Writing your organization's AI policy for grant work
How do we write an AI policy for grant work?
Keep it to one page and cover five things: which tools staff may use, what may never be entered into them, who checks and approves AI-assisted work, how you follow each funder's AI rules, and how you answer when a funder asks. Name one person who owns the policy, and review it whenever a major funder changes its rules.
Last reviewed October 3, 2026.
What the policy covers
- Approved tools
- Name the tools staff may use for grant work. A short list is easier to protect and easier to explain to a funder.
- What never goes in
- Personal data about clients, donors and volunteers, confidential partner material, unpublished research, and anything export-controlled. Say it plainly.
- Human review
- A named person reads every AI-assisted section, checks each figure and citation against its source, and approves the final text. People make every final decision.
- Each funder's rules
- Check the funder's AI policy before drafting. NIH, for example, will not treat applications substantially developed by AI as original. How funders treat AI.
- Disclosure
- Keep a standard, honest description of how you use AI, ready for any funder that asks. What to say.
- Ownership
- One person owns the policy and updates it when funder rules or your tools change.
A sample to adapt
"Staff may use [approved tools] to research funders, check eligibility, outline proposals and draft from our own documents. No personal data about clients, donors or volunteers, and no confidential partner material, may be entered into any AI tool. Every AI-assisted section is reviewed, fact-checked and approved by [role] before submission. We follow each funder's published AI rules, and we describe our AI use honestly whenever a funder asks. [Role] owns this policy and reviews it every six months."
Getting it adopted
Introduce the policy in steps that keep staff on board.
Talk about it openly
Staff worry about what AI means for their jobs. Say plainly that the aim is to give them hours back for the work that needs people.
Start with one pilot
Try the policy on one proposal, then ask the team what worked and what felt wrong.
Write down who decides
State in the policy that people oversee the tools and make every final decision.
Revisit it
Funder rules are changing quickly. Put a review date on the policy and keep it.
Where Quillify fits
Quillify drafts from your own documents, which stay scoped to your organization, and shows at every step what is still yours to decide. That makes it straightforward to name in a policy as an approved tool for research, eligibility checks, requirements and first drafts.
Who asks this most
The answer above is the same whoever you are. What Quillify does about it is not.
Related
- What to say when a funder asks how you used AIHow do I disclose AI use in a grant application?
- How funders treat AI in grant applicationsCan I use AI to help write a grant application?
- Will a funder know if I used AI?Will a funder know if I used AI on my grant application?
All guides, or the glossary.
Stop researching and see what you are eligible for.
Browsing and keyword search are free, and there is no card required.