Beeck Center Secures $8 Million Gift from Ballmer Group to Strengthen Governments’ Ability to Deliver Critical Services to Communities
The largest funding commitment since the Beeck Center’s founding in 2014
WASHINGTON, October 1, 2024 – The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University today announced that it has received an $8 million gift from Ballmer Group to support and enhance its existing work improving digital benefits and service delivery and providing hands-on technical assistance and capacity building support for all levels of government. The funding also provides the Beeck Center new opportunities to explore and incubate promising, innovative ideas to advance the civic technology field.
The Beeck Center works with all levels of government – state, local, territorial, and federal – to integrate modern digital tools and approaches, such as easy-to-use online forms and privacy-protected data sharing for less burdensome application processes, that help eligible people obtain – and keep – critical benefits and services and provide economic stability and mobility.
“We are deeply grateful for Ballmer Group’s generous reinvestment in the Beeck Center, highlighting our impressive growth and impact since Ballmer Group’s catalytic investment in 2021,” said Lynn Overmann, Executive Director of the Beeck Center. “As the Beeck Center celebrates a decade of impact, this new gift will allow us to advance our efforts in making government services more accessible and equitable for those who need them most, whether it’s putting food on the table, accessing critical healthcare, or finding stable housing. The potential impact is enormous – if every individual or family eligible for government support programs could easily access them, we could lift millions of people, including children, out of poverty.”
This new, general operating funding will allow the Beeck Center to nimbly and responsively meet the evolving, complex needs of governments and the people they serve, including:
- Providing government partners with low-barrier entry points for more effective implementation of digital benefits and service delivery
- Responding to state and local government capacity and service needs through targeted, hands-on assistance and the development of new skills
- Incubating innovation to respond to gaps, explore promising practices, and advance the civic technology field
The Ballmer Group funding is the single largest funding commitment in the Beeck Center’s 10-year history, beyond the Beeck Family’s founding gift. This latest investment builds on previous funding from Ballmer Group, which supported the Beeck Center’s early work to improve safety net benefits administration by helping governments build digital infrastructure, bringing practitioners together to share ideas and best practices, and providing technical assistance.
“Over the last decade, we’ve seen how impactful the Beeck Center’s work has been, and we’re thrilled to make this meaningful gift,” said Korey Klein of Ballmer Group. “We believe the Beeck Center at Georgetown University is uniquely positioned to deploy academic rigor with technology, data, and human-centered solutions to address critical gaps across government and ultimately improve economic mobility.”
About the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University seeks to improve people’s daily lives by helping governments utilize data, design, technology, and policy to better meet the needs of their residents. An anchor of Georgetown University’s Tech and Society Initiative, the Beeck Center works alongside public, private, and non-profit organizations to identify and establish human-centered solutions that help government services work better for everyone, especially the most vulnerable and underserved populations. The Beeck Center’s work was recognized on Fast Company’s 2023 Next Big Things in Tech list. For more information, please visit beeckcenter.georgetown.edu.
About Ballmer Group
Ballmer Group is committed to improving economic mobility for children and families in the United States, funding leaders and organizations that have demonstrated the ability to reshape opportunity and reduce systemic inequities. We focus on multiple impact areas and systems that can impact economic mobility – such as early learning, K-12 education, college and career pathways, housing, behavioral health, and criminal justice – and we support leaders and organizations that focus on undoing systemic racism and the barriers it has created. Ballmer Group is both a national and regional funder – we have a presence and invest deeply in southeast Michigan, Washington state, and Los Angeles County. Ballmer Group was co-founded by philanthropist Connie Ballmer and her husband Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, founder of USAFacts, and chairman of the Los Angeles Clippers. Learn more at ballmergroup.org.
Press Contact:
Elle O’Brien, Original Strategies
elle@originalstrategies.com
Jessica Yabsley, Beeck Center
jessica.yabsley@georgetown.edu