AI is not just changing the way foundations work — it is changing the world that philanthropy is trying to change.
In 2026, we believe that foundations must go beyond responding to disruption or treating AI as an operational tool and actively examine how it is reshaping their impact strategies and their underlying theories of change — treating it both as a risk to manage and a leverage point to unlock new possibilities.
As shadow use of AI becomes more prevalent, some foundations are taking a proactive approach in developing policies and training to protect organizational privacy while ensuring equitable access to these tools.
For example, Lumina Foundation chose to get ahead of AI by launching an opt-in pilot that centered staff choice with clear training and support, with 95% staff adoption and measurable productivity gains in a year. At the MacArthur Foundation, an AI Steering Committee helped build evidence and guardrails for AI usage through an opt-in “principled experimentation” program which surfaced both time savings and ethical concerns from staff, helping the organization develop a foundation-wide AI strategy in 2026.
In parallel, program teams are fielding growing requests from nonprofits for AI-related funding. According to a recent study from the Center for Effective Philanthropy, top requested forms of nonprofit support included general AI education for staff, access to existing tools and software, technical training and guidance on how AI affects the people and communities they serve.
New efforts are emerging to democratize access to these tools, such as the Fund for the City of New York’s AI for Nonprofits sprint and Claude for Nonprofits, which offers discounted access and free training for nonprofits. However, these efforts do not yet address how AI is reshaping the very problems that nonprofits and foundations seek to solve.
This is where revisiting a foundation’s strategy — and the theory of change that underpins it — matters. A foundation’s theory of change reflects a set of core assumptions about how change happens and where capital can move the needle. As AI reshapes many of those assumptions, treating AI as separate from strategy creates a growing blind spot.
As shared recently in Inside Philanthropy, education and workforce funders must now confront shifting definitions of career readiness as AI reshapes labor markets. Without this type of thoughtful intervention, there is a risk that individuals may be trained for roles that no longer exist.
Similarly, a large national philanthropic foundation seeking to advance health equity must account for the growing influence of AI-driven clinical decision tools in determining who receives care and when. These tools can exacerbate health inequities, or they can support early detection and more effective treatment. Youth mental health funders also face a new challenge as more adolescents seek emotional support from generative AI. Knowing that these tools can distance young people from needed human connection, funders can help shape responsible uses of AI that connect young people to human-centered care earlier.
As AI rapidly transforms today’s societal challenges, we urge foundations to actively examine how AI is impacting their overall strategies and underlying theories of change. Organizations can proactively reflect on questions such as:
- How might AI increase or reduce inequities in the field we are working in?
- What might be signals that some of those shifts are starting to happen, and how might we respond?
- Which assumptions embedded in our current theory of change no longer hold in a world shaped by AI?
- How could AI shape beneficiaries’ opportunities, power, or agency?
- What new solutions to societal challenges are now possible with AI?
Philanthropy is uniquely positioned to shape AI as a potential leverage point for more equitable outcomes, having helped catalyze early AI research and ethics efforts with its ability to act independently from markets and government. Foundations can lead by regularly examining how AI is influencing their field, listening deeply to partners on the ground and convening grantees, funders, practitioners, technologists and policymakers to understand how AI is reshaping systems.
In fact, several efforts are already underway to ensure that philanthropy engages AI as a systems-level driver of change — rather than responding to its downstream effects or treating it as a standalone tool to improve internal efficiency. For example, The Humanity AI Coalition launched last year with a $500 million commitment from 10 foundations to keep human needs, equity, and civil society at the center of AI’s evolution. A coalition of funders including the Gates Foundation, Valhalla Foundation, and Ballmer Group committed $1 billion over 15 years to help develop AI tools tailored to frontline workers like public defenders, parole officers, and social workers — designed and funded in partnership with the people using them.
However, funders don’t necessarily need to join large coalitions or invest billions when it comes to proactively shaping how AI will influence their missions. Individual organizations are beginning to consider the implications of AI across their entire portfolio strategy. For example, two organizations, Porticus and Laudes Foundation, released a public RFP in November to analyze the influence of AI on their grantmaking programs. The Kauffman Foundation recently announced an AI Fellowship program designed to inform both grantmaking strategy as well as operational use as did the Ford Foundation. The Gates Foundation invests across the AI innovation lifecycle for specific program areas, funding both early-stage startups and large global institutions harnessing AI to eradicate infectious diseases.
It is important to acknowledge the moment foundations are operating in: economic uncertainty, political polarization and rising expectations to respond quickly and responsibly. As AI reshapes multiple interconnected and interdisciplinary domains at once, from internal operations to broader societal challenges, there is no single “right” entry point. Progress depends on maintaining a systems-level view of how these pieces fit together.
This is a defining leadership moment for philanthropy. While operational and efficiency investments are necessary and important, they are not enough. Foundations must critically examine how AI influences and reshapes their impact strategies and theories of change. The question is not whether AI will reshape social outcomes, but whether philanthropy will use its influence, convening power, resources, and long-term perspective to help shape that impact towards equity and public good.
Chantal (Coco) Forster is an independent AI adviser to philanthropy and former executive director of the Technology Association of Grantmakers. Lakshmi Iyer is a Managing Director at FSG, which partners with foundations and companies to create equitable systems change.
