Closed to applications, open with its data
The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation does not take unsolicited proposals. In its own words, funding
decisions are made through an “invitation-only, hypothesis-driven strategic process”, and it
cannot respond to emails asking for meetings or funding. That is the first and most important fact,
and it means the practical question is not “how do I apply” but “is it worth my time to understand
this funder at all.”
For most readers working in AI and social impact, it is — because PJMF does something almost no
invitation-only foundation does. It publishes its grants back to July 2017 and updates that
database weekly. You can see who was funded, for what, and for how much, and sort the whole list
by amount.
That turns an inaccessible funder into a usable research asset. If you want to know what a
responsible-AI health project is actually funded at, or which organizations are already working in
your niche, the answer is sitting in public.
The numbers, checked against the filings
Secondhand summaries of PJMF — including an early version of this page — have quoted around $35
million in annual grantmaking and $1.6 billion in assets. The filed returns say otherwise.
The 2024 Form 990-PF (EIN 22-3021586) reports $66.2 million in grants paid against $1.53
billion in total assets and $78.0 million in total expenses. That is the third year running at
about the same level: $65.8 million in 2023 and $65.9 million in 2022. The old figures match the
2021 return, which reported $35.9 million in grants and $1.66 billion in assets. That was the first
full year after PJMF announced its AI-and-data strategy in September 2020.
PJMF itself says it has awarded nearly $500 million since its inception.
What a grant actually looks like
PJMF does not publish a grant range, but its database is complete enough to work one out. In
2025 it lists 148 grants. The median was $400,000, half fell between $250,000 and $600,000, and
they ranged from $50,000 to $1.25 million. 2024 looked similar, with 149 grants and the same
median. The nineteen 2026 awards listed so far run from $30,000 to $750,000.
Older grants run larger. Several $2 million grants went out in 2021 and 2022, and the largest on
record is $10 million to MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research in 2017. Neither is a
realistic benchmark for a new grantee today.
The focus-area labels have moved too. Awards in 2025 are tagged AI Fluency, Climate, Data as a
Public Good, Emergent AI, Health, Journalism & Media, New Intersections and Solidarity. The filter
now also offers a “Sovereignty and Agency (2026)” label, with no grants under it yet. Tech for Good
was last used in 2022 and Neuroscience in 2020.
Who this is not for
Organizations where AI is decorative. PJMF funds work where data and AI are the mechanism of
impact. Bolting a machine-learning component onto an existing program to fit the funder is
transparent and does not work.
Anyone hoping to apply this quarter. There is no form. Building the visibility that leads to an
invitation is a multi-year activity, not a fundraising tactic.
Social-service organizations without a technology thesis. The foundation’s taxonomy is
specific. Excellent social-service organizations without a data core are outside it.
The honest strategy for an invitation-only funder
There is no trick for getting invited, and anyone selling one is selling something. What actually
happens is that program staff at foundations like this build their pipelines from research,
conferences, co-funders, and referrals from organizations they already fund.
Which means the productive move is to stop thinking about PJMF as a funder to approach and start
thinking about it as a community to be visible in. Publish. Present. Collaborate with existing
grantees. Show up in the places where the responsible-AI field is having its arguments.
The exception worth watching is the occasional time-limited call. PJMF opened expressions of
interest for its 2022 and 2023 Data and Society Accelerator cohorts, both now closed. Calls like
that are rare and announced on its site; they are not a standing door.
The grants database is where to start, because it is a directory of exactly who those organizations
are.
