Our interim Funding Adviser, Diane Platt, shares her top tips on using artificial intelligence for funding applications.

Use AI without losing your voice: 5 rules

Like it or not, AI is already part of how charities write funding applications. Whether we’re drafting from scratch, checking grammar, or just Googling with a chatbot open in another tab, most of us are using it in some form. The question isn’t whether to use AI, it’s how to use it well.

Funders are drowning in applications. Many now sound eerily similar: same structure, same phrases, same polished-but-hollow tone. That’s the risk with AI, it’s brilliant at producing competent, generic prose, but competent and generic won’t win you funding. What wins funding is passion, evidence, and a clear sense of why your cause matters, in your voice.

So let AI do what it’s good at: tightening structure, catching errors, saving you time on the mechanical bits. But the case for your charity, the story, the urgency, the human stakes, that has to come from you. AI can polish your voice. It can’t replace it.

Tips for using AI in your applications

1. Start with your own draft – Write the outline yourself, the story, the need, the impact, then bring in AI to refine, not originate.
2. Feed it specifics – Give AI your real data, quotes, and outcomes rather than letting it fill gaps with generic charity terminology.
3. Use it to cut, not pad – AI is best at tightening rambling paragraphs and sharpening structure, not adding word count.
4. Check every claim – Funders spot inflated or vague statements fast; verify anything AI generates before including it.
5. Read it aloud before submitting – If it doesn’t sound like you, it won’t feel like you, and funders notice the difference.

Diane Platt

Interim Fundraising Adviser.

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