CLOUDFLARE outlines how civil society organisations are using its developer services and AI-enabled tools to automate and scale their online work, while keeping security and privacy central. The piece describes Cloudflare Impact, which has awarded more than $7.5 million in credits to non-profit and public-interest groups, enabling dozens of organisations to build and run AI-powered applications on Cloudflare’s platform.
The aim is to make accessible, affordable, and secure automation that helps civil society groups design new tools, not just defend existing ones. Cloudflare emphasises that applications run on its global network are automatically protected from DDoS attacks and unauthorised access, with a lightweight, serverless architecture that scales to demand and avoids idle costs. Tools such as Workers AI and AI Gateway are highlighted as ways to reduce infrastructure needs and control AI usage and costs.
The article provides concrete examples of the kinds of projects being pursued and the organisations involved. LebTown, a local Pennsylvania newsroom, is replacing manual workflows with a custom editorial system that tracks stories, audience reach, and community impact, and automates data extraction from PDFs. Kaya Guides in India is scaling mental health support via a WhatsApp-based system, with real-time feedback for counsellors and a high-volume message lane.
The Snorkelling Society in the UK is securing community-contributed data and imagery for SnorkelMap. Larger partners like Freedom House, Global Network Initiative, and Article One are explored in terms of automating data collection, tracking policy developments, and structuring risk assessment information, all under careful attention to security, data minimisation, and human oversight. The piece closes by inviting applications for a second cohort of non-profit adopters.