Ten Foundations Pledge $500M to Shape AI Around People, Not Profit

A coalition of ten major U.S. foundations has committed half a billion dollars over five years to a single proposition: that civil society, not just Silicon Valley, should decide how artificial intelligence reshapes American life. The initiative, called Humanity AI, will begin awarding grants from its pooled fund in 2026.

Who's at the Table

The founding members read like a roster of the country's most influential philanthropies: the Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Omidyar Network, Doris Duke Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Kapor Foundation, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Siegel Family Endowment. Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors will serve as fiscal sponsor and manage the pooled fund.

MacArthur has already deployed $10 million in aligned grants, including $2 million to AI Now Institute and $2 million to the Brookings Institution's AI and Emerging Technologies Initiative.

Five Lanes of Funding

Humanity AI organizes its grantmaking around five issue areas: democracy (election integrity, AI-powered disinformation), education (equitable access to AI tools), humanities and culture (creative-sector protections), labor and economy (workforce displacement, retraining), and security (dual-use AI risks).

Each foundation will direct grants through its own portfolio while contributing to the pooled fund for cross-cutting projects. The coalition is actively recruiting additional funders.

What Grant Seekers Should Do Now

The $500 million commitment dwarfs most federal AI-ethics programs and signals that foundations are moving from studying AI's risks to funding concrete interventions. Nonprofits, academic centers, and advocacy organizations working at the intersection of AI and any of the five issue areas should watch for RFPs from individual coalition members — several have signaled they will publish solicitations in Q2 2026.

Organizations can use Granted to track when these foundation RFPs go live and match them against their mission profile, so they're ready to apply the moment the window opens.