Artificial intelligence can produce a remarkably polished paragraph in seconds.
That does not necessarily mean the paragraph is accurate. Or appropriate. Or persuasive. Or even about your organization.
And that gets to the heart of the conversation nonprofits need to be having about AI and proposal development.
The question is no longer whether nonprofit professionals will use AI. Many already do. They use it to organize notes, summarize lengthy documents, develop outlines, brainstorm ways to explain a complicated program, and stare down the blinking cursor that has been taunting them for the past 20 minutes.
Used thoughtfully, AI can be helpful.
Used carelessly, it can introduce inaccurate information, erase important context, expose confidential data, flatten an organization’s voice, and produce a proposal that sounds plausible without being true.
So, should nonprofits use AI to help develop proposals?
The most honest answer is: It depends on how they use it.
AI is already part of the process
The use of AI in proposal development is not automatically unethical or prohibited.
In revised common instructions for its grant competitions, the U.S. Department of Education explicitly stated that applicants may use AI to help develop application materials. But it also warned about the risks of bias, inaccuracy, falsification, and plagiarism—and made clear that applicants remain fully responsible for what they submit. That is one agency’s policy, not a universal rule for every funder, but the underlying principle is important: AI assistance does not transfer accountability away from the applicant. (Grants.gov)
The Grant Professionals Association has offered similar practical guidance. AI may be useful for organizing ideas, creating an initial outline, suggesting language, or identifying areas that need more work. But understanding the organization, the community, the funder, and the proposed program still requires human expertise and judgment. (Grant Professionals)
In other words, the ethical question is not simply:
“Did AI touch this proposal?”
A better set of questions is:
“How was AI used? What information was provided to it? Who reviewed the output? And who is ultimately responsible for every statement in the proposal?”
What AI can do reasonably well
AI is often most useful when it is supporting a task rather than making a decision.
For example, AI may help you:
- Organize a collection of program notes into a preliminary outline.
- Summarize a long funding announcement.
- Identify questions in the guidelines that have not yet been answered.
- Compare an early draft with a funder’s stated criteria.
- Suggest clearer ways to explain a complicated process.
- Create a list of information you still need from program or finance staff.
- Spot repetition, inconsistencies, or unexplained terms.
- Help you move from a blank page to something you can evaluate and revise.
Those uses can save time. They can also help a proposal team focus more of its attention on strategy, analysis, collaboration, and decision-making.
But the quality of the result still depends on the quality of the information, instructions, and judgment that surround it.
What AI cannot know on its own
AI does not sit in your staff meetings.
It has not listened to the people your organization serves. It does not know why a seemingly small program detail matters deeply to your community. It cannot determine whether a proposed activity is realistic for your staff, whether your partners truly support the plan, or whether the budget reflects what the work will actually cost.
AI may produce a confident answer even when it does not have the information required to produce a correct one.
That makes it particularly risky when it is asked to fill gaps.
Missing evaluation data can become invented evaluation data. A vague program concept can become a fully developed—but fictional—implementation plan. A broad statistic can appear without a reliable source. Language from another organization or community can be absorbed into a proposal where it does not belong.
A polished sentence can still be a false sentence.
Five questions to ask before using AI
Organizations do not necessarily need a 40-page AI policy before anyone can begin experimenting. But they do need shared expectations.
Before using AI during proposal development, ask these five questions.
1. Is the information accurate?
Every statistic, program detail, commitment, timeline, partner role, and budget statement must be verified.
AI output is a draft to review, not evidence to trust.
2. Is the information ours to share?
Proposal teams regularly handle sensitive information: participant data, internal budgets, community needs, staff discussions, partner information, and organizational challenges.
Do not enter confidential or personally identifiable information into a tool unless your organization has reviewed and approved how that tool collects, stores, and uses data.
Responsible AI guidance increasingly emphasizes privacy, reliability, accountability, transparency, and the management of harmful bias. National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Dept of Commerce, provides an AI Risk Management Framework with a broader structure that organizations can use when thinking about these risks. (NIST)
3. Does this sound like our organization?
Generic language is not automatically clear language.
A proposal should reflect the organization’s actual work, experience, values, and understanding of the community. If the language could describe almost any nonprofit, it probably does not describe yours well enough.
4. Are we representing the community accurately?
AI can reproduce assumptions and biases contained in the material on which it was trained.
Language about communities should be reviewed by people who understand—and whenever possible, belong to or work closely with—the communities being described. Efficiency is not an excuse to speak inaccurately for other people.
5. Is a human accountable for the final proposal?
Someone must be responsible for confirming that the proposal is accurate, responsive, ethical, realistic, and authorized by the organization.
That responsibility cannot belong to a chatbot.
Do you need to disclose AI use?
There is not one disclosure rule that applies to every foundation, corporation, or government agency.
Start with the funder’s instructions. Some funders may address AI directly. Others may include broader requirements related to originality, certification, privacy, research integrity, or authorized representations.
When the guidance is unclear and the use of AI has been substantial, asking the funder may be the most responsible approach.
Regardless of whether disclosure is required, organizations should document their own process. Keep track of which tools were used, what they were used for, how the output was reviewed, and who approved the final application.
The goal is better thinking—not merely faster prose
At The Grantsmanship Center, we have always maintained that developing a strong proposal begins long before anyone starts drafting the narrative.
It begins with a clearly defined problem, a realistic program, meaningful community involvement, achievable outcomes, a defensible budget, and a strong match between the organization and the funder.
AI does not change those fundamentals.
That belief is also guiding the development of The Grantsmanship Center’s new Proposal Writing Tool. The tool is being designed to help users work through a thoughtful, structured process—to organize relevant information, apply sound grantsmanship principles, and strengthen their decisions as they develop a proposal.
It is not intended to replace the people who know the organization, understand the community, and remain responsible for the work.
Because the future of proposal development should not be a choice between rejecting AI altogether and allowing it to take over.
The better path is learning to use it with care, transparency, and judgment.
The Grantsmanship Center’s AI Proposal Writing Tool is coming soon for alumni. Join the waitlist to receive updates and learn about early access for this tool designed to support ethical & effective proposal development.
JOIN THE WAITLIST - https://ai-tool.tgci.com/
