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European AI & Society Fund - Funding Landscape Review PDF
webeuropeanaifund.org·europeanaifund.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/260623-FOR-...
Useful reference for understanding the philanthropic funding landscape for AI governance and civil society advocacy work in Europe as of 2023, relevant to those interested in AI policy infrastructure and coordination gaps.
Metadata
Importance: 38/100organizational reportanalysis
Summary
The European AI & Society Fund's 2023 landscape review surveys the philanthropic funding ecosystem supporting civil society AI governance work in Europe, finding the field critically under-resourced relative to the scale of challenges. It analyzes grantee funding needs, maps current funders, and identifies barriers and opportunities for growing philanthropic engagement in AI policy and advocacy work.
Key Points
- •European AI civil society ecosystem remains small and financially precarious, with even anchor organizations like EDRi and AlgorithmWatch operating on small budgets
- •Heavy reliance on a few funders (OSF, Bosch, Luminate) creates vulnerability; two-thirds of grantees receive funding from at least one partner foundation
- •Many grantees will need to significantly downscale or stop AI-focused work entirely without follow-on funding
- •Organizations from other fields (environment, health) entering AI work bring more financial stability but may not sustain focus after grant periods end
- •The fund pools contributions from 14 philanthropic foundations and currently supports 30 organizations, but demand far exceeds available funding
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
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| MacArthur Foundation | Organization | 65.0 |
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# Who’s funding AI & Society work in Europe? A landscape review by the European AI & Society Fund
June 2023
The current intense debate surrounding the future development of Artificial Intelligence underlines why it’s critical to have a strong and resilient civil society ecosystem that can speak up for the needs of people and society. Since the establishment of the European AI & Society Fund in 2020, we’ve been glad to see the field both widen and deepen with more organisations engaged and with greater capability to fight for the public interest at this time of technological change.
This work needs money to sustain it. Philanthropic funding allows organisations to engage in policy and advocacy work with the freedom to pursue their missions independent of corporate interests. The European AI & Society Fund pools contributions from 14 philanthropic foundations to offer funding and capacity building and is currently supporting 30 organisations. We have seen however that the field remains under-resourced given the scale of the challenges it aims to address and there is far greater appetite in civil society to take on this work than we are able to meet.
To understand how to engage more philanthropic organisations in supporting the field we have surveyed our grantees to understand their needs1, undertaken research into the current funding landscape2 and interviewed a number of foundations3 that are not yet EAI&SF partner to understand the opportunities and barriers to growing philanthropic engagement around AI. This research builds on the Fund’s previous mapping conducted in 20214.
We then offer conclusions about the opportunities for the European AI & Society Fund to act on these insights.
# Our grantees’ funding needs
Overall the community of civil society organisations active on AI and related issues remains small and financially precarious. Although some organisations are now increasingly mature - EDRi held its 20th anniversary recently, AlgorithmWatch celebrated its fifth birthday last year - even such anchor organisations operate on relatively small budgets. Significantly, some of the organisations that are established in other areas such as environment, health or migration but are new to this field come with much greater financial stability. They are able to draw on a wider pool of philanthropic funding as well as access to various European Union funding mechanisms. However, this does not necessarily mean they could sustain their focus on AI and related issues beyond the terms of our grant. Across the grantees many indicate they will need to significantly downscale or stop this workstream entirely without follow on funding.
Annual budget of grantees, EUR
Data based on self-reported information volunteered by grantees in Feburary 2023
In addition to our funding, grantees draw heavily on our partner found
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