There is No Algorithm for Trust: What Leading with Trust Really Means Today

The Seduction of Speed

In 2026, funders have more technological tools, more dashboards, more data, and more AI support than ever, with new tools entering the market at a speed inconceivable just a few years ago.

It is that idea of speed that got me thinking earlier this year—because the thing most crucial for effective grantmaking is something that simply cannot be sped up. It’s something that moves at the speed of humanity, and it is trust.

As a former federal funder who now works with philanthropies and nonprofits across the United States with my team at Capacita, I’ve become increasingly interested in how trust shows up in this new and rapidly changing context. While we can automate some analysis and data-driven tasks as grantmakers, I feel very strongly that we should not—and arguably cannot—automate trust. AI-powered tools can increase grantmaking capacity in some crucial ways, but trust is at the very heart of effective grantmaking, and it remains a deliberate, human, step-by-step practice that requires judgment, exposure, and time.

I believe there are no shortcuts when it comes to the deeply human work of forging lasting relationships. But finding more efficient ways to do some parts of our jobs and applying the time we save to improving trust with our grantees “the old-fashioned way” has game-changing potential.

A Practitioner’s View: What 11 Years as a Federal Funder Taught Me

I can’t pretend that spending hours reading novel-length federal grant applications, checking the math on budgets in 8-point font whose PDF-makers cut off the spreadsheets in the most head-scratching ways, or triple-checking the requirements spreadsheet for every dot-of-an-i or cross-of-a-t that the federal government required was my favorite part of being a federal grantmaker. Instead, I wanted to cut to the chase, and dive into the meat of the application so I could decide whether what this organization wanted to do was in line with our priorities, and whether we could trust them to do it.

We are now entering a world where some of that foundational work can be summarized or enhanced with technology. AI can perform trend analysis, spot potential errors via pattern recognition, and help with internal knowledge management, all things that traditionally create administrative drag.

But over-reliance on AI can also create risks, such as codifying existing biases embedded in historical data and losing or overlooking lived context. As grantmakers, it is imperative we use AI to support our human connections and not to turn over decisions and relationships that benefit from our deeply embedded empathy for other human beings

Trust Is Slower—and SO MUCH Stronger

Trust is at the heart of grantmaking, and not just in an emotional sense. It’s at the core of this work in a strategic, impact-driven, effectiveness-forward way. Some of the most insightful and effective funders I know are both deeply focused on building trust with organizations in their field, and at the same time deeply focused on the impact their grantmaking can have.

And the way to bridge those two things is both simple and immensely difficult. It’s by doing the work to build and maintain that trust.

How, you ask?

• By understanding what they are trying to do with their grantmaking. This sounds so obvious, and yet so many grantmakers are tripped up here, at the point of strategy and prioritization, before even reaching the starting block. If your strategy and priorities are unclear, it’s hard—if not impossible—to communicate effectively and build trust with grantees, potential grantees, and peers.

• By knowing who is already out there doing the work in their chosen area of focus, whether a topic or a geography, or both.
• By building meaningful, respectful, and power-sharing relationships with their grantees over time.
• By slowly and deliberately building trust with the rest of the community of nonprofits, peers, and other stakeholders involved in their topic or geographic area. I say slowly here because as Dr. Brené Brown analogized in her Marble Jar Theory of Trust, trust takes small, quiet, and consistent action over time to build—and mere seconds to destroy.

What Leading with Trust Actually Means Today

For me, leading with trust is about spending more time getting to know your current grantees, really listening to them, and understanding their work. At the same time, it’s about getting to know the other organizations doing work aligned with your strategies, whether as potential grantees, collaborators, or peers.

Grantmakers can begin by using any efficiency they gain from technology to increase proximity and exposure to their grantees and potential grantees.

I would love to see grantmakers reinvesting any time saved into deeper conversations with the grantees they already have, and the other folks doing good work in the areas their grantmaking is focused on. Building relationships with peers and other stakeholders is so important as well. Being a trusted peer is a key element of good grantmaking. I’d also love to see more site visits, listening sessions, and informal check-ins with all this extra time and capacity we are gaining.

Other ways to build trust include participatory decision-making, such as including current grantees on panels that determine which new organizations win grants. And of course, considering multi-year, flexible funding that makes all nonprofits healthier and letting grantees define success metrics. These are all practices that effective grantmakers understand lead to impact and trust.

Today, leadership for grantmakers is not about having the smartest tech systems. It’s about using the capacity those systems create to make even better, more deliberate, more human choices. Capacity is a tool, and trust is a choice you make. It’s a practice that goes at the speed of human relationships. There is no algorithm for it. You just have to decide to prioritize it, day in and day out.  

What would it look like to use our new tools not only to move faster, but to also create space to move closer to each other? I’d love to see us all try.

Want to learn more about how to balance AI-driven productivity with building stronger relationships with your partners and grantees? Check out the webinar, There Is No Algorithm for Trust: What Leading with Trust Really Means for Funders in 2026.