Funders
Philanthropic foundations · venture · corporate · public sector
Why now
AI is amassing the largest fortunes since the industrial age, and the institutions that will spend them do not exist yet. The last windfall of this size built the research university, the perpetual foundation, and the public library. What this one builds is still open, and it is being decided now, within a few miles of the Forum.
The Funding the Commons Forum is where the people designing those institutions meet: the funders deciding where the money goes, the founders building open models and funding mechanisms, the researchers testing them, and the policymakers who will have to answer for them. A partner is in the room while the decisions are being made.
On 13–14 March 2027 in San Francisco, two hundred of them spend two days on what public goods, shared infrastructure, and institutions look like in the age of AI, and who gets to decide.
Carnegie and Rockefeller took the unprecedented wealth of the Second Industrial Revolution and built the institutional substrate of modern civic life – the perpetual foundation, the research university, professional medical education, and the public library.
Nan Ransohoff, The third wave of American philanthropy ↗, May 2026.
She puts the new philanthropic funding from AI wealth at $37 billion to $100 billion a year.
Who you would be in the room with.
Two hundred seats, curated across four groups. The numbers are from the last edition, San Francisco, March 2026.
Founders and engineers
Frontier startups · independent research groups · leading thinkers
Institutions and the public sector
United Nations · government officials · multilateral banks · nonprofits
Academia and researchers
Mechanism designers · economists · governance and alignment researchers
1,000+
92
229
176
49+
Five ways to shape the conversation, from the stage to the dinner table.
One main stage on the record, many rooms that are not, and the media that carries both. A partner can hold any of them.
Keynotes, panels, and fireside chats.
Short talks and conversations in front of the whole room, recorded in full and published in our Library, where they keep working long after the weekend.
Track curation, workshops, and unconference sessions.
The conversation your audience came for, and the room it happens in: a half-day track, a hands-on workshop, or a session you set the question for.
One table, thirty to forty leaders, curated one by one.
The evening the funders and institutions in the room sit down together, with curated seating. A partner co-hosts it and sets the question.
Live experiments and published results.
A product, a mechanism, or an idea tested with a community deep in public-goods funding, and a report, published together, that carries the work beyond the event.
Recordings, photos, interviews, and films.
Stage recordings Social content Open Conversations Mini-documentaries
Main-stage talks captured in full (34 from March 2026). Three thousand professional photos, interview content, and a recap film. Open Conversations, our sit-down interview series with the thinkers reshaping how we build, 40+ published. Long-form films that go deep on one idea. Partners are credited across all of it, and it keeps working long after the weekend.
Three tiers, five add-ons, prices included, one form away.
See the tiersReach beyond the room.
Every impression from March 2026 came from organic posts, community amplification, and word of mouth. As a sponsor you tap into that reach from the start, and you're free to build on it however you like.
500K+
8M
5.8%
23.3%
Publish with us.
Notes from a Field in Formation.
A long-form synthesis of what 1,000 attendees from 92 countries spent two days arguing about, building, and committing to.
Read the Field Report ↗
Comparative Floor Governance.
A floor-level audit of how six communities deployed live treasuries across the conference, with six governance mechanisms tested in parallel. Partners are named in it.
Read the Governance Report →
AI-assisted deliberation, run on the floor.
A test of whether AI-assisted deliberation can scale commons governance, with AI avatars of floor leads deliberating budget allocation alongside the human process. By David Dao with Protocol Labs.
Watch the documentary ↗
Partner on the Forum, San Francisco, 13–14 March 2027.
See the tiersThe people and institutions already in the network.
A few of the people who have spoken with us, as the directory lists them, and the organizations that have backed, hosted, or built with us.
Juan BenetProtocol Labs
Audrey TangTaiwan's Cyber Ambassador, former Digital Minister
Jaan TallinnFuture of Life Institute
Tom KalilRenaissance Philanthropy
Glen WeylMicrosoft Research, Plurality Institute
Sheila WarrenAdvanced AI Society
Guy Wuolleta16z crypto
Masaaki TairaFormer Minister for Digital Transformation, Japan
Vitalik ButerinEthereum Foundation
Illia PolosukhinNEAR Protocol, NEAR AI
Aza RaskinEarth Species Project, Center for Humane Technology
Christopher SzymczakUNICEF Office of Innovation
Institutions in our network.
Growing in the Bay Area since 2024.
The tiers, and what each includes.
This page is an invitation to partner on the Forum. Three tiers, five add-ons, and the benefits table, with prices, open after a short form, because they are not public. The page stays open on this browser once you are through.