AI for Civic Cohesion: Civic Health Project Opens Fellowship for Early-Stage Builders

Civic Health Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit based in the San Francisco Bay Area working at the intersection of artificial intelligence and civic discourse, has opened applications for its AI for Civic Cohesion Fellowship, a 12-month program supporting early-stage innovators building AI tools that bridge divides. The organization argues that many promising tools addressing polarization and online discourse remain isolated, underfunded, and disconnected from the networks that could help them scale, and the fellowship exists to close that gap through funding, peer community, and visibility. Five U.S.-based recipients will each receive a $10,000 unrestricted grant, five facilitated cohort convenings, access to a practitioner network, and an opportunity to pitch their work to funders. Concept notes are due August 14, 2026, with awards announced October 5, 2026. For practitioners in the NCDD network experimenting with technology to support constructive engagement across difference, the fellowship offers concrete resources at a stage when most projects struggle to find them.

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Civic Health Project has launched a fellowship for people building AI tools that help others engage productively across difference, and the first application deadline arrives in three weeks. The Bay Area nonprofit works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, civic discourse, and social cohesion, operating from the position that technology designed with care can strengthen rather than erode civic fabric. The organization's reasoning for the program is straightforward. Tools with real potential to address polarization and improve online discourse tend to be early-stage, built in isolation, short on funding, and invisible to the funders and networks that could carry them further. The fellowship targets that specific failure point rather than trying to seed new work from scratch.

Five U.S.-based fellows will each receive a $10,000 unrestricted grant, participation in five facilitated cohort convenings across the 12-month period, ongoing thought partnership with Civic Health Project's practitioner network, a structured opportunity to present to a curated funder group, and promotion across the organization's external communications. Eligibility is narrow and worth reading closely. Applicants must be nonprofits, academic teams, or individual innovators, since for-profit ventures are excluded. Projects must be genuinely early-stage, meaning development began within the past two years and total spending to date falls under $50,000. The tool must already exist in working form rather than as a concept, and it must leverage frontier AI such as large language models or agentic systems. Civic Health Project has expressed particular interest in tools built as, or adaptable to, AI agents or MCP servers that other platforms can call on directly, though this is not required. One boundary matters for this network in particular: tools whose primary focus is reducing mis- and disinformation or supporting citizen deliberation fall outside the scope of this round.
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​Applications proceed in two stages. Stage one asks for a concept note of no more than 300 words describing the project, its intended users, and why it matters, submitted through a Google Form alongside answers to several brief questions. That deadline is August 14, 2026. Invitations to stage two go out August 28, with full proposals covering design, budget, timeline, and evaluation due September 25. Award notifications follow on October 5, and the fellowship period begins that same month, with 60 percent of funding disbursed at the start and the remaining 40 percent in May 2027. Fellows are expected to attend the cohort meetings, participate in shared communication channels, exchange learnings with peers, and present to the funder panel. For NCDD members building or advising on technology that supports bridging work, this is a short window with a low-cost first step. Questions about the application process can be directed to Trinidad Reynoso Castillo at [email protected], with "AI for Civic Cohesion Fellowship" in the subject line. Visit https://www.civichealthproject.org to review the full guidelines and submit a concept note before August 14.

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