AI Bid Writing Best Practice
We think the use of AI in bid writing has the power to help level the playing field of grant making processes that often result in small charities being less able to secure funding. However, we think that there is a significant risk of some grant makers either banning its use or giving a higher priority to non AI bid writing. We believe that this would make an already unequal process even more so.
Why Use of AI in Bid Writing is Ethical
An Already Unequal Playing Field
Whether you should be awarded a grant depends on how great the unmet need is and how well you would meet that. However, whether you get it often largely depends on how well you understand bid writing, how good you are at writing and, too often, how well you know the funder. This makes the system often unfair for small and marginalised groups and reduces the charitable impact of grant making.
Becoming a More Unequal Playing Field
I don't think AI is yet well understood and I think that the lack of understanding of this still new technology and concerns about the inaccuracies and hallucinations it has, may result in it being banned or obviously AI drafted bids being given less credence by grant makers.
- Disadvantaging Small Charities. The small and marginalised groups, with often limited skills in fundraising, digital and written prose would not benefit from it. Even for those able to use it well, AI struggles to understand context and moral reasoning, lacks the insight and flair of a human, and doesn't have the benefit of the relationship with grant managers that many fundraising professionals do. Our AI bid writing systems cannot outperform their human counterparts.
- Benefitting Agencies and Larger Charities. However, agencies and big trust teams will be using it to create initial drafts, with experienced bid writers using their experience, insight and flair turn these into high quality bids to submit, making it quicker and easier for them to get bids out. Bids finalised by a human professional will be very difficult, if not impossible to identify with any certainty.
Using Our Free AI Bid Writer
To use our free AI Bid Writer, register then login - everything is free. Once logged in click the AI Bunny icon. You have 2 choices. Firstly, where the bunny writes a bid for you from scratch and, secondly, where he reviews and rewrites bids.
- Click his Funding Bid button. The bunny asks you 17 questions and then uses GPT to write a bid for you. Read the Bid Writer guidance and download the template you'll need from the bottom of the web page.
- Click his AI Help Finder button. This is the first of our next generation AI - he can review, redraft and carry out instructions relating to a draft bid you post into his dialogue box. For example, make it more....., reduce it to x words or by y % or make this aspect more prominent. He is also multi lingual and can do a lot more than just help with writing bids - find out more.
Making the Bid Writing Playing Field More Equal
Our AI bid writer asks people a whole series of questions and then uses AI to turn that into a well written case for support that gives a grant maker all of the key information to inform their decision making. It's available free to anyone and works for everyone, including those who know nothing about writing funding bids and those who can't write well - for whom English is a 2nd language, or who have learning difficulties or who aren't particularly good at writing prose. Since launch in 2023 (to date 2025), we think it has supported charities in submitting more than 20,000 bids. The biggest success we've heard about was securing a grant of £20,800 for a village hall.
Our bid writer has made applying for funding more accessible to often marginalised groups, saved them time in writing bids and made the process fairer in doing so. Disagree? Which parts of this guide do you think were AI generated? (See below)
Creating Your Charity Bid Writing Prompt
Make sure you include all relevant facts, figures and data it needs.
- Grant Maker - requirements, such as word counts and headings. Equally, if the funder states they prioritise certain causes or groups, which include your charity's work, make sure this is in there.
- Your Charity - all relevant information about your charity and your project. This will help to make your bid as good as possible and, by giving the AI what it needs, reduce the potential for hallucination. See our AI bid writer page for a checklist.
Minimise any opportunity for misunderstanding.
- Context and Precision - tell it what it needs to know and be very clear and specific.
AI struggles with context, so whilst you know what 'young' means to you, it may well not. For example, there is a world of difference between primary school Muslim boys and disabled undergraduate women.
Other things to include:
- Tone – a good bid is both compelling and emotionally engaging -it makes the case and also engages the reader, because people give to people. Include both or some variation in your prompt.
- Accuracy – you can ask Microsoft Copilot to Think Deeper or tell the AI to be more accurate/less creative.
- Language - ask it to use UK English and spelling/phraseology.
Weaknesses in AI Generated Content
- Tone and Personality: Humans often bring a unique tone and personality, reflecting their own emotions and experiences. AI text can feel more neutral or lack personal touches.
- Repetitive Phrasing: In longer pieces of content, AI may use repetitive phrasing and predictable sentence structures.
- US Phrasing and Spelling: A draft I created for a veteran's charity, included to honor your service. Spelling aside, it's a phrase a UK veteran would almost certainly never use. Common ones include organization and program.
- Lack of Depth: AI struggles with providing personal insights or nuanced perspectives, whereas human writers are often able to offer unique viewpoints and personal anecdotes.
- Grammar and Punctuation: AI text can be either too perfect, following rigid grammar rules, or slightly off, with awkward phrasing. Human writing tends to have a more natural flow.
Hallmarks of AI Generated Content
AI content can be very good but there are certain hallmarks that may indicate content has been AI generated.
- Overuse of Transitional Phrasing. AI content may use transitions like "In addition," "Furthermore," "That said," and "On the other hand"—sometimes too often/consistently. While human writers vary rhythm and tone more intuitively, AI may use polished connectors to retain coherence.
- Excessive Clarity and Explicit Structure. AI tends to break content into clear, often numbered or bulleted formats. Repetitive structures like "Here are three reasons..." or "In conclusion..." are commonly used even when it isn't really necessary. I often use instructions such as give me that explained simply and in one sentence.
- Hyphen Habits and Compound Adjectives. You might notice AI using phrases like “tech-powered initiative”, “community-driven response”, “AI-enabled platform”—which are grammatically fine, but can feel over-engineered, particularly if used too often.
- Overly Neutral or Diplomatic Tone. AI may aim to avoid controversy or ambiguity, resulting in phrasing that feels cautious or broadly inclusive. This can create a "sterile" feel, even in contexts where bold or emotive language would be more engaging.
- Business Speak. AI models often pull from common business or marketing language: “Driving impact at scale,” “unlocking potential,” “empowering communities,” or “scalable solutions” . These aren’t wrong—just easily identifiable when used generically and don't really fit with how many charities communicate either, particularly the more niche causes/activities.
How to Sound More Human
- Vary tone and sentence rhythm by mixing short punchy lines with longer reflective ones.
- Use emotional nuance, personal anecdotes, or lightly imperfect syntax for effect.
- Embrace voice and opinion and use the language of the sector.
If you're content falls into these categories, try asking your AI to rewrite it
Please identify those phrases and use of language that might come across as too “machine-polished” and rewrite these to humanise the tone whilst preserving clarity.
And/or:
Please also don't use US idioms or spelling - make these UK English only, and avoid 'business speak', which is not appropriate for a charity.
You can also help it to use the correct language for your charity.
Use the term 'beneficiary' when referring to clients/customers.
Charity AI Bid Writing Best Practice
If using AI to draft funding bids, these are always reviewed by a human.
- For tone, style and spelling, including any jargon, 'business speak' and American phrases it might have used.
- Any facts or references provided by AI have been checked and confirmed, and.
- To ensure.
- The factual accuracy of all information.
- All relevant information has been included and.
- The bid complies with any funder instructions, particularly any relating to AI.
And, most importantly, to ensure that your unique voice, style and passion come through in the final version submitted.
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This Article on the Use of AI Bid Writers Is Not Professional Advice
This article is for general interest only and does not constitute professional legal or financial advice. I'm neither a lawyer, nor an accountant, so not able to provide this, and I cannot write guidance that covers every charity or eventuality. I have included links to relevant regulatory guidance, which you must check to ensure that whatever you create reflects correctly your charity’s needs and your obligations. In using this resource, you accept that I have no responsibility whatsoever from any harm, loss or other detriment that may arise from your use of my work. If you need professional advice, you must seek this from someone else. To do so, register, then login and use the Help Finder directory to find pro bono support. Everything is free.
Ethics note: AI was partially used in researching this guide. If you took me up on my challenge in finding which parts were AI generated, the answer the section on Weaknesses in AI Generated Content. AI originally drafted 5 points, I removed one, added 2 and rewrote all of them.
