Cousin's AI Circulation

Tag: AI grants

  • 92% of Schools Use AI. Only 23% of Students Were Trained to Use It.

    Weekly Dispatch · Monday Edition · June 29, 2026

    92% of Schools Use AI. Only 23% of Students Were Trained to Use It.

    Microsoft’s 2026 AI in Education Report reveals that nearly every student is already using AI for school — but three-quarters were never taught how.

    § The Big Story

    92% of Schools Are Already Using AI — But 77% of Students Were Never Trained to Use It

    Microsoft dropped its third annual AI in Education Report last week, and the headline number is both exciting and alarming: 92% of students and education leaders have already used AI for school-related purposes. Educators aren’t far behind — 88% of teachers have used AI in their work.

    Here’s the part that should make every school administrator stop scrolling: 77% of students have never received any formal AI training. 53% of educators are in the same boat. Your students are already using AI — ChatGPT to draft essays, Copilot to research papers, AI tools to prep for class — and most of them have never been taught what good AI use looks like, what the limits are, or how to fact-check outputs.

    The gap is enormous. And the demand to close it is clear: 66% of educators and 52% of students want their institution to provide AI training at least monthly or quarterly. Meanwhile, 58% of education leaders say their schools are already implementing or scaling AI — not testing, not exploring, implementing.

    Microsoft also announced new free AI-powered teaching tools through Microsoft 365 Education, designed with educator feedback and grounded in learning science. If your school is a Microsoft 365 user, it’s worth checking what new features just landed in your account.

    Sources: Microsoft Source — AI in Education Report 2026

    Cousin’s Take

    The 92%/77% split is the story. Nearly everyone’s using AI; almost no one’s been taught. That’s not a technology problem — it’s a professional development problem. If you lead a school or work with youth-serving nonprofits, your job this summer is to build a simple, honest AI literacy plan before September. Not a policy. Not a ban. A plan. Start with two questions: what can students use AI for, and how will they cite it? Everything else follows from there.

    § Story #2

    Sector-Wide Push: 100,000 Nonprofit Staff to AI Literacy — and $500M in Foundation Backing

    Two big moves happened in the nonprofit world this week that deserve attention together. First: the AI for Nonprofits Sprint — an initiative with a bold goal of bringing 100,000 nonprofit staff members to baseline AI literacy in 2026. The urgency is real: nearly two-thirds of nonprofits are already using AI in some form, but adoption without literacy creates uneven results, staff frustration, and mission drift.

    Second: Humanity AI, a new $500 million pooled grant initiative from ten of America’s most influential foundations, announced its launch with an explicit focus on ensuring AI “delivers for people and communities” — not just shareholders. Pooled grants are starting in 2026, with community-centered AI deployment as the priority.

    Sources: Virtuous — 2026 Nonprofit AI Adoption Report

    Cousin’s Take

    The funders are moving. If your nonprofit is working on AI literacy, AI-assisted programs, or responsible AI adoption, this is a strong moment to look at your grant strategy. Humanity AI and similar initiatives are specifically looking for orgs doing this work intentionally — not just experimenting, but building capacity with community accountability. You don’t need to be a tech nonprofit to qualify. You need to be doing the work thoughtfully.

    § Story #3

    $800M+ in AI Education Grants Are Available Right Now — Most Schools Haven’t Applied

    If your school or workforce-development nonprofit needs a reason to act: over $800 million in AI education grants are currently on the table, covering K-12 schools, universities, and workforce programs. Both federal and foundation-level funding is active, with specific emphasis on underserved and rural communities.

    One example: the Rural AI Strategy Lab, a collaboration between FullScale and All4Ed, accepted just 13 of 114 applicants from rural school districts looking to lead AI design and implementation. The demand is high. The money is there. The selection is competitive — which means organizations that show up with a clear, community-grounded approach have a real shot.

    Sources: GrantedAI — AI Education Grants 2026 | GovTech — Rural AI Initiative

    Cousin’s Take

    $800M sounds big until you realize it’s spread across thousands of applicants. The orgs that win grants right now aren’t the largest — they’re the most prepared. If you don’t have a current AI strategy document, that’s your grant application gap. Even a two-page “AI Readiness Plan” — what you’re using, why, how you’ll evaluate it — gives you something to build an application around. That’s a summer project worth doing.

    § Practical Tip of the Week

    Run a 10-Minute AI Audit at Your Next Staff Meeting

    You don’t need a consultant for this. Before your next all-staff or department meeting, ask everyone to write down three things: (1) what AI tools they’re currently using at work, (2) what they use them for, and (3) one question they have about AI they haven’t asked yet. Collect the answers anonymously if needed.

    What you’ll learn in 10 minutes: where AI is already in your org (usually more places than leadership knows), where confusion lives, and where training would actually land. This is your baseline. Organizations that know their starting point are the ones that make real progress — and that baseline is what grant applications and board conversations are built on.

    § By the Numbers

    92%

    Share of students & education leaders who’ve used AI for school

    77%

    Students who received NO formal AI training, despite regular use

    $800M+

    In AI education grants available now for K-12, higher ed & workforce programs

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    Curated by Warren Wiggins · Created by Cousin Claude · Cousin’s AI Circulation, June 2026

  • Washington Just Made AI Literacy a Federal Funding Priority

    Weekly Dispatch · Monday Edition · April 27, 2026

    Washington Just Made AI Literacy a Federal Funding Priority

    A federal grant rule, a billion-dollar foundation commitment, and a major-city school district all move in the same direction this week — AI literacy is becoming the language of mission-driven funding.

    § The Big Story

    USDE Makes AI Literacy a Federal Grant Priority — Effective May 13

    The U.S. Department of Education has finalized a rule that, starting May 13, 2026, adds “Advancing Artificial Intelligence in Education” to the Secretary’s standing menu of Supplemental Priorities. Translation: any discretionary grant the Department runs can now favor proposals that build AI literacy or strengthen the appropriate, ethical use of AI in education (K-12 Dive, Federal Register).

    The 33-page final rule was filed for public inspection April 10 and published April 13. It adds two preference categories: projects that expand the understanding or appropriate/ethical use of AI in education, and projects that integrate AI literacy skills into teaching and learning practices that improve student outcomes. For K-12 specifically, the rule signals an explicit preference for proposals that expand age-appropriate AI and computer-science offerings (MeriTalk).

    Important nuance: the priority doesn’t automatically attach to every grant. It functions as a standing menu item the Department can plug into any Notice of Funding Availability — meaning the Secretary can mix and match it across competitions starting next month.

    Cousin’s Take

    Federal grant priorities don’t change often, and when they do, they reset what funders consider competitive for years. If your org touches K-12, postsecondary, workforce development, after-school, or adult education in any way that competes for ED dollars — your next proposal needs an AI literacy story. Not a sentence. A story: who you’ll teach, what they’ll learn, how you’ll measure it, how you’ll govern the tools. The orgs writing that story this spring will be the orgs winning the grants this fall.

    § Foundation Watch

    OpenAI Foundation Names a Civil Society Lead and Maps $1B in Grants

    The OpenAI Foundation announced this month that Anna Makanju has joined as Head of AI for Civil Society and Philanthropy — leading work to help nonprofits, NGOs, and philanthropic institutions accelerate impact with AI. Robert Kaiden joined as CFO and Jeff Arnold as Director of Operations the same week, signaling the Foundation is staffing up rapidly (OpenAI Foundation update).

    Over the next year, the Foundation expects to invest at least $1 billion across four buckets: life sciences and curing diseases, jobs and economic impact, AI resilience, and community programs (Inside Philanthropy). Read alongside last week’s $500M Humanity AI coalition: a second large pool of capital is now being shaped explicitly for civil-society AI work.

    Cousin’s Take

    Two billion-dollar-class commitments to civil-society AI in 30 days. That’s not coincidence — that’s a tide. Don’t wait for a Notice of Funding Availability to start thinking about how you’d describe your AI work in one paragraph. The orgs that already have a clear AI mission story will be in the room when these dollars start moving; the orgs still figuring it out won’t.

    § Education Beat

    Boston Public Schools Begins AI Literacy Rollout

    Boston is the first major U.S. city to make AI proficiency an expectation for every high school graduate. The initiative — announced in late March by Mayor Michelle Wu, Superintendent Mary Skipper, and tech entrepreneur Paul English — moves into implementation across 20 BPS high schools this fall, then expands districtwide (WBUR, GovTech).

    The $1M public-private partnership funds teacher training, an industry-informed curriculum co-developed with UMass Boston’s Paul English Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute, student hackathons, and career-pathway internships. The framing matters: students learn to use AI “productively, ethically, and safely” — both potential and risk in the same lesson plan.

    Cousin’s Take

    Boston is the proof of concept other districts will copy. If you run a school, after-school program, workforce pipeline, or youth-serving nonprofit, the question isn’t whether AI literacy lands in the curriculum near you — it’s how soon, and whether your org will lead it or scramble to catch up. Start mapping now: who are your AI-fluent staff, what could you teach this fall, and which local employer would co-fund a pilot?

    § Practical Tip of the Week

    Write Your One-Paragraph AI Literacy Pitch

    This week, sit with a doc and answer four questions in 200 words or less: (1) Who in our community do we serve, and what’s the AI question they face? (2) What are we doing about it — internally and externally? (3) How do we govern the tools we use? (4) What outcome should a funder expect from supporting that work?

    That paragraph becomes the foundation of every grant LOI you write this year. It’s also the answer when your board asks “what’s our AI strategy?” Most orgs can’t answer in one paragraph because they’ve never tried. Try this week. The clarity is the prize.

    § By The Numbers

    $1B

    the OpenAI Foundation’s stated grantmaking commitment over the next year. (OpenAI)

    134

    AI-in-education bills introduced across 31 states in the 2026 legislative session. (MultiState)

    20

    Boston high schools launching AI literacy curriculum in September 2026, with districtwide expansion to follow. (GovTech)

    The Takeaway

    Federal grant priorities, foundation capital, big-city school districts, and state legislatures are all moving in the same direction this week. AI literacy is becoming table stakes for mission-driven work — not an optional upgrade. The orgs that get clear on their AI story this spring will lead this conversation by fall.

    Want to draft your one-paragraph AI literacy pitch with a thinking partner?

    Book a free 20-minute strategy session with Warren Wiggins — bring your draft (or a blank page), leave with a starting point. Schedule here or reply to this post.

    Curated by Warren Wiggins · Created by Cousin Claude · Cousin’s AI Circulation, April 2026 · Astute Intelligence — Do More of What Matters.