Federation of American Scientists: Grantee Spotlight

Grantee spotlight: Federation of American Scientists

The Giving Green Fund plans to award a grant to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) to support its work on building bipartisan coalitions, educating policymakers, and communicating strategies around artificial intelligence (AI) and clean energy. FAS is a U.S.-based nonprofit focused on science, technology, and innovation policy.

FAS’ work falls within our philanthropic strategy of unleashing clean energy in the U.S. Please see Giving Green’s strategy report for more information, including recommended sub-strategies, theory of change, and key uncertainties.

Last updated: October 2025

What is the Federation of American Scientists?

FAS is a U.S.-based nonprofit focused on science, technology, and innovation policy. It works at the federal, state, and local levels, ensuring that scientific and technical expertise are embedded into policymaking.

What are we funding, and how could it help address climate change?

We are funding FAS’ work to research and educate on the need for modern grid policies in response to increased energy demand from sources like AI data centers, and how AI itself can support clean energy and grid modernization. Its focus includes:

• Balancing AI’s benefits and energy demands: AI infrastructure and data centers are energy-intensive and pose challenges to grid decarbonization. However, AI may have potential upsides by improving grid efficiency through better demand response, predictive maintenance, and real-time energy management. To deliver policy recommendations that manage this tradeoff, FAS will engage AI and energy actors to identify shared priorities and inform strategies for more effective policy coordination.
• Fixing interconnection delays: FAS will convene AI and grid experts to explore how AI can help speed up the backlogged interconnection process to increase the capacity of the grid.
• Improving energy regulation: FAS will research energy market and interconnection policies at the federal, state, and local levels  to inform policy levers that have the potential to increase the rate of clean energy deployment.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

FAS will drive this work through bipartisan coalition building, expert convenings, and the development and dissemination of accessible educational collateral that equips policymakers and leaders with a better understanding of policy levers in this space.

In our strategy report on unleashing clean energy in the U.S., we identified addressing interconnection delays as a promising approach to decarbonizing the U.S. grid. Specifically, solving bottlenecks can speed up deployment and de-risk critical clean energy projects by reducing costs and making project timelines more predictable. We believe that FAS’s proposed work is well-aligned with our strategy. In general, we think FAS could help address climate change by informing effective policies to bring clean energy technologies onto the U.S. grid faster and preventing lock-in of new fossil generation.

Why do we think the Federation of American Scientists will use this funding well?

We think FAS will use this funding well because it has a proven track record in clean energy and climate policy, with deep experience in policy entrepreneurship and coalition building. Some recent wins include: 

• Generating progress in Congress on critical minerals legislation through engagement with 26 Congressional offices, ultimately providing policy input on seven related bills. 
• Publishing three reports analyzing barriers to demonstration and deployment in underinvested clean energy industries—next-generation geothermal energy, low-carbon cement and concrete, and critical minerals for the energy transition—and providing tailored policy recommendations to Congress and the Department of Energy.
• Hosting an AI x Clean Energy policy sprint to develop a set of near-term policy recommendations for federal and state governments to further AI-enabled grid modernization, enhance AI and energy R&D, and measure and mitigate the energy and environmental impacts of AI systems and data centers.

The FAS team actively collaborates with a wide range of energy stakeholders to help ensure clean energy keeps pace with rising demand, and we have confidence that this grant will allow them to continue this work.

On AI and energy specifically, FAS is already demonstrating leadership. In 2025, it hosted a policy sprint that brought together stakeholders to develop solutions at the intersection of AI and the energy system. It also plays an active role in key policy working groups— including two focused on AI and energy—and has contributed directly to draft federal legislation on these issues.

Giving Green believes that additional climate donations are likely to be most impactful when directed to our top nonprofits. For several reasons, we may choose to recommend grants to other organizations for work that we believe is at least as impactful as grants to our top recommendations. We are highlighting this grant to offer transparency to donors to the Giving Green Fund, as well as to provide a resource for donors who are particularly interested in this impact strategy. This is a nonpartisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.