It is increasingly clear to us that informed adoption and worthwhile use of AI will require stronger connection between excellent funder practices, better knowledge sharing to inform charities’ practice, and a louder voice for civil society in conversations about AI that affect communities. To contribute to this, we’re delighted to announce that we’re joining forces with The Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR) to strengthen lines of communication and connection across and between charities and grantmakers - with the ultimate aim of empowering more confident, robust and well-informed responses to AI across the board.
As Kamna Muralidharan, Chair of Trustees, IVAR and Gaia Ines Fassò, Chair of the Board for CAST, explain:
“At IVAR and CAST, we recognise the operating environment for charities at the frontline of multiple crises we face is incredibly challenging. Our work centring charities exposes how important the funding experience is to progress on social change. This collaboration is a response to what we can see as an emerging need and to mitigate against charities’ voices being left out of influencing how both they and grant makers shape, use and are shaped by AI.”
Both our organisations have a focus on building the capacity and capability of the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector, particularly working at the interface between charities and funders. IVAR’s ‘Open and Trusting’ community of 150 grant-making organisations are already signed up to eight commitments to make flexible funding the norm. There is a really strong overlap between these commitments and the practices needed to support charities to develop their capacity around AI - as such, over the coming months we’ll look to strengthen connections between this network and CAST’s AI in Grantmaking peer group, comprising 200 people from 150 Trusts and Foundations.
This partnership builds on our earlier work together: Start somewhere: making technology imaginable and usable for small voluntary organisations, and comes at a time where there is increasing urgency in creating more collective responses to AI. So, working together over the next few months, our focus will be to:
- Capture stories/insight from CAST’s Digital Leads Network (DLN) so that charities (and smaller charities in particular) are supported to adopt/adapt and use AI
- Capture insight into what helps and what hinders informed adoption and worthwhile use of AI
- Share stories/insight within and between the DLN and the AI for Grantmakers peer group, to inform each other’s practice
- Feed insight from both groups into the Charity AI Task Force.
It’s vital that funders have a wide-ranging view of the most current AI needs, priorities and achievements within the charity sector - but this up-to-date picture can often be lacking. Surveys and other such metrics can report the quantitative data, which is undeniably useful - but real-life, in-depth human experiences can be challenging to identify and time-consuming to capture. Through this new collaboration - supported through IVAR’s Research Development Fund - we’ll be using our respective skills and experience to fill this knowledge gap, by capturing and sharing stories and practical examples, so that charities are informed and inspired to experiment safely with AI. And in order to create a continuous feedback loop, we will share developments between funding groups and charities, where agreed and feasible. Naturally, no confidential information will be shared at any stage; nothing will be shared without permission, and all data protection regulations will be adhered to at all times.
We invite charities and funders to join the conversation, even if you’re unsure about where you stand with AI. In fact, if you’re hesitant about AI we’d love to hear your reflections as we’re keen to capture the full spectrum of experiences of AI. You can get in touch via [email protected] and / or [email protected], or join one (or more) of our peer networks: IVAR’s ‘Open and Trusting’ funder community; CAST’s AI in Grantmaking peer group or the Digital Leads Network. For more information about the AI in Grantmaking peer group, take a look at this introductory session, recorded in March 2025.
We’ll be sharing more opportunities for you to get involved over the course of this year.