An AI assistant for NGO back-office work, on your own computer
NGOmate is free and open source. It runs on an open-weight model on your computer, so there is no subscription to pay, and what you type stays with you unless you connect something else.
Why it exists
Many small organizations cannot pay for an AI subscription for everyone on the team, or do not want their documents on someone else's servers. NGOmate does the everyday work of finding funding, drafting and reporting with a model small enough for an ordinary laptop.
What it does
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Chat with a local model
The model is a separate download. You can also point NGOmate at a model server you run.
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Draft from your documents
It reads the PDF, Word and text files you give it and drafts from them.
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Memory you can read
Memory is kept as plain Markdown files you can read, edit and delete. It asks before saving anything.
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Connect your other tools
Connectors use the open Model Context Protocol. Anything that changes something asks you first.
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Ready-made tasks
Find funding opportunities, draft a proposal section, or write an update or report.
Check what it writes
Local models make mistakes, including mixing up real figures. NGOmate flags dates and links it cannot trace to your material or a tool, but you still need to check names and numbers before you use a draft.
What it needs
| Model | Download | Recommended memory |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3 8B, Ministral 3 8B, Granite 4.2 8B | about 5 GB | 12 GB or more |
| Qwen 3 4B | 2.5 GB | 6 GB or more |
| Granite 4.2 3B, with weaker drafts | 2.2 GB | 4 GB or more |
The app offers the largest model that fits your computer and unloads it after 10 minutes without use. Each model has its own licence, shown before you download it.
Built on open standards
Nothing in NGOmate ties you to us. Every part is something you can inspect, replace or take with you.
- Open-weight models
- Qwen, Ministral and Granite, in the common GGUF format, downloaded from Hugging Face and pinned to an exact version.
- llama.cpp
- The open llama.cpp server runs the model on your computer. NGOmate also works with any model server that speaks the chat completions format, such as Ollama.
- Model Context Protocol
- Connectors use the open MCP standard, so any service that offers an MCP server can be connected, not only ones we chose.
- Plain files
- Memory is Markdown in a folder on your computer. You can read it in any text editor, back it up, or move it elsewhere.
- Your system's keychain
- Access tokens for connectors are kept in the operating system's own keychain.
- Open source
- The app is built with Tauri, and all of NGOmate's code is public under the MIT licence.
Where it stands
NGOmate is early and unreleased, and there are no installers yet. If you are comfortable with developer tools, you can run it from source today. Feedback is welcome as an issue on GitHub.
Who is behind it
NGOmate comes from Action Network Worldwide. We build it in the open so that organizations can see exactly what the assistant does with their work.
NGOmate works on its own and needs no account with us. Connecting it to Action Network Worldwide, or to anything else, is your choice.