Gates Foundation Opens $150K Grants for AI-Powered Giving Tools

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is accepting applications for its AI to Accelerate Charitable Giving Grand Challenge, offering up to $150,000 per project for organizations building AI tools that transform how people donate. The deadline is April 28, 2026.

What the Foundation Wants to Fund

The challenge poses a direct question: How might AI support charitable donors to give more and give sooner? The Gates Foundation is looking for projects across three priority areas: tools that help donors connect with causes and understand where their contributions achieve the greatest impact, systems that convert donor intent into meaningful action, and foundational infrastructure that ensures accurate and usable philanthropic data in AI-driven applications.

Grants are awarded for up to one year, with a maximum of $150,000 USD per project.

Who Should Apply

Eligible applicants include nonprofit organizations, mission-driven for-profit companies, and partnerships between academic institutions and social enterprises. The program is global in scope, though projects must demonstrate how AI tools will lead to measurable increases in charitable giving.

The Gates Foundation has a track record in this space. In 2023, it selected nearly 50 global health projects through its Grand Challenges AI initiative, and the current round builds on lessons learned from those deployments.

A Timely Opportunity for Philanthropy Tech

With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reshaping charitable deduction incentives in 2026, tools that reduce friction in the giving process could prove especially valuable. Organizations building donor engagement platforms, recommendation engines, or data infrastructure for the nonprofit sector should take a close look at this opportunity.

Grant seekers can find this and thousands of other active funding opportunities on grantedai.com. For deeper coverage of AI-focused grant programs, visit the Granted blog.