Is your nonprofit preparing young people for AI? October 6, 2026, is the deadline for Citi Foundation grant’s ‘Letter of Intention’
by Piyush Mathur
Yes, you read that right! The US-based Citi Foundation has set October 6, 2026, as the deadline for eligible non-profit organisations to submit their Letters of Intention regarding its grant for projects that would orient and train young people to navigate the unfolding era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) . The foundation’s call was published on September 9, 2026.
The organisation must be legally registered as a non-profit—and active at least since 2024 (a year mentioned in the call in reference to the need for attaching financial records). Each grant will be worth USD 500,000; the organisation making the application for it is expected to propose a compelling project targeting young people in a wide range of specified geographical areas worldwide.
Formally named the ‘Fourth Global Innovation Challenge Request for Proposals Preparing Youth for AI’, the grant call basically has a global scope, which includes several US territories. The regions are identified in the call, which stresses that an eligible organisation does not have to be based in these areas—but its proposed project must focus on one or more of them.
Before collecting its grant award, a winning organisation will have to provide externally audited financial statements for some previous years, with Year 2024 mentioned as a possibility. The Foundation will provide specific instructions in that regard further down the process, which has three key stages.
For the Letter of Intention (LOI), the deadline is 12 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on October 6, 2026.
The Foundation will contact all organisations regarding the fate of their LOIs at the end of November, guiding the successful ones about what to do next. Based upon the proposals and other requested documents that these organisations submit thereafter, the final decision regarding the winning proposals will be made before ‘the end of May 2027.’
Each successful applicant will receive a grant of USD 500,000—which will be disbursed in two instalments: USD 250K in 2027, and the remaining half in 2028.
The formal call and associated internal links can be accessed via this file in Portable Document Format (pdf): https://www.citigroup.com/rcs/citigpa/storage/public/Summary_and_FAQ_Fourth_Global_Innovation_Challenge_Final.pdf
The above file is the Foundation’s official guideline, accessible from its website.
The call notes that English will be the only language for all grant-related correspondence, even though supporting documents may be in languages other than English (though conditions will apply).
Headquartered in New York, New York, Citi Foundation is Citigroup’s philanthropic arm. In its official press statements, the Foundation has tended to date its activities to 1999.