Around 3.7 billion people worldwide lack access to online technology and the financial, health, educational and lifestyle benefits connectivity brings. UK-based charity Good Things Foundation aims to close this digital divide.

Since 2010, Good Things Foundation has helped 3.5 million people gain digital skills through a variety of community-based education and technology donation programs. Good Things Foundation has ambitions to grow and to fix the UK’s digital divide, and the non-profit asked Oliver Wyman to help with a new operating model.

An Oliver Wyman Social Impact team spent eight weeks working on a new target operating model, technical architecture, and organizational structure for Good Things Foundation.

At the onset of the pandemic, the foundation asked the firm to support with an emergency campaign to collect recycled electronic devices and distribute them to people without phones, computers, or access to the internet.

At the same time, Good Things Foundation was reimagining its role in the world, aiming for a national advocacy role with a big mission, to fix the digital divide. For example, setting up a national device bank, to ensure everyone has access to recycled or donated technology, and a national data bank, to donate internet access to those in need.

Good Things Foundation again asked Oliver Wyman for help to develop a new operating model and digital processes, alongside a roadmap to implement it. 

The project delivered significant impact, with Good Things Foundation embracing the recommendations, and implementation has begun and will continue through 2025. Good Things Foundation has also shared the model outside of the UK with their sister charity in Australia, amplifying the impact.