Should charities use AI for bid writing?
Julian Lomas
A little while ago we wrote about how AI could be a useful tool for small charities and what to be careful about when using AI for a range of tasks.
One area in which the charity sector is increasingly encountering AI many is in bid writing, particularly grant applications and contract tenders. Some funders are saying they will not accept applications that have been supported by AI, and this is more enforceable than you might think. They frequently use software similar to that used by Universities to detect AI involvement in drafting and/or plagiarism.
Most funders are taking a more thoughtful approach, recognising that AI can be an important assistive tool for example, for people with disabilities, people who are neurodivergent and people for whom English is their second language. However, this opportunity needs to be grasped with caution (and in any case, we wonder how different is it really from having a good case for support from which you can draw and adapt stock text for use in applications).
Key pitfalls to watch out for include:
Taking care to ensure that AI generated text is not too generic - applications need to tell the compelling and unique story of the charity and community applying for funding.
Checking that AI generated text is accurate and not misleading - most first drafts from an AI will include things that are untrue or leave out important information that could make the draft misleading.
If you put your charity’s data into the AI to help it generate a first draft bid, make sure that the AI provider is data protection compliant (some AI platforms store data that is uploaded and many are not secure) and will maintain your confidentiality.
Be particularly wary about AI generated budgets - they rarely work because AIs do not understand the subtleties of charity budgeting and full cost recovery.
What follows from this is that you should only ever use an AI generated draft as a starting point for you to refine, enhance and check for accuracy. AIs cannot produce authentic responses that adopt your charity’s voice. Nor will they pick up the coded questions within questions asked by grantmakers. They certainly won’t have your instincts for what the funder is likely to find attractive/compelling as a funding proposition. Therefore, while AI could be a good way to avoid the panic that a “blank piece of paper” can often provoke, it can’t replace your fundraisers quite yet (if ever).
Another risk to be aware of when using AI is that all have inbuilt biases as a result off the material used to train them, including in sensitive areas such as race, environment, disability and so on. AI generated material could also increase the risk of perpetuating misinformation if it has picked up on deep-fake or other convincing AI-generated but inaccurate information/propaganda. There is also the risk that an AI might incorporate material in a draft that is protected by someone else’s copyright, leading to inadvertent plagiarism.
The National Lottery Communities Fund has recently published some helpful guidance on this topic.
Interestingly, this guidance also points out that ChatGPT (for example) consumes between 50 and 90 times more energy per query than a conventional search. This suggests that using AI can have considerably more environmental impact and, therefore, charities should consider the ethical implications of this and whether it cuts across their values.
Almond Tree Strategic Consulting Limited aims to lighten the load by helping smaller charities develop and improve including though effective strategies, good governance, positive collaborations and successful fundraising. To find out more please contact us at julian@almondtreeconsulting.co.uk to arrange free initial telephone discussion.