Hello there! 

The Digital Benefits Network (DBN) at the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University is excited to announce the release of our new report,  Digital Doorways to Public Benefits: Beneficiary Experiences with Digital Identity! 

Read the Full Report | Read the Executive Summary

We believe that in order to build digital identity processes that are truly secure and inclusive, we must first understand who is struggling, how, and why. Conducted in partnership with Public Policy Lab, this research provides state benefits agencies, community-based organizations, policymakers, researchers, and funders with an opportunity to hear directly from beneficiaries about their experiences with account creation, logging in, document uploads, biometric verification, and more. We are particularly excited to share this full report with our Digital Identity of Community of Practice!

In the report, we unpack key insights related to privacy and security challenges, access and authentication issues, user experience and support, and technology access and literacy barriers and make recommendations for building trust, improving account creation and authentication, and evaluating the use of identity proofing. 

Whether you’re a policymaker, benefits administrator, technologist, or advocate, this report will empower you to protect users' data and keep state systems secure without creating barriers that disempower people seeking help. As you read the report, what do the insights spark for your work? What new or emerging questions do you have? 

Join the Public Webinar

If you haven’t yet registered, we encourage you to sign up today to join  our public webinar on September 15 from 3-4pm ET! During this webinar we'll cover the why behind our research, how our research was conducted, what we learned, and what we recommend as next steps. We’ll make time for audience discussion and explore what further research is needed. To attend, RSVP via Zoom.

If you have any questions about the Digital Doorways research, please email digid@georgetown.edu.

Quinny Sanchez Lopez (she/her/ella)

Community Advisor, Digital Identity and Rules as Code

Digital Benefits Network

Let's book a time to chat!

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation

Georgetown University

View the Beeck Center's 2024 Impact Report