Trust and AI: How Open and Trusting funders are communicating about AI

Charities applying for funding have always had to second-guess what funders want. Now, with AI reshaping how applications are written – and, in some cases, how they’re assessed – that uncertainty has deepened. Do funders welcome AI-assisted applications, or will they count against you? Are funders themselves using AI, and if so, how? Alex Parker and Lara Bautista looked at how Open and Trusting funders are communicating with applicants about AI – and share what they found.

Fundraising can be a bit of a guessing game: Is this the funder a good fit for my organisation? Is it the right funding programme? What are my chances of securing funding after spending hours on an application? And this was before AI entered the fray – adding another layer of uncertainty to that guessing game. 

We’re hearing many concerns from charities about how funders might be using AI and how this might affect their chances of securing funding. Many charities are also uncertain about how their own use of AI might affect their applications. In addition, many funders are seeing substantial increases in the number of applications, as well as more generic applications, pointing to the growing use of AI applying for funding.

At the heart of this is trust. Not just whether you can trust the output of AI, but whether charities can trust funders to communicate openly about their expectations of AI use and how they’re using it. It’s also another example of where funders can embrace their Open and Trusting commitments to ‘Be open’ and ‘Don’t waste time’.

While a few funders have well-developed, organisation-wide AI policies, others include only brief statements. The statements that we found provided information on how AI may be used within grant applications and offered guidance to charities on whether and how (and how not) to use AI tools when crafting responses. Very few funders addressed how charities might use AI beyond applications (for instance, in monitoring or evaluation). 

So what are funders telling grantees about the use of AI? We identify some key themes below.

Regardless of where funders are on their journey in exploring or experimenting with AI in their work, clear and transparent communication on this would help charities and applicants to understand how AI is being used and/of how the use of AI will be reviewed. This information is crucial for supporting charities to make informed decisions about their fundraising. 

For most funders this is straightforward – even a simple “we’re not using AI in our grant application processes at the moment” goes a long way.

It’s up to all of us to use AI responsibly: funders providing advice to grantees on their use of AI should also share how they are using AI in their grant-making practices.

Below we’ve included links to the AI statements and policies of Open and Trusting members as a reference.

Some of these links are to AI policies or guidance and some direct to more general application guidance where AI use is included.