The Charity AI Brand Footprint Study, by Whole Whale, is the nonprofit sector’s first multi-model analysis of how AI systems recommend charitable organizations. The study analyzes over 650+ AI responses across 6 major AI players—Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, OpenAI’s GPT-4, X’s Grok, and Perplexity—using 120 different donor-style prompts across 12 major cause areas.
Examples of donor exploration prompts:
- Where to give to environmental organizations?
- What are the best nonprofits for animal causes?
- How to donate to health causes effectively?
- How to support education efforts?
- How to donate to poverty causes effectively?
- How to make a difference in human rights causes?
- Where to give to arts and culture organizations?
- Top-rated disaster relief charities
- Organizations fighting for mental health rights?
- Top-rated cancer charities
“2025 giving will be defined by AI influence. Even small algorithmic biases will tip millions of charitable decisions.“
George Weiner, Chief Whaler, Whole Whale
The results reveal fascinating patterns about how different AI models “think”:
- Some models lead with bold data and ratings, signaling authority through numbers
- Others organize recommendations by geography or innovation level
- Several separate causes by operational strategy rather than just listing organizations
- Many offer balanced perspectives that mix organizational strengths with honest critiques
For these results, we filter out non-charities, which means recommendations to donate through platforms like GoFundMe aren’t shown. However, GoFundMe was mentioned across all results a total of 29 times, with Grok being the most likely to recommend it with 20 of the 29 mentions, followed by LLAMA with 4 mentions.
Example of the variance in Animal nonprofits recommended by AI model:
The study reveals that AI models often recommend charities by citing third-party validators such as Charity Navigator, GuideStar, and GiveWell. OpenAI and Grok, for instance, are heavily influenced by effective altruism principles, frequently citing GiveWell and specific Charity Navigator ratings. In contrast, LLAMA and Anthropic tend to rely on more general knowledge about established organizations without consistently citing specific ratings, or they mention these groups as tools for users to do their own research.
Number of Unique Nonprofits by Cause
We were surprised to see the ~100 org range in number of unique nonprofits, showing a herding effect for causes like cancer and health.
To get a full understanding of the study’s insights and what they mean for your organization, you can download the full report.
Find out:
- How your cause area is currently represented across AI systems
- Which approaches different AI models favor in your sector
- Where the opportunities exist to improve your AI discoverability
- What content strategies actually work in the age of artificial intelligence
“It doesn’t matter what YOUR organization thinks about AI.
It matters what AI thinks about YOUR organization.“
Megan Anhalt, President, Whole Whale
Top 10 Nonprofits According to AI by Mention
Based on the “Charity AI Brand Footprint Benchmark Study,” here is a summary of the top 10 charities by AI mention count for each of the 12 causes analyzed.
Charity AI Brand Footprint Visualization
Top 10 AI-Mentioned Charities by Cause
More AI Resources
Whole Whale is a proud contributor to the AI for Nonprofits book.
AI for Nonprofits: Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Cause
by Darian Rodriguez Heyman (Author), Cheryl Contee (Author)
In AI for Nonprofits: Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Cause, a team of leading nonprofit experts and social entrepreneurs delivers a startlingly insightful, strategic “how-to guide” for nonprofit and foundation leaders, board members, and volunteers, as well as higher education professionals and social entrepreneurs looking to deploy and integrate artificial intelligence tailored to their organization’s mission and needs. It’s the leading reference guide for people who are entirely new to AI, as well as tech-savvy veterans with a deep understanding of artificial intelligence looking for proven, hands-on techniques they can apply immediately to transform their nonprofits.
2-Day Cohort
Google AI Cohort
Learn how to get the most out of Google for Nonprofit AI tools