Active Grant Applications
- AppliedTravel for three from Canada to PauseCon 2026 in London, Sept 4-8→grantmaking.ai· grantmaking.ai Launch Round· Applied Jul 13, 2026· $5,000 (up to $5,200)
What this application is for
What this project is
Three members of PauseAI Canada would like to travel to London from Sept 4-8 to attend PauseCon 2026 on Sept 5-7 (we want a travel day on either end). We will require expenses for travel, food, one night's accommodation, and miscellaneous expenses.
At the conference we expect to share knowledge and gain skills and connections that will help us spread AI awareness and activism in our local communities in Montreal and Winnipeg. These in turn will help the global community work towards an international pause on the development of frontier AI models.
People
Updated 07/13/26 · By grantmaking.aiFounder
Funding Details
Updated 07/13/26 · By grantmaking.ai- $715,000
Org Details
Updated 07/13/26 · By grantmaking.aiPauseAI was founded in May 2023 in Utrecht, Netherlands by Joep Meindertsma, a software entrepreneur who became alarmed about existential risks from AI after reading Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence and decided to put his company on hold to act on his concerns. What began as a single protest outside Microsoft's Brussels lobbying office grew rapidly into an international network with chapters in more than 14 countries.
The organization is legally registered as Stichting PauseAI (KVK 92951031) in the Netherlands, with ANBI charitable status granted in February 2024. It operates as a federation: PauseAI Global coordinates strategy and supports national and local chapters, which maintain their own websites, social media accounts, and in some cases their own legal entities. PauseAI US is the largest national chapter, operating as a separate 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
The paid staff at the global level consists of an Executive Team of three: CEO Maxime Fournes, Organizing Director Irina Tavera, and Communications Director Jonathan Moody. A board of three — Joep Meindertsma (Founder and Chair), Otto Barten, and Michiel van den Ingh — provides governance oversight. National chapters are led by paid or volunteer Chapter Directors. The bulk of operations are carried out by hundreds of volunteers organized into teams covering operations, onboarding, and communications.
Key activities include: protest organizing (coordinated global actions in May 2024 and February 2025, the largest UK AI safety protest at Google DeepMind in June 2025, and PauseCon training events beginning in 2025); direct lobbying of legislators in the US, EU, and UK; media campaigns that have resulted in coverage in Time, Wired, Politico, and Bloomberg; and a MicroGrants program funding grassroots projects by community members.
As of late 2025, PauseAI had received approximately €715,000 in cumulative donations, with the Future of Life Institute as its largest donor at €422,961. The roadmap page reported approximately €90,000 in cash reserves. The organization's first formal bookkeeping period runs from February 2024 through December 2025, after which an annual report is planned.
Theory of Impact
Updated 07/13/26 · By grantmaking.aiPauseAI believes that the development of increasingly powerful AI systems poses an existential risk if allowed to continue without adequate safety guarantees. Their theory of change is that a sufficiently large and visible grassroots movement, combined with targeted lobbying, can shift political will and create pressure for an international agreement — modeled loosely on nuclear nonproliferation regimes — that pauses or restricts the training of the most powerful frontier AI models until safety can be demonstrated. By making AI risk legible to the public, demonstrating that demand for a pause exists, and directly engaging legislators and institutions, they aim to create the political conditions for binding international coordination before transformative AI systems are developed.
Projects
Updated 07/13/26 · By grantmaking.ai
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