Young Futures announced nearly $1.4 million in funding for 16 nonprofits focused on helping young people engage with artificial intelligence in a safe, informed, and empowered way. The initiative marks the organization’s first dedicated AI funding effort and reflects growing concern about how rapidly AI is shaping youth experiences across learning, relationships, and identity.
The selected organizations were chosen from more than 200 applicants and will receive financial support and participate in the Young Futures Academy, a five-month accelerator program launching in April. The program will include leadership development, fundraising strategy, executive coaching, mentorship, and peer collaboration, culminating in a live showcase in August.
The funding initiative, titled “Oops!… AI Did It Again,” is backed by a coalition of philanthropic organizations and technology partners. It focuses on four core areas: youth-powered AI, learning and work, relationships and mental health, and intergenerational guidance.
Within youth-powered AI, organizations such as Code Girls United, Girl Security, Joy Education, and NoSo aim to help young people move beyond passive use of AI toward active creation and critical engagement.
In the learning, work, and creativity category, groups including Connecticut State Library, Innovation For Everyone, Mark Cuban Foundation, and Televisa Foundation are addressing how AI is transforming education systems, creative expression, and future career pathways.
Organizations like Letters to Strangers, PBS News Student Reporting Labs, and Urban Initiatives are exploring AI’s impact on relationships, emotional well-being, and identity, while helping youth navigate these challenges responsibly.
The intergenerational guidance category includes Advancing Indigenous Science and Engineering Society, Center for Parent and Teen Communication at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Cyber Collective, KQED, and Screen Sanity, all of which are focused on equipping parents, educators, and communities with tools to support young people in an AI-driven world.
Young Futures emphasized that the goal of the initiative is not only to teach AI literacy, but to foster agency, critical thinking, and confidence among young people as they navigate an increasingly AI-integrated society.
KEY QUOTES:
“AI is already shaping how young people learn, relate, create and make sense of themselves, but too often they are being asked to navigate that reality without the support, context, or power to question it. What gives me so much hope about this cohort is that these leaders are not simply teaching young people how to use AI, they are creating the conditions for young people to build confidence, exercise critical thinking and develop real agency in a world where AI is increasingly unavoidable.”
Katya Hancock, CEO of Young Futures
“No one has a bigger stake in how AI is shaping the future than young people. This cohort of organizations will help young people do more than understand AI; it will help them harness it to create the future they want.”
Renee Wittemyer, Vice President of Program Strategy at Pivotal
“Young people aren’t just the future of AI — they’re building it right now. Omidyar Network is proud to support the organizations that give youth the tools, knowledge, and platform to challenge and shape the systems that affect their lives. Technology must expand opportunity, not concentrate it. This cohort isn’t teaching adaptation — it is demonstrating agency. And that’s exactly the kind of bold, inclusive vision that moves us from an AI revolution to an AI renaissance.”
Michele L. Jawando, President of Omidyar Network
“Every YF Innovators cohort comes in with strong ideas and deep community roots, but what makes this group different is the moment they’re entering. AI is moving so fast that even the most experienced practitioners are figuring it out in real time. YF Academy is designed to give these leaders the rare gift of slowing down together — to sharpen their thinking, stress-test their approaches and build the kind of peer relationships that will outlast the program.”
Sierra Malia Foxwoods, Director of Programs at Young Futures
