ProMo Cymru secures £500k to train 625 Welsh third sector organizations in AI

The five-year Sgil AI program will combine AI training, paid roles for young people and community-led testing, with its tools and findings published openly in Welsh and English

Sgil AI will provide AI training and practical support to third sector organizations across Wales over five years

ProMo Cymru has secured £499,998 from The National Lottery Community Fund for a five-year program designed to help third sector organizations across Wales decide how, where and whether to use AI.

Sgil AI will train 625 organizations, create 12 paid Trainee Service Designer roles for young people and fund a cohort of organizations to design and test AI uses alongside the communities they serve.

The funding comes through The National Lottery Community Fund’s Supporting Great Ideas program. ProMo Cymru says its work responds to a gap in AI support for the voluntary sector at a time when charities are already adopting the technology.

Figures cited by the organization from the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report show 76% of charities were using AI, while 60% were concerned about its implications for service quality and data privacy.

Arielle Tye, Co-Chief Executive at ProMo Cymru, described the challenge on LinkedIn as wider than simply learning how to operate new tools: “Third sector teams are stretched. On top of everything else, they're being asked to work out what AI means for them: what's useful, what's safe, what's ethical, and how it fits with why they exist in the first place.”

She added that the five-year funding period would allow the program to adapt as the technology changes.

AI training built around different levels of experience

Training will use ProMo Cymru’s four-stage AI Maturity Model, which classifies organizations as Aware, Experimenting, Confident or Creative.

Sessions will range from practical AI tool use to organizational strategy and wider implementation, including workshops in which participants build working software.

The program is not limited to AI training. Twelve young people will be recruited into paid Trainee Service Designer roles across the five years, with recruitment taking place on a rolling basis.

ProMo Cymru says the trainees will work as part of the project team to identify emerging problems and help design tools, methods and software in response.

The organization links that strand to what it describes as early evidence of AI reshaping entry-level employment, although no specific study or data is provided in the program information.

Communities will help test proposed AI uses

A separate paid co-design cohort will bring third sector organizations together with the communities using their services.

Participating organizations must demonstrate that communities are genuinely involved in the design process rather than being consulted after an AI use has already been developed.

Four organizations have been confirmed for the first cohort: Welsh Refugee Council, Mind in Gwent, Stori and CVSC, Community and Voluntary Support Conwy.

Between them, they work with refugees and people seeking sanctuary, survivors of domestic abuse, people experiencing mental health difficulties and small voluntary organizations. ProMo Cymru expects around 10 organizations to participate in the cohort over the project.

Organizations taking part will be paid for the time spent on the co-design work.

Tools and findings to be published openly

Guides, methodologies, tools and software produced through Sgil AI will be published openly in both Welsh and English.

ProMo Cymru says the resources will be developed bilingually from the outset rather than translated after production, with the aim of allowing organizations elsewhere in Wales to reuse work developed and tested in other communities.

The project will also undergo independent evaluation at its midpoint and conclusion. Six-monthly learning reviews and annual reports are planned, using baseline questionnaires, ProMo Cymru’s AI Maturity Model, case studies and what it calls Most Significant Change narratives.

The organization says it intends to publish findings from the program, including approaches that do not work.

Third sector organizations in Wales can register interest in training or in joining the Sgil AI co-design cohort as the five-year program begins.