AI for impact: AWS awards Imagine Grants to pioneering nonprofits across three continents

Nonprofits around the globe are using AI to achieve transformative impact: from analyzing handwritten field notes of legendary conservationist Jane Goodall to activating frontline agentic artificial intelligence (AI) tools for humanitarian crisis response, to accelerating cancer breakthroughs and researching deeper into the human immune response than ever before.

Despite unprecedented challenges in the nonprofit sector this year, organizations are rapidly embracing AI solutions and strengthening their data infrastructure, with 87% of applicants for the AWS Imagine Grant this year exploring AI use cases. These innovations span the full spectrum of nonprofit work: streamlining internal operations and developing scalable tools for more effective mission delivery.

Each year, we provide AWS Imagine Grant winners with a holistic package of resources: unrestricted funding, Amazon Web Services (AWS) computing credits, and expert technical guidance to move their projects forward. Our three award categories are designed to support organizations at every stage of their cloud journey. This year—for the first time—our winner cohort spans six countries across three continents, with our inaugural nonprofit recipients in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Read on to explore this year’s winning projects.

Winners of the Pathfinder – Generative AI award

The winners of the Pathfinder – Generative AI award are:

• The American Cancer Society’s OncoScope plans to transform the world’s cancer literature into real-time, citation-grounded intelligence for American Cancer Society staff as well as scientists in academia and industry. The project will significantly accelerate cancer research by identifying research breakthroughs, gap maps, and rising investigators to optimize funding, hypothesis generation, and partnership decisions.
• The American Red Cross is building Clara AI—a groundbreaking multi-agent platform powered by Amazon’s AgentCore—to transform crisis response at scale. This new system will orchestrate specialized agents for disaster relief, blood services, military family support, and lifesaving training, to deliver instant multilingual assistance to millions and enable human responders to focus on complex, life-critical
• The Institute for Systems Biology is harnessing generative AI to decode T cell immunity, the essential frontline defense of the human immune system. The institute’s advanced modeling tool creates synthetic T cell receptors that in the future may be engineered into powerful therapies. This tool also reveals how unusual T cell patterns influence aging and disease, opening new pathways for medical treatment.
• The Jane Goodall Institute plans to launch a groundbreaking research platform to transform the unparalleled Gombe primate behavior dataset—65 years of handwritten notes, field videos, and photos—into global science knowledge. Powered by AWS generative AI, this platform provides JGI researchers and partners access to over 100,000 records revealing chimpanzee social dynamics, human evolution insights, and conservation breakthroughs.
• Project Lead the Way is creating secure, education-specific AI tools that help teachers save time, elevate instruction, and deliver personalized learning to students nationwide. Through AI-powered planning support, adaptive content, real-time tutoring, and immersive exploration environments, Project Lead the Way will expand high-quality, career-focused STEM experiences to more than 50,000 educators and 2.5 million students.
• Royal Academy of Dance is leveraging AI to reimagine how knowledge, creativity, and cultural heritage are organized, preserved, and experienced. Through intelligent indexing, interactive digital tools, and innovative methods of engagement, this forward-looking approach broadens access, supports inclusivity, and opens new opportunities for learning and creative exploration.

Winners of the Go Further, Faster award

The winners of the Go Further, Faster award are:

• Achēv is using AWS generative AI to enhance its Canadian Language Benchmark tool. This technology enables Achēv to independently assess newcomers’ communication skills and automatically create customized training materials. These materials are tailored to specific job roles, helping newcomers to Canada successfully integrate into the workforce.
• Adventist Development & Relief Agency International’s (ADRA) Unified Impact Intelligence Platform converts fragmented NGO data into real-time evidence for humanitarian impact. Using AWS data lake technology with AI safeguards, the system connects individual donations to field outcomes within hours of deployment. This advancement cuts manual reporting time in half while strengthening donor relationships through timely, personalized updates that demonstrate exactly how their support changes lives.
• Altarum Institute’s new AI-powered disease surveillance platform unifies fragmented public health data into a single, reliable source of critical information. Built on AWS, this system delivers rapid, actionable insights to help public health agencies respond more effectively to emerging threats. By accelerating decision-making and improving health outcomes, the platform strengthens America’s public health infrastructure and builds more resilient communities.
• The Alzheimer’s Association is scaling My ALZ Journey, a first-of-its-kind digital tool built on AWS that curates content for people living with dementia, delivers timely push notifications from experts and peers, and introduces microlearnings to provide personalized, accessible guidance for those newly diagnosed and their care partners. My ALZ Journey also incorporates ALZ Talks, connecting users to expert-led conversations that enhance learning, build confidence, and expand access to timely, trusted information.
• American Association for Cancer Research’s Project ‘GENIE’ is accelerating global cancer research through AWS AI services that reduce patient data curation time. Using Amazon Translate, the platform breaks down language barriers across 20 institutions in more than 5 languages—expanding access to vital research data. These advances are bringing faster, more equitable precision cancer care to patients worldwide, regardless of where they live.
• Boys Town is revolutionizing pediatric hearing care through machine learning that predicts ear canal shapes and acoustics using simple, non-invasive measurements. By combining generative AI with 3D printing technology, Boys Town can create custom hearing aid earmolds without uncomfortable ear impressions. This breakthrough reduces the need for frequent clinic visits while delivering precisely fitted hearing aids to children who need them.
• British Board of Film Classification is creating CLEARD, a hybrid AI solution revolutionizing global content classification by generating fast, accurate, localized age ratings for multiple markets from a single viewing. It eliminates barriers for content creators, platforms, and distributors—providing access to trusted, professional classification and empowering global audiences to make informed viewing choices.
• The Canadian National Institute for the Blind is launching an accessible mobile assistant for people who are blind or partially sighted that reads card, serial, and model identifiers from real-world items and instantly verifies them against trusted records. Powered by LLM multimodal models, it removes sight-dependent steps—delivering faster, private, accurate service and greater independence.
• Citizens Advice SORT Group is creating ClaRa (Claim & Reliability Analyser), providing an AI-powered verification engine for its website and AI agent. ClaRa will provide every user with safe and accurate information, allowing Citizens Advice to responsibly expand its services to hundreds of thousands across the UK.
• The Colorectal Cancer Alliance is launching a powerful AI-enabled Clinical Navigation Platform to connect cancer patients with life-saving care and clinical trials. Their AWS-powered system delivers real-time, personalized support while capturing vital healthcare data to improve patient outcomes. This platform breaks down barriers to treatment, ensuring equitable access to prevention, care, and research opportunities for patients nationwide.
• FINCA is creating an AI-powered knowledge assistant to transform how the global organization fights poverty. Built on AWS AI services, the tool will consolidate data across systems, enabling staff to make faster, data-driven decisions—strengthening programs, deepening donor engagement, and accelerating the organization’s mission to end poverty.
• Food Cloud aims to harness the power of AI to expand the impact made by FoodCloud Hubs, the organization’s three warehouses located in Dublin, Cork, and Galway. Food Cloud’s ML-assisted decision support platform will leverage a robust, cloud-based technical architecture to deliver transformative capabilities and ensure that no good food goes to waste.
• Free Law Project is democratizing access to justice by using generative AI and open legal data to guide self-represented litigants through the court system. Their Litigant Portal simplifies complex legal processes by automating form filing and providing personalized, jurisdiction-specific guidance. Built on AWS and tested in real courts, this solution improves outcomes for individuals while reducing the burden on overwhelmed court systems.
• The George Institute for Global Health is enhancing its FoodSwitch platform using AI and ML to automate food product analysis and unlock real-time insights into both nutritional quality and environmental impact. This innovation supports healthier choices and global policy reform by advancing transparency in food systems and planetary health.
• The Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) is transforming skill assessment through an AI-powered platform built on Amazon Bedrock Agents. Using realistic simulations, this technology delivers sophisticated and scientifically rigorous assessments at a fraction of traditional costs. This breakthrough makes high-quality employee assessments accessible to organizations of all sizes, enhancing existing methods with engaging, scalable solutions.
• Inclusion Canada is building an AI-powered platform that transforms how families of children with intellectual disabilities access education support. By combining intelligent triage with expert response, Inclusion Canada is scaling rapid, personalized guidance nationwide—driving systemic change toward quality inclusive education for every child.
• LENA Foundation is enhancing early childhood education with a new AI-powered mobile app that delivers real-time classroom insights to teachers. The app combines LENA’s proven language data with personalized recommendations, giving educators immediate feedback on student interactions. These actionable strategies help teachers create more engaging learning environments and strengthen the quality of early childhood education.
• Life Without Barriers is building a unified, AI-powered frontline app that transforms spoken updates and everyday worker notes into accurate notes, plans, actions and insights. Using AWS Bedrock and serverless architecture, the app brings together data from core care systems and automates routine documentation—so 6,500 staff can spend more time supporting people and less time on paperwork.
• Miracle Foundation’s ThriveWell platform harnesses AWS AI services to help caseworkers identify critical patterns and predict outcomes in child welfare cases. The system reduces administrative workload while providing real-time insights, enabling faster response times for families in need. By empowering caseworkers with data-driven decision support, ThriveWell enhances family stability and creates better outcomes for children in the welfare system.
• Rehab Group is building an AI-enabled care platform to deliver real-time, personalized support to people with disabilities. Powered by AWS, the system uses IoT, machine learning, and generative AI to predict risks, adapt care plans, and empower staff to focus on people—not paperwork.
• Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind Incorporated (BLVNZ) is upgrading its Alexa reading companion so it can understand each person’s natural speech and make it easier for blind, deafblind, and low vision clients to explore the foundation’s digital library. With the help of Amazon Bedrock and Personalize, Alexa will be able to interpret everyday language, suggest books based on individual preferences, and give users quicker access to the information they need—supporting greater independence, confidence, and connection.
• Save the Children UK’s Humanitarian Leadership Academy is creating Kaya Match—a global platform that connects humanitarian learners with paid and voluntary opportunities to apply their skills in real-world contexts, driving locally led response. This platform bridges the gap between humanitarian education and action, turning knowledge into impact.
• Scholarship America is transforming educational access by using generative AI to match students with life-changing scholarships. Scholarship America’s system streamlines the application process and provides personalized recommendations, making it easier for student applicants to find and secure financial support. This breakthrough technology aims to nearly double scholarship disbursements within three years, helping more students achieve their educational dreams.
• Scripps Research Institute is advancing neuroscience research by using AWS AI services to analyze complex brain tissue images with unprecedented speed and accuracy. This vision modeling system automates the time-consuming process of tissue segmentation, eliminating a critical bottleneck in brain research. Streamlining this essential analysis will accelerate scientific discoveries in memory, aging, and neurological disease research across laboratories worldwide.
• Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency (Wayne Metro) is enhancing its ability to serve people in crisis across Wayne County, Michigan, including Detroit. Using AWS technology, Wayne Metro equips its staff to respond more effectively to the 750,000 annual requests for assistance. This powerful solution increases productive connections, enabling the agency to better feed, house, and support those most in need in their community.

Winners of the Momentum to Modernize award

The winners of the Momentum to Modernize award are:

• Better Angels is reshaping homelessness services in Los Angeles County through a real-time digital platform. The system equips frontline workers with actionable data that replaces complex legacy tools, enabling faster response to community needs. By streamlining outreach, shelter coordination, and client tracking, Better Angels helps secure housing placements more quickly and strengthens long-term stability for unhoused Angelenos.
• Central Missouri Community Action is building a powerful digital ecosystem to better serve families in need through streamlined client services. This platform combines smart intake systems with unified data management—creating a single, accurate view of each client across all programs. This reduces administrative burden on both staff and clients while enabling deeper insights to improve community support programs.
• Medic Mobile is transforming healthcare delivery by using AWS generative AI to support community health workers. The Community Health Toolkit’s new intelligent system helps workers prioritize urgent cases and optimize travel routes, turning overwhelming workloads into manageable daily tasks. This innovation empowers frontline healthcare providers to deliver more timely and effective care to millions of people in need.
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation will continue accelerating Parkinson’s research by using AWS to seamlessly connect complex financial systems. This data automation will allow for faster, more informed funding decisions for promising research initiatives. By streamlining the flow of resources, the foundation can expedite critical research and therapeutic developments, bringing hope to millions affected by Parkinson’s disease.
• The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is building a platform to unlock four decades of critical conservation knowledge. By converting 15 terabytes of environmental data into actionable insights using AWS technology, the foundation is creating new possibilities for wildlife protection and habitat preservation. This groundbreaking system empowers conservationists to make smarter, data-driven decisions that will shape the future of environmental stewardship.
• Smile Train is building a platform that unifies donor, patient, and program data across the organization’s global operations. This advanced system harnesses AI-driven insights to strengthen donor relationships and improve program forecasting in real-time. By enhancing data quality and impact reporting, Smile Train will reach more children and families in need of life-changing cleft care across more than 70 countries.
• Victory Programs is meeting the growing needs of at-risk individuals and families across Boston through rapidly expanding services. By building a secure cloud-based platform with AWS services, the organization will unlock powerful data insights to enhance program delivery and operational efficiency. This system combines data warehousing and analytics to strengthen support services while creating sustainable solutions for community impact.
• Who We Play For developed a groundbreaking machine learning tool that delivers expert-level analysis of heart activity for pediatric and young adults through electrocardiogram interpretation. The organization is now building an application for the interpretation tool, empowering medical providers to save over 100,000 young lives from preventable sudden cardiac death in the US and abroad.

While technology enhances efficiency and scales impact, we recognize that the heart of positive change is driven by the dedication and ingenuity of nonprofit professionals. These winners show that the nonprofit sector’s greatest strength remains its people, supported by purposeful technology to achieve their missions.

The application cycle for the 2026-2027 AWS Imagine Grant will open in the spring of 2026. Sign up to receive email alerts about the launch of the next cycle. Join us in person at our 2026 AWS Imagine for Nonprofits conference, where we will convene nonprofit leaders and technologists to explore these topics together.

About the AWS Imagine Grant

Since the launch of the AWS Imagine Grant program in 2018, AWS has awarded more than $21 million in unrestricted funding, AWS cloud computing credits, and technical expertise to more than 180 nonprofit organizations. Learn more about past recipients and discover how nonprofits use AWS to advance their missions around the world at the AWS for nonprofits hub.