Early in 2020, as COVID took hold across the country, many school districts were forced to educate children remotely, and distance learning quickly became the norm. While the City of Poughkeepsie School District had already been in the early planning stages of providing Chromebooks to every student, they were not financially prepared, in March of 2020, to immediately purchase all 1,500 devices at a cost of over $500,000.

Learning of this need, the Poughkeepsie Alliance immediately offered to assist in the effort and raised over $62,000, which it donated to the Poughkeepsie City School District in July of 2020, to be used toward the purchase of Chromebooks for all students.