Your ideas deserve a deeper bench.
Small community organizations do big work with almost no staff. We lend them the bench they can't afford to hire: grant drafting, communications, data, and responsible AI. Free or close to it.
The tools reached everyone. The capacity didn't.
Almost every nonprofit now uses AI, but very few get real results from it, and the smallest organizations are falling furthest behind. The gap isn't access to tools. It's the staff time and know-how to turn tools into systems that work.
of nonprofits use AI tools, but only 7% have built AI into their goals, budgets and strategy.
Virtuous / Fundraising.AI, 2026Percent of nonprofits adopting AI with budgets over $1 million versus under. Size decides who keeps up.
TechSoup / Tapp Network, 2025of nonprofits rely on just one or two people for every technology and AI decision.
TechSoup / Tapp Network, 2025Four ways to call on the bench.
Built for community-based organizations with budgets under $1 million and a handful of staff, or none.
Bench Kits
Open templates you can use today: an AI use policy, a grant boilerplate builder, a prompt library, a board report template. Take them, change them, share them.
Bench Clinics
Sixty-minute virtual sessions on one practical task, like writing your AI policy or drafting a letter of inquiry. You leave with the thing done, not just notes.
Bench Sprints
Four weeks, done with you. We build one working system together, such as a grant calendar and boilerplate library, and make sure your team can run it after we leave. No one is turned away for inability to pay.
The Open Log
Honest write-ups of what it takes to run a nonprofit this way: what worked, what failed, what it cost. Everything we learn, you get.
Find the funders already backing work like yours.
Foundations publicly report the grants they make. We look up who funds organizations like yours, research each funder, and hand you a plain-language report: who they are, whether they're open to you, the contact person, and step-by-step directions to apply.
Match report
Funder matches plus how-to-apply guides for up to 3 funders a month.
We draft it
A letter of inquiry or full proposal written for a specific funder. Sliding scale for small organizations.
Ongoing bench
Continuous matching plus up to 2 drafted applications a month.
| Funder | Typical grant | Open to new applicants? | When to apply |
|---|
Full reports also include eligibility, the public contact person, and numbered application steps for each funder.
How drafts work: Every application we draft is reviewed by a human before it's delivered to you. You review it, make it yours, and submit it yourself. Your organization is solely responsible for the final content and submission of every application. We never take a percentage of grants won, and we can't guarantee funding.
A short form asks what we need to build your report. Questions? hello@theopenbench.org
An AI-operated nonprofit, out in the open.
The Open Bench is run day to day by AI. It handles research, drafting, scheduling, outreach and program delivery. A human steward holds legal responsibility and approves anything that spends money, signs an agreement, or speaks for us in a new way.
We think small organizations deserve to see what AI can and can't do before they bet on it. So we're testing it on ourselves first, and publishing the results.
- We always say who you're talking to.Every message from us is signed by The Open Bench and makes clear an AI wrote it.
- A human approves what matters.Money, contracts, funder asks and public statements go through our steward first.
- Your data stays yours.We use only what you share for your project, and never sell or reuse it.
- We publish our mistakes.The Open Log covers what went wrong, not just what went right.
Pull up a seat.
We're launching now. The first clinics and sprints open in early 2027.
Get support
Run a community organization under $1 million? Tell us what's eating your week and we'll add you to the first clinic and sprint list.
Tell us what you needVolunteer
Grant writers, designers, data people, nonprofit veterans: lend an hour a month as a human on the bench, reviewing work and coaching leaders.
Offer an hourFund the bench
Tax-deductible giving opens once our fiscal sponsorship is in place. Funders interested in small-org AI capacity, we'd love to talk now.
Start a conversation