A Round-up on Artificial Intelligence: Questions and Resources for Philanthropy and the Nonprofit Sector
Philanthropy faces key questions about AI, from who is shaping AI in philanthropy to ethical questions about where the money is coming from and what strings come with it.
What is evident is that AI is here now, and the field seems behind. The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) found that only 11% of funders provide any AI implementation support to nonprofits. Three-quarters of nonprofit leaders say none or very few of their funders understand their AI needs. Funders are not much better equipped themselves: nearly two-thirds of foundations say few or none of their staff have solid AI knowledge. And it seems that equity is being left behind (CEP reports over 80% of nonprofits aren't taking part in any activities to advance equitable AI).
Questions are also emerging about the impact on jobs and the economy, safety issues related to AI, and how donors are changing the way they give.
At a more practical level, AI is changing grantmaking itself. Some funders are using AI filters to screen grant applications, and funders are split on AI-generated applications: some won’t accept them, others will, and the majority are still undecided.
All of this is happening while nonprofits are under severe strain.
Nonprofits are asking more practical, inward-facing questions than funders. They center on whether AI is paying off, how to govern it, how it affects trust, and what it means for their staff and the people they serve. Other key questions concern disclosure: what to tell donors about how they are using AI.
I’ve been reading about employees’ fears of being replaced by AI, but I haven’t found anything pointing to evidence of a widespread impact yet. Meanwhile, nonprofit leaders seem more concerned about the capacity to understand and implement AI usage. Much of the use that nonprofits report seems informal, such as researching questions, with few building AI into their programs. How is the field going to move from using AI to draft emails to using it to change how the work gets done?
Layer onto these issues another question: How do we govern the AI we are already using? NTEN and Bridgespan issued a report in September 2026 on adoption and governance, sharing that nearly half of nonprofits have no formal AI governance policy and even fewer have had formal AI training.
No surprise that at this point there are more questions than answers. With help from AI itself in finding information and sources for this article, I’ve compiled this list of resources on the topic of AI for funders and nonprofits:
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