there's a lot of density there. So and she 'cause she gives you all of it.
Christopher Mitchell (07:27)
Well and I've yeah, we've Well I've talked with her quite a bit about it. She's really helped inform my understanding of these issues. So ⁓ I can expect that I'll be I'll be seeing that when I get there. ⁓ but before we do go further into the report, I did want to ask you, you know, what what scars do you have that that you did not learn sufficiently from that you wanted to sti spend all of this time working on this? What what's your background in in coming into this?
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (07:34)
Fantastic.
Well, Chris, I know you share a lot of this background. ⁓ you know, ⁓ many of us. So I got my my biggest start. I did some community technology work prior to to the early 2000s, but really my biggest stint was working on the BTOP program. So I worked with Bill Callahan ⁓ and a number of others on the Connect Your Community program. And we were based out of Cleveland, Ohio. That's where I am.
And ⁓ we were a five-state program. It was a $19 million pro project. We worked in five states and we had 15 partners in seven different geographic areas. It was very large scale. We ended up training 33,000 first-time computer users. And I had the receipts to prove it, ⁓ unlike many of our programs ⁓ at that time, because it was not a requirement.
but we Bill and I decided that we needed to have data to start showing and demonstrating the impact of this work. So it was quite a a lot. ⁓ I there's there's that's another podcast. ⁓ but the point that I wanna drive home is that this was a major federal investment at that time. And our program
Christopher Mitchell (09:10)
Right. So I just wanted to I wanna I wanted to make sure that people knew ⁓ the BTOP program was and it doesn't really matter what the name of it was, but it came out of the twenty ten ⁓ era, the the two thousand nine bill. We're coming out of the recession, ⁓ kind of the signature stimulus bill that Obama passed, and and it funded a bunch of work for both infrastructure and in the beginning of the federal government starting to really focus on digital skills in a sort of comprehensive if temporary way, as I think you're about to note.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (09:26)
That's right.
Yes, yes. ⁓ so it was called the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. So that's that's what BTOP stands for. ⁓ it's yes, and it was actually a suite of programs, much in the way that our more current programs, BEAD, DEA, were part of, you know, one one comprehensive ⁓ infrastructure bill. So at that time, this was a what they called an SBA program, a sustainable broadband adopter.
Our job was to go out and get people connected to Internet. We did that, 33,000 of them. And to do that, it took us about a hundred staff people across those five states. We employed a lot of people. So not only was this an effort towards in increasing connectivity and meaningful use of digital resources, it was also a jobs program. And I think we often forget about that.
And so, you know, we trained people, we invested in their professional development, we built careers, we built people that cared about what they were doing. And roughly three years later, we showed all of them the unemployment line for all of their hard work. And I think that there was an assumption that if we were successful and we could demonstrate
that we did a good job and we had meaningful impact and we had the numbers that somebody would like reinvest in this. Like, hey, that we should keep doing that. That didn't happen.
Christopher Mitchell (11:11)
Right, and think Congress was the expectation, right? That the Congress would see value in appropriating more dollars most likely.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (11:16)
Right. Right. That we would create like a new line of work, that this would become something that was ongoing. That did not happen. ⁓ I'm sh I'm sure there were plenty of naysayers out there that were like, nah, I never expected that. I being one of those newly trained, you know, idealistic people, did, right? I mean, I think we all grow up thinking like if we work hard, we continue to get to do good work.
Christopher Mitchell (11:43)
Well, when you see the value of it over and over again, and mean like like you said, so in twenty nineteen you did publish a report and people can check it out to see the results, but but you knew that you were creating a lot of value. It's not like you were just pushing paper.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (11:50)
Yeah.
There's a great report that's published. You can find it online, or I can post it for for you, Chris. It's called Adoption Persistence. So we surveyed all those 33,000 people. We s we did a cross-section. It's like 450 of the same people we talked to at six months, a year out from the program, and then six years out. And I
Christopher Mitchell (12:17)
Wow.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (12:19)
Think I'm almost might be one of the only people to have actually done that with the same group of people over that long of time. Very hard to do. The reason we could do it was because of the relationships that were built with the organizations that delivered that training. And that's one of the major findings. But, anyways, I digress. The point of the matter is, is we created this work. We created and invested in people, in programs, and it went away.
Christopher Mitchell (12:25)
Yeah, no those things are very hard to d ⁓ it's very hard to do.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (12:48)
And I would say, and this is not an actual number, but like my gut check number is like our field went from, you know, these calls with all these program managers across the country and we all knew each other and blah blah blah. Like we reduced by like 70, 80 percent the entire field. Because you know, people had to go back and do other things after the the money was gone and you know, and so
It really retracted. It to me, it was awful. I was eight months pregnant at the time that I was shown the unemployment line. That was a particularly challenging time in my life. And I really have PTSD. I looked around, I saw my friends struggling. ⁓ people that wanted to continue doing the work and couldn't. And ⁓ I was I think lucky and scrappy enough.
That I dug in and I found a way to keep doing it. Meaning, like I worked part-time jobs that were not in this thing and were doing it on the side because I refused to give up. And that has turned into now, you know, over 20-year career of doing it. And I see this same thing happening. So we had DEA, right? The Digital Equity Act grant.
Right. We had this big promise and we started building programs. So during 2020, we had, you know, COVID happened, everyone realized that we needed digital skills. It was this big deal. overnight we went from, you know, the work being educating our local officials and stakeholders on why this was so important to okay, guys, go do it. And it was like a light switch. And
Christopher Mitchell (14:31)
Right. In that case in that in that case I think it was like to be clear, my sense is is like the federal government gave a lot of money to local governments and stun and state governments that filtered down and phil in philanthropy stepped in and started writing checks. And so local governments and philanthropy basically were choosing local organizations to staff up to provide these sorts of services because they recognized that people couldn't continue their lives without some basic digital skills.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (14:40)
Yes.
Yes.
That's right. Yeah. I mean, kids weren't able to go to school. You know, people were trying to work from home that never did before. Like it was just bonkers. And I think everyone looked at the digital equity field like, hey, you've been talking about this for 10 years. Like, here you go. And it was, it was also very stressful because everyone's like, we didn't expect to have a plan to need a plan this quick. So, but it was good. Like we had in in the sense that
You know, people did. They dug in, they they took the resources that were giving. We had ARPA funds, we had capital project funds money. There was just there was a wash in emergency funding that was given. And so we s stood up the field again. This is our second time now, right? And so, you know, over the years, you know, th those funds have dwindled, you know. So again, you know, we had this field and it depleted. We built it up again and it's slowly been depleting. Now, just so you know.
Christopher Mitchell (15:41)
Mm-hmm.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (15:56)
Capital project funds, ARPA dollars, those are need to be expended. They were extended for a moment and they're they expend this this year is like the last hurrah. And there's very few dollars out there that are still circulating. But what little will be over over? Well, you know, a year or t or so, year and a half, what is it? God, how long has it been? A year and a half ago. We had the digital over a year ago, the the Digital Equity Act, you know, was announced and
application started going in and no, I'm sorry, twenty twenty two that was happened. It was canceled ⁓ a a little over a year ago.
Christopher Mitchell (16:34)
Right, we thought the money would be out in the street and instead we were told that it wasn't gonna be happening. Now, we're not gonna get bogged down in that, but it since then the Trump administration has told the courts that they do plan to implement it and we will know more in December, we think. and b and one of the things that some of us fear is that ⁓ they might be not telling the truth because there is ⁓ some history of this with the Trump administration in the courts, so
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (16:38)
Yes.
That's right.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Christopher Mitchell (17:04)
⁓ we're both gearing up and hoping that we'll be able to to get back to work right, but also kind of n aware that this might be another i as as they say when you're in the tunnel, you know, it might be a train and not the other side.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (17:07)
Hoping for the best. Yeah.
Yes. So, you know, over a year ago, what is it at the last Net Inclusion conference, which is N NDIA National Digital Inclusion Alliances annual conference, which is kind of the main, you know, conference for the field of digital equity and inclusion. We all were expecting to attend that conference celebrating like this next, you know, big tranche of funding.
And work being done and more proof points to be had and to look forward to. And instead, I saw some of the same people I saw during BTOP those that were as scrappiest and still had hung on, they're now wearing big buttons that they had handmade saying, please hire me. And my heart just broke. I mean, it just was, you know, I I was immediately transported to the moment that.
Christopher Mitchell (18:06)
Mm-hmm.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (18:13)
we realized that we weren't gonna be able to move forward after BTOP And it's absolutely heartbreaking. You dedicate your life and your, ⁓ your passion to something and just to see it thrown in the trash is really hard. And we were doing it again.
Christopher Mitchell (18:28)
Well and it's not just it's not just your life. ⁓ you also you have the fact that you're working with people that need help and people that you cannot help anymore. And ⁓ and so you see that too going on. ⁓ so I wanna I wanna I do wanna transition to the hope though. And and I think it's helpful for people to better understand if we talk a little bit about ⁓ you know, this is where I think Brian Vo, your boss, I think, technically, is that right?
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (18:33)
Everyone.
Yeah. That's right.
Awful, awful. Yeah. Yes.
He is. He is the CEO of Connect Humanity.
Christopher Mitchell (18:59)
So in in chief evangelist of terms like co-investment and capital stack and blended finance and ⁓ and such things, ⁓ you know, those things to me it's sort of we talked before about the capital stack, right? The idea of like, you get money from different places that's like all sort of marching in the same direction and you line it up. Okay. But like this is a little bit different in that I feel like and we're gonna I I should say we are gonna come back.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (19:06)
That's correct.
Yes.
Christopher Mitchell (19:26)
And I'm gonna try and force you into doing more free work with me in which we'll go through these and perhaps two at a time in future shows to go in in in greater depth on the on each of the s the six ⁓ areas that you've ⁓ already worked on. But if we just try to give people a sense, like where does the money come from to do the work? And I know that this isn't the only question, but it's the one that's on top of everyone's mind. Sort of like, where does the money come from, Samantha?
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (19:50)
Yeah.
Well, I feel like I need to give you the miss the little link to get to that point, which is, you know, we saw the sadness, you know, and the buttons and the the and at that same conference, I grabbed a few people that I know had gone through it before and I said, we have to figure this out now. This is we I can't do this again. You can't do this. Like we're no, we're done. And so we started creating a a small working group. Honestly, it was just like
Christopher Mitchell (19:58)
Okay.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (20:23)
half a dozen of my closest colleagues and allies that I've known in this field for a long time. And we started racking our brain like, okay, how do we pay for this? Like how do how do we do this? And you know, who are we benefiting outside like where is the value accruing? And so that's where it starts.
Christopher Mitchell (20:40)
I hope at least one of you th hope at least one of you was thinking about robbing a bank or just committing large scale fraud in order to pay for it and and then you decided that that wouldn't work perhaps.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (20:45)
Well ⁓
Yeah, there there were a few ⁓ ideas that we we got rid of in in the bunch, but ultimately it became the alternative funding working group. This was a terrible name and it was literally just defaulted because we couldn't come up with a better way of saying it other than alternative to grant funds, right? So it's alt funding. It has stuck ⁓ by necessity, because everyone else did.
Christopher Mitchell (21:10)
And ultimately you stuck with it, yeah.
Samantha Schartman, Connect Hu (21:17)
And we still couldn't come up with anything better. So if it if you guys are if you're listening to this and you have a better idea for a title, please send it. I'm I'm open to to ideas here. But so over the last year and a half, you know, that group grew from about six people to over 150 people. ⁓ each of them representing a leadership role in
A different organization across the country. We are in almost every every state at this point. I mean, it's it's quite impressive how quickly it has grown. And it's because everyone's asking this question that you just asked me, Chris: is like, how do we pay for it? What are the ideas? And so we try to go through systematically and be like, okay, well, where are the normal stakeholders?
for for this work, the people that have shown and demonstrated that they care about it in the first place. And that's where we came up with the first set of of sectors, really. ⁓ you know, the housing, the education workforce, ⁓ telecommunications, and local government. These are the people that we normally see are sitting around coalition tables. They're, you know, in
the list of organization types that NDIA will tell you to look for when you're doing your ecosystem mapping and things like that. So we started there and I just we tried to find someone who had been really working deeply in those fields and said, okay, where where is the value accruing? And that answer is different for each each
sector for sure. And then within those sectors there's a number of stakeholders that have sometimes different value propositions.
Christopher Mitchell (23:03)
Sorry. I was just watching my mic and I was so confused that like the levels and realizing that it's on the wrong mic. It's really frustrating.
Yeah. ⁓ I'm just gonna stop for a second and pick it back up.