Our funding
Last updated: July 2026
Pause IA is a French non-profit of public interest (association loi 1901), registered since June 2024 (RNA W751274610), with its head office at 32 boulevard de Strasbourg, 75010 Paris.
Our principles
We receive no funding from artificial intelligence companies or from the states engaged in the race for AI. Our credibility rests on our independence from the very actors whose practices we publicly question.
Some of our individual donors have long been committed to AI safety ; none of them, whoever they may be, has any say over our positions, our campaigns or our public statements. We would turn down funding rather than accept a trade-off of that kind.
Where our money comes from
Since our creation in June 2024, we have received around € 84,000, broken down as follows :
| Source | Share |
|---|---|
| Individual donations | around 55 % |
| Earmarked donation for organising a conference | around 12 % |
| Launch grant | around 12 % |
| Memberships | around 10 % |
| Crowdfunding | around 7 % |
The only grant we have received is a € 10,000 launch grant, paid in July 2024 by Stichting PauseAI, the Dutch organisation that coordinates the international network of which we are the French branch. We have received no other grant since.
The salary of our executive director, hired in December 2025, was covered during her first months by PauseAI Global, thanks to a grant from the Future of Life Institute. These funds never passed through our accounts. Since then, Pause IA France has borne this salary from its own resources.
We currently have 126 members. The most common membership fee is € 2 per month : we chose to make membership accessible to everyone rather than setting a high minimum amount. This membership base, launched in September 2025, is our main lever of independence and it is steadily growing.
Our points of vigilance
In the interest of transparency, we would rather say it plainly : our resources still rest on a limited number of contributors. During our first financial year, a single donor accounted for more than a third of our income ; today, a few people still represent around a third of it. Gradually reducing this dependence by broadening our membership base is an explicit goal of our financial strategy, and it is one of the reasons we encourage membership rather than one-off donations.
What the money is used for
Over our first financial year (June 2024 to November 2025), we spent € 21,198, of which 56 % went to organising public events, 21 % to travel and accommodation for volunteers, 9 % to equipment, and the rest to tools and operating costs.
The association ran entirely on volunteering for its first eighteen months. It has employed an executive director since December 2025. Most of our work still relies on our volunteers.
Our accounts
Our accounts are presented and approved each year at a general assembly. The report for our first financial year, approved on 17 December 2025, can be consulted in full :
Your donation gives you a 66% tax deduction (for French taxpayers).
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