Cloudflare Expands Non-Profit Support as Civil Society Automates with AI

Cloudflare Expands Non-Profit Support as Civil Society Automates with AI Cloudflare has distributed over $7.5 million in developer credits to civil society organizations, addressing sector funding constraints and cybersecurity risks while opening applications for a second non-profit cohort. Over $7.5 million in developer credits have supported civil society organizations building automation and AI tools on Cloudflare. Non-profit adoption of AI faces hurdles including financial constraints (cited by 48% in a CIVICUS survey) and sensitive data privacy concerns. Cloudflare selected 30 organizations for its initial non-profit startup cohort, providing up to $250,000 in credits alongside engineering volunteer support. Applications have officially opened for a second cohort of non-profit organizations under the startup program. Sector Challenges and AI Adoption Civil society organizations face severe financial strain following reductions in government funding that led to layoffs and closed programs. While organizations turn to AI to do more with less, adoption is often ad hoc. In a CIVICUS survey, privacy concerns were highlighted as an adoption barrier by over half of respondents, and 48% pointed to financial constraints, which are compounded by high cyberattack risks and the sensitive nature of data such as activist locations and anonymous sources. Developer Services and Architecture To mitigate privacy, security, and cost barriers, Cloudflare provides built-in DDoS protection, unauthorized access prevention, and a serverless architecture that avoids paying for idle resources. Tools like Workers AI eliminate the necessity of managing dedicated GPU infrastructure, while AI Gateway applies rate limits, monitors AI usage, and routes models intelligently to control expenses. Cohort Milestones and Program Expansion Cloudflare selected 30 organizations for its first non-profit cohort, granting up to $250,000 in credits alongside volunteer engineering assistance to tackle complex workflows involving sensitive human rights data. Following projects that include tracking transnational repression for Freedom House and tracking engagement opportunities for the Global Network Initiative (GNI), Cloudflare opened applications for its second non-profit cohort.

Cloudflare通过AI与技术支持推动公民社会组织实现工作流自动化 Cloudflare分享了民间社会组织利用其开发者服务构建AI工具的现状。在面临资金削减与敏感数据安全风险的双重挑战下，Cloudflare提供了无服务器架构、技术额度及工程支持，并宣布开放第二期非营利组织初创计划申请。 受政府资助大幅削减影响，许多民间社会组织面临裁员和项目关停，CIVICUS调查显示超半数组织视隐私顾虑为采用AI的障碍，48%受到财务限制制约。 Cloudflare已累计为民间社会组织提供超过750万美元的开发者服务额度，其伽利略项目在逾120个国家保护了超过3400个域名。 Cloudflare为首期非营利初创项目选拔了30个组织，为每家提供最高25万美元的额度，并派出志愿者工程师团队协助处理敏感数据分析与原型开发。 Cloudflare即日起正式面向第二期非营利组织开放初创支持计划的申请。 民间社会组织的转型需求与现实困境 非营利组织的需求已从防护现有应用演变为自主构建AI工具，以服务于跟踪跨境镇压、心理健康危机救助或数字言论倡导等任务。然而，大量组织正因政府援助削减而陷入财务困境。根据CIVICUS的调查，超过半数的受访者认为隐私问题是采用AI的阻碍，48%受制于资金约束。由于持有活动人士行踪和匿名信源等高度敏感数据，这些组织极易成为网络攻击的目标。 针对安全性与成本的开发支持架构 针对非营利组织在安全与开支方面的顾虑，Cloudflare通过其全球网络提供原生的DDoS防御和访问控制。无服务器架构避免了空闲设施的成本开销，Workers AI免除了专用GPU运维负担，AI Gateway则提供速率限制和智能模型路由以防止不必要的调用。此外，针对涉及人权受害者姓名等高度敏感数据的复杂整合工作流，Cloudflare还组建了包括产品专家与安全顾问在内的工程师志愿者团队协助设计方案。 初创扶持成果与第二期招募启动 Cloudflare将面向初创企业的扶持拓展至非营利领域，为入选组织提供最高25万美元的服务额度。首批30个非营利组织已在人道救援、气候科学和公民参与等领域开发落地工具，涵盖自由之家（Freedom House）与全球网络倡议（GNI）的原型系统。随着首期项目的推行，Cloudflare宣布正式开放第二期非营利组织初创计划申请。

Tracking how governments target dissidents living in exile. Helping people in crisis find mental health support. Advocating for legislation that protects free expression online. These are a few examples of how some of the world's leading organizations are building the future of non-profit work with Cloudflare. AI is changing how people do their work. The goal of Cloudflare Impact is to help ensure that non-profit organizations are among the first to benefit. Today, we’re sharing what dozens of civil society organizations have built using our developer services with more than $7.5 million of Cloudflare credits. These stories show what is possible when AI applications are accessible, secure, and affordable to build and run. We believe a better Internet is one that allows people to express themselves online and access a diverse range of viewpoints. A key part of Cloudflare's mission has been making security services available for everyone and helping ensure that individuals and organizations working for the public interest are not forced offline by those more powerful. Today, [Project Galileo](https://www.cloudflare.com/galileo/), which provides free cybersecurity services to civil society organizations, protects more than 3,400 domains across more than 120 countries. Through these partnerships, organizations have shared with us how their needs have evolved from not only wanting to secure existing applications, but wanting to build new ones. AI has allowed non-technical teams to design, build, and scale tools tailored specifically for their workstreams and to advance their mission. This opportunity is arriving at a challenging moment for the sector. Many organizations [report](https://www.ifes.org/publications/assessing-impact-foreign-aid-rollbacks-civil-society) operating under financial [strain](https://www.article19.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/ARTICLE-19_Targeted_FINAL_April-2026.pdf) after major reductions in government funding contributed to [layoffs](https://freedomhouse.org/effects-us-foreign-aid-freeze-freedom-house) and closing of programs. As groups rebuild their work in a new environment, some have [reported](https://539405.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/539405/AI%20Report/Virtuous%202026%20Nonprofit%20AI%20Adoption%20Report.pdf) using AI to help do more with less. But adoption remains ad hoc. In a CIVICUS [survey](https://publications.civicus.org/publications/ai-and-civil-society-threats-and-obstacles-to-deployment-and-advocacy/), more than half of civil society respondents viewed privacy concerns as a barrier to use. These groups hold sensitive data, like the location of activists or the identities of anonymous sources, and are disproportionately at risk of cyberattacks, according to our own [Cloudflare data](https://cf-assets.www.cloudflare.com/dzlvafdwdttg/5YmIHaAURvy8ZKjJ1CcQo6/1335a737054c44915ace715348e62697/BDES-9187_Cyberattacks_against_civil_society_Project_Galileo_Anniversary_Report.pdf?cf_target_id=E986CECBA6610B2E317B3BA41593B9B7). Additionally, the cost of building and running complex automation workflows can be prohibitive. Among those surveyed by CIVICUS, 48% cited financial constraints limiting their adoption. Cloudflare helps address these concerns. Our developer services incorporate security and privacy protections from the outset. By running on our global network, applications are automatically protected from [distributed denial-of-service](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/ddos/) attacks and attempts to gain unauthorized access to internal systems. Civil society groups can also build and run applications more cost effectively. Our lightweight and serverless architecture scales with demand without requiring organizations to provision or pay for idle infrastructure. [Workers AI](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/workers-ai/) also removes the need to operate dedicated GPU infrastructure, while [AI Gateway](https://www.cloudflare.com/products/ai-gateway/) provides rate limits, observability into how teams are using AI, and intelligent model routing to reduce unnecessary model calls and keep costs under control. During Birthday Week last year, we [expanded](https://blog.cloudflare.com/expanding-startups-for-nonprofits/) Cloudflare for Startups to include non-profit and public interest organizations, providing each of them with up to $250,000 in credits for our developer services. We are proud to announce that we selected 30 organizations to participate in our first non-profit, startup cohort, and we have been thrilled to watch their ideas and tools designed to tackle problems in climate science, humanitarian aid, mental health, civic engagement, and education come to life. Here is what a few of these non-profits have built. We also heard from larger civil society organizations who wanted to build complex workflows and welcomed extra engineering support. These projects included several variations of the same problem: large amounts of manually-collected, dispersed information that needed to be integrated, reviewed, and structured in order for effective analysis to be conducted. The data involved was also sensitive, like the names of human rights abuse victims, and the risk of unauthorized access, data leakage, or hallucinations in an output could have serious consequences. Cloudflare not only provided free access to its developer service to support the development of each of these tools, but also assembled a team of volunteer engineers — product experts, front-end designers, back-end builders, and security advisors — to design and build them. Questions we’re exploring include where automation is helpful, which models align best with each task, how to incorporate the necessary security controls, and where a person must remain involved. *Prototype of Freedom House’s tool tracking transnational repression* *Prototype of GNI’s dashboard that tracks the status of engagement opportunities* It’s incredible to see how civil society organizations are evolving their work in an era of AI. Cloudflare is excited to play a small role in this process. Working directly alongside these organizations not only helps advance their missions, but also helps inform how we think about the security and privacy in high-risk environments and how we can scale similar programs moving forward. Our first non-profit startup cohort shows how automation can help the next generation of community service organizations use AI and automation to serve the public, and how they can do this securely and affordably. **We’re excited to announce that starting today we are officially opening our startup program to our second  cohort of non-profit organizations.** If your organization is interested, [**apply here**](https://www.cloudflare.com/startups/) and select the non-profit checkbox. We’d love to build with you!