April 29, 2026
Acting now, while practices are still forming, is the most effective way to reduce harm to affected communities, protect organizational credibility, and prevent accountability gaps from hardening into sector norms.
The funder-grantee relationship is the largest unaddressed gap our analysis identified in AI governance for the nonprofit sector. Global regulations, intergovernmental principles, and sector-level instruments provide solid coverage at the principles level, and organizations within the sector are beginning to develop their own AI frameworks and tools. None of this architecture, however, was designed to govern the bilateral dynamics of funding relationships, and no instrument sets shared expectations between funders and grantees on AI risk, oversight, or accountability.
This is work the sector must build for itself. Meanwhile, AI adoption is accelerating unevenly, driven primarily by austerity rather than strategy. Only 8% of organizations report AI as widely integrated and only 22% have formal AI policies. Grantees face pressure to adopt AI to stay competitive for funding, without the governance support to do so responsibly.
Download the report to read the in-depth analysis and our recommendations.
