At CAST, we support social impact organisations to harness digital technology so they can be more responsive, resilient and able to thrive amid rapid social and technological change. Technology has a significant impact on communities - it shifts power, how we support and engage with each other, and how we use information. We're always looking ahead at emerging technologies and asking, what might they do for communities?
It was clear that the speed and scale of generative AI use would have a huge impact on communities and charities. Aware of the potential risks and opportunities - we saw the need to get funders thinking and talking about AI. We also saw the need for a more unified voice in how AI affects the sector.
We set up the AI for Grantmakers peer group in December 2023 as a space for funders to share experiences, build collective understanding and explore how AI was starting to affect grantmaking and the sector more broadly. We wanted it to be free to access, open, practical, and grounded in real-world challenges - where funders could learn from each other.
We began with around 30 participants, including the National Lottery Community Fund, London Funders, Sport England, Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Fidelity Foundation. The group has since grown to over 400 people from more than 300 trusts and foundations. Some members bring deep experience in AI, while others are engaging with it for the first time.
Our sessions are held every six to eight weeks online, with around 100 people attending each time. We often have presentations from funders - and participants love this and regularly tell us they are taking ideas straight back into their organisations. Between sessions, participants identify other issues or challenges and we design sessions around these topics - with speakers who bring relevant practical insight. Over time, this has led to the creation of six thematic subgroups on key areas of interest.
We've also built an online space where participants can connect, collaborate and share resources, and a experiments library where people share what they've tried. An interactive online tool helps funders experiment safely with AI. We know AI is a really emotional subject, some are incredibly fearful and others are super excited. We hope the group gives people a trusted space to process their feelings about AI together - with curiosity rather than fear.
We encourage participants take their learning back into their own organisations to test approaches. This has helped enable collective learning, reduce duplication and drive change in organisations. Funders have used the group to help update policies, develop training, and just have better-informed strategic conversations about AI.
AI is evolving faster than any of us can keep pace with alone and this group has underlined the need for collective action. We're keeping the conversation moving - deepening shared learning and helping funders translate understanding into meaningful, community-centred practice.
It's also a place for collective problem solving. For example, one funder recently faced a surge of AI-generated grant applications, receiving thousands of bids for a relatively small number of grants. Together, we explored what this meant for assessment processes, fairness, and use of AI within grantmaking, and how funders might respond in a way that maintains trust and transparency.
The group is also working to strengthen the sector’s collective voice. Some participants have taken up leadership roles in their organisations and across the sector, championing responsible use of AI. By working together, we can connect with parallel networks, coordinate responses, and in the longer term, use our position to influence government and industry. Partnerships have been important in this too. We've worked closely with IVAR and contributed to their work on Open and Trusting Grantmaking, helping ensure that practice around AI is aligned with wider efforts to improve fairness and trust in grantmaking.
The Funders Collaborative Hub has been central to the success of the collaboration. It has been a powerful channel for visibility and outreach, especially to members of the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) who might not otherwise have heard about us. Our presence on the Hub has also helped bolster our credibility, reassuring potential participants that this is a valuable initiative. When ACF highlights a space as worth engaging with, that endorsement carries real weight. The Hub has also provided a useful avenue for sharing information about events, and it has the potential to become an even more important platform for sharing resources, learning and case studies overtime.
The group’s growth has taught us a lot about collaboration at scale. We’ve learned the importance of good onboarding, efficient information-sharing, flexible tools that support engagement, and being open to continual adaptation. We’ve also used AI tools ourselves to analyse notes and themes quickly, allowing us to operate effectively with a small core team.
Success, however, ultimately comes down to people - getting the right participants involved and building trust. The willingness, open mindset and generosity that people bring to the group has been central to its impact.
AI is evolving faster than any of us can keep pace with alone. For us, this work has underlined the need for collective action around AI and at CAST, we plan to keep the conversation moving - expanding partnerships, deepening shared learning, and helping funders translate understanding into meaningful, community-centred practice. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that as AI adoption grows with increasing speed, the funding sector is not left behind - but leads with understanding, responsibility, and care.
