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Humanity AI — Public Open Call

Upcoming

Humanity AI (10-foundation coalition)

Public open call ($10M) launches Summer 2026 — watch for dates

Amount
$500,000
Deadline
—
Stage
Availability
Link
Open opportunity ↗

Description

Humanity AI is a $500M, five-year pooled philanthropic fund (Ford, MacArthur, Omidyar, Mellon, Mozilla, Doris Duke, Lumina, Kapor, Packard, and Siegel) ensuring AI is shaped by and for people. After $18M in inaugural 2026 grants ($500K each to orgs like AI Now, Data & Society, New America), the coalition is launching a ~$10M public open call in summer 2026 prioritizing communities closest to AI's impact. Focus spans democracy, security, labor/economy, education, and arts & culture. Fiscal sponsor: Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

public-interest AIAI governancedemocracycommunity power

Timeline & constraints

Expected to hear back
Open-call review timeline not yet announced (the ~$10M public call launches summer 2026). The inaugural round moved from announcement to award over several months.
Grant period
Part of a 5-year, $500M initiative; individual grant terms TBD (inaugural grants were $500K each).

Key dates

  1. Inaugural grants announced ($18M)
    May 11, 2026
  2. Public open call launches
    TBD
  3. Application deadline
    TBD

Constraints & requirements

  • ~$10M reserved across this open call's grantees
  • Prioritizes organizations and communities closest to AI's impact (US focus)
  • Fiscal sponsor: Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
  • Highly competitive — inaugural cohort was large, established national institutions

Who's funding this

The coalition behind the opportunity. Tick the backers that are the best fit for ETC to prioritize.

How to apply

No open application portal yet; organizations sign up for updates to receive details on how to apply. Grants managed via pooled fund by Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

Process

  1. 1
    Sign up for updates on the Humanity AI website
  2. 2
    Await announcement of open call / application details

A $10 million open call was announced as forthcoming alongside the inaugural grants.

Who runs it

Organization page ↗
  • John Palfrey
    Co-chair, Humanity AI; President, MacArthur Foundation
    no profile
  • Michele Lawrence Jawando
    Co-chair, Humanity AI; President, Omidyar Network
    no profile

AI valuation

Scored against the ETC mission profile.

Fit score
71/100
Recommendation
pursue
Win probability
22%
Expected value
$110,000
$500,000 × win prob.

Strong thematic fit (labor rights, cultural heritage, public-interest AI) and exceptional strategic upside from tapping a ten-foundation coalition make this worth pursuing, with a $500K award that suits ETC's applied-research-plus-prototyping model. The main risks are competitiveness—inaugural grants favored established advocacy orgs and the call prioritizes community-led groups—and possible optics tension with ETC's Microsoft ties. Recommend applying with a proposal that foregrounds affected-community partnership and centers a specific project (e.g., forced-labor traceability or cultural-heritage return) rather than institutional capacity.

Criteria breakdown

Mission alignment78/100 · weight 30%

Humanity AI's focus on labor/economy, arts & culture, security, and public-interest AI maps well onto ETC's forced-labor, cultural-heritage, migration, and traceability work; the human-centered 'AI by and for people' framing is squarely in ETC's wheelhouse.

Funding fit80/100 · weight 20%

$500K philanthropic awards to organizations doing applied, community-facing AI work fit ETC's need to fund researcher/staff time and prototyping; foundation pooled funds typically allow program and personnel costs rather than just overhead.

Competitiveness48/100 · weight 20%

Inaugural grants went to established policy/advocacy institutions (AI Now, Data & Society, New America) and the open call explicitly prioritizes 'communities closest to AI's impact,' which may favor community-led over academic labs; ~20 awards against a very large national applicant pool makes this highly competitive despite ETC's strong NYU CGA backing.

Effort / feasibility62/100 · weight 15%

A public open call is generally lighter than a full RFP, but a coalition of ten major foundations will demand a polished, community-impact-forward proposal and rigorous reporting; deadline is only loosely defined (summer 2026), giving lead time.

Strategic value85/100 · weight 15%

Winning would connect ETC to a ten-foundation coalition (Ford, MacArthur, Omidyar, Mozilla, Packard, etc.), diversifying beyond Microsoft Research and building deep philanthropic relationships that compound across future public-interest AI work.

0/100 · weight 0%

Red flags

  • Coalition emphasis on 'community power' and 'communities closest to AI's impact' may disadvantage a university/corporate-backed research lab versus community-led applicants
  • ETC's Microsoft Research affiliation could create optics friction with a philanthropic fund positioning AI as shaped by-and-for people against Big Tech influence
  • Inaugural awardees were established policy/advocacy institutions, signaling a possible preference away from applied-prototyping labs
  • Only ~20 awards nationally against a broad open-call pool makes odds long despite good thematic fit

Scored Jul 1, 2026 · claude-opus-4-8

Proposal recommendation

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Recommendations & tips

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Funded projects to learn from

Real projects this funder backed — reference points to model and adapt an ETC proposal on.

  • Partnership on AI ↗
    $500,000 · 2026

    Advancing AI transparency and accountability

    Organization ↗

    For ETC: Example of a policy/accountability organization funded to advance AI transparency and public interest.

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