Artificial intelligence (AI) has largely been framed through the lens of acceleration, growth, efficiency, and scale in the for-profit sector. But many nonprofit and mission-driven organizations are operating in a different context. Funding is becoming less predictable and grant models are shifting.
This creates a more practical pressure: how to maintain delivery with fewer resources and less certainty. In that context, engaging with AI becomes more about making considered decisions on where it can support real operational needs.
At Caribou, we’ve increasingly focused on the intersection of AI and global development, partnering with funders, researchers, and organizations to capture AI’s real-world implications. Across this work, we see a consistent pattern: nonprofit and mission-driven organizations are navigating economic instability, shifting donor behavior, and stretched teams. At the same time, AI tools are proliferating faster than most can responsibly assess them.
Program leads want to reduce manual reporting, operations teams want smarter workflows, and leaders want their organizations to move with more confidence. Teams are interested in the potential of AI, but what is often missing is a structured know-how and a supported pathway to act.
A pathway to responsible AI integration: The Changemaker Fellowship
In partnership with Microsoft Elevate and EY, Caribou has launched the Changemaker Fellowship: a global 10-week program for nonprofit, UN, and intergovernmental organization staff ready to move from interest in AI to responsible, real-world adoption.
The Fellowship is a practitioner-led program built around a challenge that matters to organizations right now, whether it’s securing internal systems, creating more reliable funding streams, or reducing manual processes. Fellows leave the program with an implementation-ready AI Adoption Plan, a concrete roadmap tailored to their mission, systems, and team.
A 10-week program focused on real organizational challenges
Selected Changemaker Fellows will commit three to five hours per week over 10 weeks, working directly on their organization’s challenge through a series of asynchronous learning, live workshops, and peer exchange.
The program includes five phases:
- Weeks 1–2: Establish readiness baseline and define the organizational challenge.
- Weeks 3–4: Develop and pressure-test AI use case, building the internal alignment needed to move forward.
- Weeks 5–6: Build implementation plan that covers governance, risk, change management, and ownership.
- Weeks 7–8: Draft AI Adoption Plan with dedicated mentor and partner support.
- Weeks 9–10: Finalize AI Adoption Plan, gather peer feedback, and leave with a clear next-step roadmap.
Fellows are supported by Caribou’s facilitation team, Microsoft-vetted implementation partners, and EY professionals with expertise in change management and organizational transformation. Fellows also join a global peer cohort working on similar challenges across regions and sectors.
The wider move toward responsible, practical AI
The Fellowship is part of a broader push toward responsible, practical AI that Caribou is helping to build.
Earlier this year, we joined BFA Global and MSC to launch the Alliance for Inclusive AI, an open, collaborative, practitioner-led effort committed to bringing inclusive AI into the workflows of financial inclusion, agriculture, climate resilience, and digital public services across the Global South. By 2030, the Alliance aims to deliver responsible, practical AI solutions to 100 million people and mobilize US$100 million in blended finance.
The Fellowship builds on several years of work at the intersection of AI and global development:
- Caribou’s Funds & Programs team is working with the Gates Foundation on AI and women’s economic empowerment, and managing funds and venture-building support for innovative AI small business solutions through Mastercard Strive globally.
- With support from the Mastercard Foundation, we’ve explored AI’s role in reshaping the future of work in Africa, including through a Pan-African Women PhD Scholars Collective.
- Our policy team has conducted case studies on responsible AI for development with Canada’s IDRC.
- Our Measurement & Impact team evaluated a multi-donor program supporting responsible AI research at MIT and Harvard.
Our experience shapes how we approach the Changemaker Fellowship: with rigor, humility, and a pragmatic view of where AI can and cannot deliver.
Fellowship applications are now open
The Fellowship is open globally to registered nonprofits, NGOs, intergovernmental organizations, and UN agencies. It is best suited for professionals with leadership support who have a real organizational challenge where AI can make a measurable difference, and one to three participants from the same organization may be selected to work on a shared use case.
The Fellowship program is open to applicants worldwide and currently delivered in English. Applications opened on April 22 and close May 22 at 11:59 PM PST. The first program cohort begins on June 29, 2026.
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