Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program

Overview

The Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program is a $268 million grant program to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) for the purchase of broadband internet access service and eligible equipment or to hire and train information technology personnel.

NTIA’s Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program grant (CMC) is currently in the post award phase period, providing technical assistance and programmatic oversight of the awards.  The funding from this grant program was made on a rolling basis, awarding grants to 93 universities including: 43 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 31 Hispanic Serving Institutions, 21 Minority Serving Institutions, and 5 Tribal Colleges and Universities.  The funding received by the colleges and universities allows these institutions of higher learning to positively impact the broadband capacity of their campuses, students and faculty, and surrounding anchor communities, assisting to close the digital divide and connecting everyone in America to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet.