AI Safety Fund

AI Safety Fund is sponsored by Various (e.g., The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation has supported it). This opportunity supports mission-aligned projects and measurable outcomes.

How to get funding from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation | Inside Philanthropy OVERVIEW : The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation’s grantmaking centers on AI for public purpose and supports organizations using, developing or governing AI and data to address challenges including climate change, health inequities, human rights, journalism, digital literacy and crisis response.

The foundation also supports public-interest data infrastructure, responsible AI governance and efforts to build nonprofits’ capacity to use technology effectively. Its grantmaking is global. IP TAKE: The Patrick J.

McGovern Foundation is a major technology-focused funder working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data science and social impact. As IP has reported , the Foundation and its leadership carefully think through society-wide outcomes amid the Silicon Valley race to implement AI into many facets of modern life.

The Foundation works to understand how this emerging and powerful technology can be used to aid the climate crisis and medical research, rather than increasing wealth inequality in the United States and globally.

Foundation President Vilas Dhar, a technology optimist, hopes “philanthropy can step into a new role collecting and stewarding crucial data representing the most vulnerable as a public good, ensuring that AI systems consider and serve everyone. ” This is a difficult funder to approach cold.

The foundation explicitly does not accept unsolicited grant requests and describes its grantmaking as an “invitation-only, hypothesis-driven strategic process. ” It also says it cannot respond to emails seeking funding or meetings. Grantseekers should therefore concentrate on strategic fit, visibility and relationships within the public-interest technology, AI, data and issue-area networks in which the foundation already operates.

That said, the foundation has periodically used open calls for specialized initiatives. Its 2023 Data and Society Accelerator, for example, invited expressions of interest from nonprofits worldwide, although that application period is now closed. This history makes future calls worth watching, but grantseekers shouldn’t mistake occasional cohort opportunities for a standing open application process.

PROFILE: Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation is a global, 21st century philanthropy outfit that is “committed to bridging the frontiers of artificial intelligence, data science, and social impact. ” The foundation is the legacy of IDG founder, Patrick J.

McGovern, whose legacy also includes the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. PJMF also maintains in-house technical expertise and offers resources to help nonprofits build data and AI capacity. Its Learning Hub provides nonprofits with materials covering organizational readiness, problem definition, data readiness, AI project planning, governance, model and product development, technical capacity and responsible AI practices.

These resources are broadly available and should not be confused with an application pathway. PJMF’s grants database uses a changing set of focus-area labels rather than a simple roster of discrete programs with separate application guidelines.

Current and recent labels include Climate, Health, Journalism & Media, Data as a Public Good, AI Fluency, Emergent AI, Emergent AI + Society, Solidarity and several cross-cutting or legacy categories. Grantseekers should focus less on matching a database label and more on whether their work advances the foundation’s larger goal of putting AI and data to work for public purpose.

McGovern had longstanding interests in information technology and neuroscience, but the foundation’s contemporary grantmaking is substantially focused on the social applications and governance of AI and data science.

It describes itself as a global philanthropy working to bridge artificial intelligence, data science and social impact and emphasizes ethical technology, community participation, human agency and the use of technology for public benefit. PJMF’s grants database uses a changing set of focus-area labels rather than a simple roster of discrete programs with separate application guidelines.

Current and recent labels include Climate, Health, Journalism & Media, Data as a Public Good, AI Fluency, Emergent AI, Emergent AI + Society, Solidarity and several cross-cutting or legacy categories. Grantseekers should focus less on matching a database label and more on whether their work advances the foundation’s larger goal of putting AI and data to work for public purpose.

AI, Data and the Public Good A large share of PJMF’s grantmaking concerns the development, use and governance of AI and data in the public interest. This includes responsible AI policy and governance, digital rights, human rights, public-interest data infrastructure, civic technology, institutional capacity and efforts to give communities greater agency over technological systems.

Recent grantees include organizations working on AI accountability and governance, civic information systems, shared data infrastructure and equitable applications of emerging technology.

Current grants also show support for fiscally sponsored projects, including Tabiya, which received funding to expand AI-powered labor-market tools in lower- and middle-income countries, and Resonance, which is developing civic infrastructure intended to help communities navigate the effects of AI. Grantseekers don’t necessarily need to be technology organizations.

Recent grantmaking suggests that the stronger question is whether AI or data is meaningfully connected to the organization’s mission and whether the proposed work has broader public value. Governance, safety, transparency, community participation, responsible technology use and shared infrastructure all appear in the portfolio alongside product development.

PJMF supports organizations applying AI, machine learning, data systems and related technologies to climate and environmental problems. Current grants include support for open-source carbon-removal modeling, climate-risk data, sustainable materials research and tools addressing the environmental and economic implications of data infrastructure.

Recent recipients include [C]Worthy , which received $500,000 in 2026 to build open-source modeling infrastructure for ocean carbon-removal measurement; Materiom , which received $750,000 for machine-learning-supported research on bio-based materials; and CarbonPlan , which received $500,000 for climate-risk and carbon-removal work.

Materiom is fiscally sponsored by Fast Forward, demonstrating that PJMF will fund some projects operating under established fiscal sponsors. Other recent climate grantees include World Resources Institute, Climate Cabinet, Open Earth Foundation and Stand. earth.

The portfolio favors technology, data, research, accountability and decision-making infrastructure related to climate rather than conventional conservation alone. Health is a significant current funding area, with an emphasis on AI and data applications that can improve healthcare delivery, health-system infrastructure, diagnostics, forecasting, maternal and newborn health, medical supply chains and equitable access.

For example, inSupply Health received $500,000 in 2026 to integrate AI-powered supply-chain tools into national health systems in East Africa. Other recent work supported by the foundation includes AI-enabled neonatal care, medical-demand forecasting, HIV commodity supply-chain forecasting, maternal health platforms, health-equipment support and efforts to strengthen standards for safe and equitable AI use in health.

The foundation has supported health projects in the U.S. and internationally, with substantial activity in Africa and other Global Majority settings. Organizations that combine strong health expertise with a concrete, responsible and scalable use of AI or data appear particularly well aligned.

Journalism, Media and Public Information In 2026, The Conversation US received $400,000 to expand expert-led AI journalism and public AI literacy, while Full Fact received $400,000 to build an AI Trust Benchmark measuring the accuracy and reliability of large language models when describing current events.

Other recent grantees include Poynter, American Journalism Project, Tiny News Collective, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and mySociety. AI Fluency, Digital Capacity and Education PJMF supports efforts to help people and nonprofit organizations understand, use and shape AI. Its grant database refers to much of this work as AI Fluency , which is more precise than describing the portfolio simply as STEM education.

Supported activities include AI literacy, workforce skills, responsible technology use and efforts to increase participation by populations that have historically had less access to the technology sector. Examples include programs serving young women, Indigenous communities, students with disabilities and young people learning to build or responsibly use AI. The foundation’s broader nonprofit capacity-building work is also significant.

Its Learning Hub frames AI adoption as a progression from curiosity and organizational readiness through exploration, adoption and eventual scaling. Organizations exploring PJMF should be prepared to demonstrate that they understand the problem they are trying to solve, have considered their data and technical readiness and can address governance and social-responsibility issues associated with their proposed technology.

Human Rights, Civic Life and Responsible AI Civil liberties, human rights, governance and public institutions cut across several PJMF funding categories. Previous and recent grantees include organizations working on algorithmic accountability, civil-rights advocacy, community-grounded AI policy, cybersecurity, digital rights and the social consequences of emerging technologies.

This includes support for organizations such as the Center for Democracy & Technology, Amnesty International, AI4ALL and other organizations working on the governance or social consequences of AI. In 2023, the foundation reported more than $12 million in support for organizations and partnerships advancing community-grounded, safe and responsible AI development through policy and related work.

Solidarity, Crisis Response and Community Infrastructure PJMF uses Solidarity as a broad grantmaking label for work involving communities facing crises or structural barriers. Grants have supported humanitarian response, disaster preparedness, public benefits, food systems, housing resilience, human trafficking prevention, workforce opportunity and other forms of community infrastructure, often with AI or data playing an important role.

A current example is Trek Medics International , which received $500,000 in 2026 to scale AI-enabled emergency dispatch and data infrastructure across crisis-response networks. Past grants have also supported community-driven mapping, disaster response, anti-trafficking tools and technology helping people access public benefits and services.

Because “Solidarity” covers diverse issues, grantseekers should examine the purposes of individual grants rather than treating it as a conventional program area. Neuroscience is an important part of Patrick McGovern’s philanthropic legacy, particularly through his connection to the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT .

The foundation’s website retains a Neuroscience grant archive containing support for the McGovern Institute as well as projects involving cognitive development, dyslexia, cognitive diversity and brain-computer technologies. However, neuroscience does not appear to constitute a major current competitive grantmaking stream on the scale of PJMF’s AI, data, health, climate or public-interest technology work.

Grantseekers should therefore be cautious about treating neuroscience as a standing general-purpose research program. Current health-related opportunities are more consistently tied to AI, data and technology applications. Other Grantmaking and Partnerships The foundation has several collaborations and partnerships that are constantly evolving.

The foundation also convenes Fund. AI with Fast Forward. Fund.

AI brings funders together around philanthropic investment in AI for public purpose; it should be understood as a funder convening and field-building effort rather than an open PJMF grant fund. PJMF’s Learning Hub also highlights external opportunities available through organizations in its network.

One example is the Fast Forward AI Accelerator , which provides participating tech nonprofits with a $25,000 philanthropic grant, mentorship and community. This is a Fast Forward opportunity, not a PJMF grant program, but it is relevant to organizations seeking entry into the broader public-interest technology ecosystem in which PJMF operates.

The foundation is one of the larger private foundations working in AI and technology philanthropy. Its latest available Form 990-PF, for 2024, reports approximately $1. 5 billion in assets .

IRS-derived grant data show roughly $66 million in grants across 165 awards , with a median grant of approximately $395,000 and an average of about $401,000 . The foundation’s grants database is unusually detailed and is updated regularly. The foundation’s grantmaking is international.

In announcing its 2025 portfolio, PJMF said 149 grants supported work in 13 countries and identified climate resilience, human rights, media and journalism, crisis response, digital literacy and health equity as areas of activity. U.S.-based grantees may also operate internationally, so the headquarters listed for an organization in tax records should not automatically be read as the geographic scope of the grant. The Patrick J.

McGovern Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant requests . According to its website, funding decisions are made through an invitation-only strategic process, and the foundation does not respond to emails asking for funding or meetings. Its latest Form 990-PF likewise identifies its grantmaking as limited to preselected organizations.

For existing and prospective grantees, the Foundation offers resources like AI learning modules, case studies, and more. Direct general inquiries to the staff via this contact form or (508) 203-1236. Enable JavaScript to continue This site uses JavaScript to verify your account, display articles, and provide other features.

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