Our AI-focused Innovation Hub event at Linklaters HQ on Friday 2nd June covered the need-to-know aspects of recent developments in AI for BAMER-led non-profits.
Alongside the event, we decided to test the chatbots’ performance on basic fundraising questions around prospecting for trusts and foundations.
”Out of the six funding programmes Bard recommended, only one actually exists.
Given that the quality of AI systems’ outputs comes largely from the quality of their training data, the inaccuracy we found in the chatbots’ responses speaks volumes about the historic lack of mainstream funding to support BAMER-led non-profits, and especially grassroots race equality work. Many of the UK’s largest funders made significant commitments to address the situation in 2020—and our panel discussion at Dragons’ Den 2022 covered the issue in detail—but for now, they’re still no match for specialist resource centres like BAMER HUB, events like Meet the Funder, #BootCamps, and #BrunchBriefings, and accelerator programmes like AVOCADO+ and AVOCADO+ Lite.
Question 1: Where can I get funding for non-profit work on race equality in northeast England?
First, we asked Bard, Google’s chatbot, which it says is powered by the large language model LaMDA.
Out of the six funding programmes Bard recommended, only one actually exists.
First, it suggested we apply to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF)’s “Race Equality Fund” and “Community Resilience Fund.” JRF has funded race equality work—by the Runnymede Trust and Voice4Change England, for example—so it’s not misleading for Bard to point to them. But the foundation confirmed to us it has not operated funds under the specific names Bard came up with.
Bard also suggested we apply to the Big Lottery Fund’s “Community Fund and their Awards for All Fund.” Big Lottery Fund is the legal name of the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF), not its parent organisation, a change that happened in 2019. The Awards for All programme in England is not specifically focused on race equality work, but at least it exists. And it does fund some race equality work, including initiatives for the 75th anniversary of Windrush this year.