AI is making its way into education, often before the schools and communities that need it most are prepared.
Students are already using AI to find information, complete tasks, translate written material, and learn about new topics. Students are already using AI to find information, complete tasks, translate written material, and learn about new topics. Teachers are looking into using artificial intelligence to create lesson plans and administer them. Teachers are looking into using artificial intelligence to create lesson plans and administer them. Governments are beginning to consider AI skills as part of the future education system. Governments are beginning to consider AI skills as part of the future education system. Meanwhile, technology companies are developing tools that could revolutionize how students learn and teachers teach. Meanwhile, technology companies are developing tools that could revolutionize how students learn and teachers teach.
But, beneath all of these advancements, there is a major issue: not every student starts at the same place.
A student in a well-funded school may have access to computers, high-speed internet, teachers who are trained in new technology, and digital learning resources. While a student in a school with limited educational resources. If AI only appears in areas with the necessary infrastructure and resources, the gap may widen even further.
This is the challenge the Atlassian Foundation is looking to solve through a new US$8 million grant to support global learners from disadvantaged communities to flourish in the AI age. Our current open call is looking for registered nonprofits across the world who are committed to collective action to enhance education for disadvantaged learners. Up to US$1 million over two years is available for successful partnerships. The application deadline is 11:59pm AEDT on 30 October 2026.
One thing should not be missed by NGOs, though. The chance is not just a big wallet for organizations seeking to develop an AI education app. The Atlassian Foundation actively seeks partnership and collective action projects with more than a single organization and type of stakeholder.
That extends this opportunity far beyond a typical technology grant.
Why Education Needs to Change in the AI Era
The education industry was already in dire straits even before AI became a hot topic.
As reported by the Atlassian Foundation, UNESCO’s figures reveal that, globally, 57% or almost one billion children are not learning fundamental literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills. Data from the OECD show a downward trend for reading and math performance.
This frames the discussion around AI.
People often refer to AI in education as if the real question is, “Do we want students to use ChatGPT, or do we want our schools to invest in AI learning platforms?” However, the question has existed for a while for many communities.
- Do students have access to good teachers?
- Do they have learning materials?
- Can they attend school regularly?
- Do teachers have enough training?
- Do families have reliable internet?
- Can students afford a device?
- Do young people have access to career guidance?
Technology cannot solve every one of these problems. In some communities, introducing a sophisticated AI tool without addressing basic infrastructure may have very little impact.
That is why the Atlassian Foundation’s approach is interesting. It is not simply asking nonprofits to introduce AI. It is asking them to think about how education itself needs to evolve as technology changes and how that change can benefit learners who have historically been left behind.
What Is the $8 Million Atlassian Foundation Opportunity?
The Foundation announced that it is deploying US$8 million over the next two years to help learners from under-resourced communities thrive in the AI era.
The current open call is focused on collective-action initiatives. Partnerships can request up to US$1 million over a two-year period, and selected partners will also become part of a learning cohort. Atlassian says additional non-financial support will include access to its tools and expertise.
The application deadline is October 30, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. AEDT.
The Foundation expects funded work to begin around May or June 2027, with applicants expected to receive the outcome of their applications by March 31, 2027.
There is another useful detail for NGOs: the Foundation’s current open call represents at least $5.5 million of the broader $8 million commitment, according to Coordination SUD’s funding summary.
So headlines describing this simply as an “$8 million grant” can be slightly misleading. It is better to understand the $8 million as the Foundation’s wider two-year commitment, with the current open call forming a significant part of that funding.
This Is Not an “AI for AI’s Sake” Grant
Caution Against AI Hype
Bit caught up in the AI craze? Well, you’re not alone, but here’s the kicker: using AI because everyone is talking about it isn’t the right reason to adopt AI at your company. The Foundation is committed to resisting this AI rush to jump on the bandwagon without considering whether or not we need it.
AI is a hot topic in grant applications, long before the world’s digital transformation craze. But many applications are incorporating AI where it’s not needed, and some applications are using a term as a buzzword for an otherwise traditional concept. As a foundation, what should you do?
According to the Atlassian Foundation, start with the problem, then add the solution.
A non-profit organization might realize the importance of helping students choose a career and consider using AI. That may be an option, but don’t forget teachers, mentors, and community groups.
So what about teachers in badly resourced schools, writing herculean hours of resources to teach up simple content? AI could perhaps help with that by producing or improving material. But don’t forget to include the teacher: it’s teachers who will need to filter, adapt, and approve the content.
Basically, technology is only one part of the equation. You need to understand how it makes sense in the context of solving one or more issues. So, how do you ensure that AI supports your mission, not compromises it?
Why Atlassian Wants Collective Action
What if you didn’t have to solve education issues all by yourself? Well, that’s the innovative promise of this opportunity, unlike the usual NGO grant. The Atlassian Foundation strongly believes that only by working together in coalition can we really make an impact on the complex education challenges. Our collective-action model brings together a range of players—NGOs, governments, private-sector organizations, schools, communities-to align toward common goals, implement, and learn.
Imagine the intricate detail of a normal education challenge. Who knows what the community really feels? The NGOs.
And the teachers, those ‘insiders’ in the schools, know best what their pupils need on a daily basis.
And the government departments that set education policy and oversee the public schools. And the technology companies; the researchers looking at effectiveness; and the parents and young people.
What’s the alternative? The response? Deadlock.
However, when these groups align to a common purpose, share information, and work together, they can deliver extraordinary results with the same resources.
This is the revolutionarily entrepreneurial collaboration Atlassian is building. And what if they do? All things are possible.
What Does “Collective Action” Actually Mean?
The phrase can sound like typical development-sector language, but the Foundation gives it a fairly practical meaning.
A collective-action initiative needs multiple players working together through shared goals, shared delivery, and shared learning. It should address a challenge that no single organization could realistically solve alone.
The Foundation’s eligibility information says there must be at least two actors involved. These can include nonprofits, NGOs, government, private-sector organizations, and communities.
The partnership also needs shared goals and metrics, joint delivery, and committed partners who are ready to move toward implementation.
This means an NGO should not simply find another organization, put its logo on a proposal, and call it a partnership.
The collaboration needs to be meaningful.
- Who does what?
- Who makes decisions?
- Who works directly with communities?
- Who provides technical expertise?
- Who measures results?
- How will the partners learn from each other?
- And what happens after the funding ends?
These questions are likely to matter far more than simply saying that an organization has several partners.
The Opportunity Is Global
One particularly useful feature for NGOs outside North America and Europe is that the open call is global.
Registered nonprofits can apply from countries where they meet the Foundation’s requirements. The Foundation specifically gives examples of recognized nonprofit status, including FCRA status in India or an equivalent charitable registration in other countries.
That makes the opportunity potentially relevant to NGOs working in India, Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and other regions.
However, being located in a lower-income country does not automatically guarantee eligibility. The initiative still needs to meet the Foundation’s criteria, including direct relief of disadvantage, collective action, and a clear connection to evolving education in the AI era.
The people or communities benefiting from the program also cannot be located in a country subject to international sanctions.
For Indian NGOs in particular, the reference to FCRA status is worth paying attention to. It indicates that the Foundation has considered the legal structures used by nonprofits in different countries rather than designing the opportunity exclusively around U.S. or Australian nonprofit models.
What Kind of Projects Could Fit?
There is no single project model prescribed by the Foundation.
That leaves room for organizations to think creatively about what disadvantaged learners actually need.
One possibility is AI literacy.
Young people will increasingly encounter AI in education and employment. An NGO could work with schools and teachers to help students understand how AI works, how to evaluate AI-generated information, and how to use these systems responsibly.
But AI literacy alone may not be enough.
Another approach could focus on future-ready skills.
Students may need stronger problem-solving, communication, digital literacy and career-planning skills as workplaces change. NGOs could work with employers, educators and youth organizations to develop pathways connecting education with emerging employment opportunities.
There could also be opportunities around teacher capacity.
Teachers are often expected to adapt to new technologies while already managing large classrooms, administrative work and limited resources. A programme that helps educators understand when AI is useful—and when it is not—could be more valuable than simply giving every teacher access to another digital tool.
Then there is career development.
AI is likely to change the skills employers want and the types of work available. Young people from disadvantaged communities may be particularly vulnerable if they do not have access to reliable information about changing career paths.
An NGO could potentially bring together schools, employers, workforce organizations and technology partners to create better career guidance.
The common thread is simple: the project should address a real disadvantage and use collaboration to tackle it.
Atlassian’s Existing Partners Give Some Clues
The Foundation has already announced several initiatives that show the direction it is interested in.
One is CareerVillage’s AI for Career Development Coalition in the United States. The initiative brings together more than 195 organizations across education, workforce, research and philanthropy to develop AI career coaching for underserved youth, with attention to safety, ethics and accessibility.
Another is Mantra4Change’s Collective for Future Readiness initiative in India.
The project brings together government, schools, communities and technical partners across two Indian states to provide AI literacy and future-ready skills to adolescents in government schools. The Foundation says the initiative is expected to reach more than 460,000 adolescents.
There is also Teach For All’s Teachers as Co-Architects of AI initiative, which brings educators from under-resourced schools into the conversation about how AI should be used in classrooms. The initiative draws on Teach For All’s 63-country network and aims to improve learning for approximately 500,000 students.
These examples are useful because they show that the Foundation is not looking at AI only from a technology-development perspective.
It is looking at systems.
India Provides a Good Example of the Challenge
India is an interesting case because it has both a rapidly growing technology sector and enormous differences in educational access.
There are students studying in highly connected urban environments who may already be experimenting with generative AI. At the same time, millions of students attend government schools where digital access, teacher capacity and infrastructure can vary considerably.
This makes the question of AI and inequality particularly important.
The goal should not be to give every student the same AI tool and assume the problem has been solved.
A better approach may be to identify where the education system is struggling and then use technology where it genuinely improves the situation.
The Mantra4Change partnership supported by the Atlassian Foundation is an example of this thinking. Rather than treating AI as a standalone product, it brings together government, schools, communities, civil society and technical partners.
That model could be relevant to NGOs across India that already have strong relationships with schools and communities but may not have the technical resources to build AI projects independently.
The Role of Teachers Cannot Be Replaced
There is another point that deserves more attention.
The future of AI in education will not be decided only by technology companies.
Teachers will have an enormous influence on whether AI actually improves learning.
A teacher knows when a student is confused. A teacher knows when a particular explanation will not work. A teacher understands the classroom environment and can notice emotional and social issues that an algorithm may never detect.
AI can provide assistance.
It cannot automatically replace that human understanding.
This is why the Teach For All initiative is particularly interesting. Rather than treating educators as passive users of AI tools, it focuses on helping teachers become co-architects of how AI is used in classrooms.
For NGOs, this is an important principle.
Technology programmes should involve teachers from the beginning, not bring them in after the technology has already been designed.
The same applies to students and parents.
If the people who are supposed to benefit from a programme have no voice in its design, there is a risk that the final product will solve a problem that does not actually exist—or solve a real problem in a way that is difficult to use.
What Happens to the Digital Divide?
The digital divide poses significant challenges for AI in education.
Envisioning a future with AI tutors, customized learning systems, and smart educational platforms seems feasible.
- But what happens to a child without dependable internet access?
- What occurs when multiple children use a single device?
- What is the situation when a school possesses computers but lacks technical support?
- What if educational materials are available only in a few primary languages?
These issues are particularly crucial for NGOs operating in rural and low-resource areas.
AI should not simply be a service that is accessible in theory but not in practice.
A successful project must consider offline availability, local languages, teacher assistance, affordable devices, accessibility for children with disabilities, and community-oriented distribution.
The technology might only represent a portion of the total budget.
Training, execution, oversight, maintenance, and community involvement could be equally vital.
Responsible AI Has to Be Part of the Conversation
There is also a safety dimension.
Children using AI may encounter incorrect information, inappropriate content or biased responses. AI systems may also collect information about users, creating questions about privacy and data protection.
For NGOs, particularly those working with children, these concerns cannot be treated as technical footnotes.
They need to be part of programme design.
- Who owns the data?
- Where is it stored?
- Who has access?
- What information should never be collected?
- How will teachers identify inaccurate AI-generated content?
- What happens when the system makes a mistake?
- Can children understand that they are interacting with an AI system?
These questions become even more important when programmes operate across countries with different laws and levels of digital infrastructure.
The Atlassian Foundation itself says that where AI is used, the use should be deliberate and appropriate, with consideration given to risks and safeguards. It also makes clear that choosing not to use AI can be the right decision if that choice is well considered.
That is a useful message for the wider NGO sector.
Not every development problem needs an AI solution.
What the Funding Opportunity Does Not Cover
NGOs should also be careful not to assume that every education-related project will qualify.
The Foundation says that research on its own is not eligible. Neither are single-organization projects, individual scholarships or bursaries, one-off conferences and events, endowment building, capital campaigns, retrospective funding, political campaigning, religious or proselytizing activities, or for-profit ventures and commercial products.
This is particularly important for NGOs that normally apply for research grants.
A research project could potentially form part of a wider initiative, but research alone does not meet the collective-action requirement.
Similarly, an NGO cannot simply propose an existing programme and ask the Foundation to fund it without showing how the work fits the broader goal of transforming education for disadvantaged learners in the AI era.
The Funding Has Some Practical Conditions
There are also financial requirements worth understanding before an organization invests significant time in an application.
The maximum request is US$1 million over two years, but that amount is capped at 25% of the lead organization’s operating budget over the same period. At least 60% of the funding must go toward direct programme costs.
The Foundation also expects funded initiatives to participate in its learning cohort, and budgets should include funding for at least one person from the initiative to travel to the United States or Australia in 2027/2028 for cohort activities.
That means NGOs should think carefully about whether they have the financial management capacity, partnership structure and organizational resources to manage a grant of this size.
A large grant is not automatically a better grant if an organization does not have the systems needed to manage it responsibly.
What Should NGOs Do Before Applying?
For an NGO reading about this opportunity, the first step should not be to start writing a 20-page proposal.
Start by asking what problem the organization is actually trying to solve.
Maybe students in the community are leaving school without the skills employers need.
Maybe teachers lack support for integrating technology into classrooms.
Maybe young people have limited access to career information.
Maybe disadvantaged students are being left behind as education becomes increasingly digital.
Once the problem is clear, map the organizations already working around it.
- Who is doing what?
- Where are the gaps?
- Who has access to schools?
- Who understands government policy?
- Who can provide technical expertise?
- Who can work directly with families?
- Who can measure educational outcomes?
Then build the partnership around those answers.
This is much stronger than starting with, “We need an AI project.”
Measuring Impact Will Matter
Another area NGOs should think carefully about is measurement.
An organization should not measure success simply by counting how many students used an AI tool.
That tells us very little.
A more meaningful evaluation might ask whether students improved their learning outcomes, whether teachers saved time, whether young people gained useful employment skills, whether disadvantaged learners gained access to opportunities they previously could not reach, or whether the education system became more inclusive.
For a two-year programme, organizations should also think about what happens after the grant ends.
- Can the model continue?
- Can government partners adopt it?
- Can schools maintain it?
- Can teachers continue using the resources?
- Can communities adapt the programme?
- Can the approach be expanded without the same level of funding?
These questions turn a pilot into something potentially more sustainable.
Why This Could Be Important for Smaller NGOs
Large international organizations often have an advantage when applying for major grants. They may have dedicated fundraising departments, monitoring teams, technical specialists and established partnerships.
Smaller local NGOs may not have those resources.
But collective action can potentially change that equation.
A smaller NGO may bring something a large organization cannot easily replicate: deep community trust and knowledge.
It may know which villages are underserved, which schools need support and which local leaders can help a project succeed.
If that organization can partner with a university, technology group, government department or larger nonprofit, it can bring those strengths into a larger initiative.
That is one of the most interesting aspects of Atlassian Foundation’s model.
It creates a reason for organizations with different capabilities to work together rather than competing for the same grant as isolated applicants.
The Bigger Question: Who Benefits From the AI Revolution?
The Atlassian Foundation’s funding opportunity comes at an important moment.
The world is investing heavily in AI. Businesses are using it to automate work. Governments are developing AI strategies. Schools are debating how students should use generative AI. Universities are changing curricula.
But technological progress does not automatically mean social progress.
If AI tools become concentrated among people who already have good education, strong internet access and economic opportunities, the technology could reinforce existing inequality.
On the other hand, if governments, NGOs, schools, communities and responsible technology companies work together, AI could potentially be used to expand access to learning and prepare young people for a changing economy.
That is the choice sitting behind this funding opportunity.
A New Role for NGOs in the AI Era
NGOs have traditionally been important because they reach communities that large institutions sometimes struggle to reach.
That role is not disappearing because of AI.
In some ways, it may become even more important.
Technology companies can build powerful systems, but NGOs can help determine whether those systems actually make sense in a particular community.
They can ask questions that are easy to miss in a technology lab.
- Will families trust this?
- Does it work in the local language?
- Can teachers realistically use it?
- What happens to children without smartphones?
- What happens to people with disabilities?
- What happens if the AI gives the wrong answer?
And perhaps most importantly: does this actually improve someone’s life?
Those questions are valuable.
What This $8 Million Commitment Really Signals
This is probably the most significant aspect that makes the opportunity unlike an ordinary NGO grant. The Atlassian Foundation believes that large-scale educational issues are not solvable by individual organizations acting alone. Its model of collective action is intended to bring together a variety of actors who have shared goals, delivery methods, and learning outcomes. These actors might be non-profit or not-for-profit organizations, NGOs, government agencies, private-sector organizations, schools, and communities.
Let’s take a typical educational challenge as an example: a Nongovernmental organisation might have a good understanding of the community, whereas a school has deeper knowledge about its pupils. Teachers will know what happens within the classroom on a daily basis, but government departments have more power or influence over the education system or public schools. A technology company might understand the technical requirements and researchers can measure the impact of programs, while parents and young people themselves might have a good understanding of their needs and what they are lacking.
If these groups work in isolation, progress will be slow; if they create shared goals, share data, distribute tasks and learn from each other they might have a much greater effect.
This is what the Atlassian Foundation aims to facilitate.
