Philanthropic Infrastructure Wasn’t Built for the AI Era

MCP connectors to funder databases are popping up all over the place.
While this takes so much of the friction out of the prospect research process 🙌 it also lifts up a major issue with current philanthropic infrastructure.

An MCP connector is a way for an AI tool to access another software platform.

In this instance, this means that nonprofits can search many more databases that house IRS 990 data.

This means that you can ask, in plain language, which funders might be interested in funding your work.

Coming from someone who has spent countless hours doing prospect research for clients over the years 🫠 , I am all about this.

So then what's the issue?

Any change in one side of philanthropy is ultimately going to impact the other side. It's market dynamics.

So as more nonprofits are able to identify aligned funders, (and more nonprofits are using LLMs to write proposals), more nonprofits can apply for funding.

In theory, this is great. In practice, current philanthropic infrastructure wasn't designed for influx of access to funders. It wasn't designed for proposals to double, or triple from one year to the next.

And instead of creating access for more nonprofits, it's actually doing the opposite (invite-only cycles, first-come first-served proposal reviews, and favoring previous grantees).

This is only going to further concentrate giving to the same organizations over and over again.

So while the nonprofit side of the grants process is changing significantly, if philanthropic infrastructure doesn't change alongside it, then we won't be able to adapt with urgency and speed to meet the needs of the communities we serve.