$264.8 billion – that’s the total international donor commitments to Ukraine accumulated from February 2022 to the end of 2025, according to Ukraine Donor Platform. More than Hungary’s GDP for the same period.
Most of this funding flows through government channels and large infrastructure programs. A significant portion, however, moves through competitive grant programs where NGOs, universities, SMEs, and researchers can apply directly. The question is how to find these programs in time and identify where your profile genuinely qualifies.
In 2026, AI changed the logic of this search – and organizations that understand how are getting a real head start.
Find grants that match your profile
GetGrant is Ukraine’s largest grant database for NGOs, businesses, universities, and researchers. AI matches your profile with relevant funding programs.
The grant market for Ukraine in 2026
Since February 2022, the number of donor programs open to Ukrainian organizations has grown sharply. The EU Ukraine Facility – €50 billion for recovery and reforms over 2024–2027. Norway’s Nansen Support Programme – NOK 274.5 billion. Horizon Europe, where Ukraine holds associate status. The EBRD, which set a record in 2025 with €2.9 billion deployed in Ukraine. Add bilateral programs from the UK, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the US.
According to the IMF (February 2026), Ukraine’s total external financing needs for 2026 stand at approximately $52 billion. A meaningful share of this flows through open competitive mechanisms – programs where qualifying organizations can apply directly.
Competition grows alongside the funding volume. More programs mean more applicants. Organizations that identify relevant calls early and have time to prepare strong applications win more often.
Tracking all of this manually has become physically impossible. Dozens of new calls appear each week in the GetGrant catalog alone.
What AI specifically changes in grant work
AI entered grant search from four directions at once.
Profile-based matching
Keyword search produces irrelevant results: you find programs that sound similar but don’t match your conditions. Or you miss programs where your project qualifies but the description uses different language.
AI matching compares your profile – organization type, thematic focus, geography, budget range – against the full set of eligibility parameters for each grant: sector restrictions, applicant type, minimum and maximum funding amounts. You get a ranked list of programs with genuine correspondence to your profile.
According to Instrumentl, AI-based grant matching saves an average of 3.3 hours per application – from more precise initial filtering alone. For a team submitting 10 grants per year, that’s a recovered month of work.
Consortium partner discovery
Horizon Europe and most major EU programs require consortia: partners from at least 3 different countries. For Ukrainian organizations, finding these partners has been a separate task, previously solved through personal networks and conferences.
AI systems analyze databases of organizations that have participated in similar programs and suggest potential partners by thematic profile. Consortium formation time drops from months to weeks.
Eligibility filtering before you start writing
A full grant application takes 2 to 6 weeks to prepare. A common scenario: an organization invests 20 hours of work and only at the end notices it fails section 4.2 of the eligibility criteria. Or that the program’s minimum budget is €500,000 and the project costs €40,000.
AI matching that accounts for eligibility parameters filters out these programs before you begin working on the application.
Programs you don’t know about yet
Most organizations monitor 10–15 donors they’re already familiar with. AI profile matching covers the entire database at once – including small bilateral funds, new calls from lesser-known donors, and regional programs. Many of these publish announcements only on their own sites and rarely appear in standard newsletters.
How this looks in practice
Three scenarios for different types of organizations in Ukraine.
A university research group looking for funding to continue work during wartime. With manual monitoring, the team knows 6–8 programs from 4–5 familiar portals. AI matching by profile “university, natural sciences, Ukraine” returns Horizon Europe Widening, ERC, CRDF Global, Norwegian academic funds, Wellcome Trust, and 12–15 more programs – each pre-filtered by eligibility and applicant type. Most the team never tracked before.
An SME in renewable energy applying to multiple programs simultaneously. The challenge with manual search: it’s hard to determine where business applicants are eligible and where the call is restricted to research institutions or consortia only. AI matching that accounts for applicant type immediately shows only relevant programs: Norad Enterprise Development, EIC Accelerator, EBRD-related SME programs.
An NGO working on human rights documentation seeking operational funding. Standard search surfaces USAID, IRF, PFRU and a handful of major donors. AI matching adds 15–20 smaller foundations from the Netherlands, UK, Switzerland, and Sweden that fund exactly this theme – but are little-known in Ukraine because they rarely publish announcements in Ukrainian.
What AI won’t replace
Search and initial filtering – yes. Writing the application itself – no.
According to Candid.org, 23% of foundations decline to review applications written by generative AI. A further 67% have not yet set a clear policy. An application in a “generative AI listed five bullet points” style is a real risk of rejection before the content is even evaluated.
Grant committees assess documented organizational track record, specific contextual knowledge, concrete team credentials, and realistic budget planning. That requires your own experience and understanding of the project.
AI saves time on search and selection – so you can spend more time on the application that matters.
Where most organizations stand right now
According to TechSoup’s AI Benchmark Report 2025, more than 60% of NGOs with budgets under $1 million are exploring or already using AI for grant writing and administrative tasks. 82% of fundraisers are comfortable using AI for grant research and filtering (Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2025). 47% named AI their top digital opportunity for the sector in 2025 (Raisely Fundraising Benchmarks 2025).
These figures largely reflect the US and UK markets, where AI literacy in the nonprofit sector developed earlier. For Ukrainian organizations, the practical question of how to apply AI tools is especially relevant in 2026.
Teams are small, administrative time is scarce, and the number of available programs has multiplied since 2022. AI grant matching in this context means recovered hours directed at actual application work.
What this means for you in 2026
Practically – three steps.
First: build your organization’s profile – type, thematic focus areas, geography of activity, approximate project budget range. This is the starting point for any AI matching.
Second: run a search on GetGrant. Fill in the profile and get a list of current calls with a relevance score for your organization. Some programs will be new to you – and some are open right now.
Third: concentrate your time on writing applications for the most relevant programs. The market is large, competition is growing, and deadlines sit 4–6 weeks out. The organization that finds the right programs first has a real advantage.
See which grants are open for you right now
Fill in your profile on GetGrant and get AI-matched funding opportunities with a relevance score for your organization or project.