# Bright Funds vs Groundswell: which do AI models recommend for giving & volunteering, October 2026

HR AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Employee giving and volunteering. Five of fourteen models named Bright Funds first on the direct prompt; three named Groundswell. Page: https://hr-ai-index.com/experience/employee-giving-and-volunteering/bright-funds-vs-groundswell/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bright Funds | 8% | #4 of 10 | 6% | 16 | 10 of 14 |
| Groundswell | 7% | #5 of 10 | 5% | 20 | 11 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Mistral Small: bright funds first (first choices: Bright Funds) (alternatives: Uncommon Giving, VolunteerLocal)
- Llama 4 Maverick: bright funds first (first choices: Bright Funds) (alternatives: Guideflow, Uncommon Giving)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: bright funds first (first choices: Bright Funds) (alternatives: Uncommon Giving)
- MiniMax M2.5: bright funds first (first choices: Bright Funds, Uncommon Giving) (alternatives: Millie, OnHand)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: bright funds first (first choices: Bright Funds, Uncommon Giving)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: groundswell first (first choices: Groundswell) (alternatives: Bright Funds, Deed, Millie, Uncommon Giving)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: groundswell first (first choices: Groundswell, Millie) (alternatives: Bright Funds, OnHand, Selflessly, Uncommon Giving)
- Kimi K2: groundswell first (first choices: Groundswell, Millie) (alternatives: Alaya, OnHand, YourCause)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither first, one named (first choices: Uncommon Giving) (alternatives: Bright Funds, Groundswell, Millie)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: Bonterra) (alternatives: Benevity Enterprise Impact Platform)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither named (first choices: Millie) (alternatives: Percent Pledge, Uncommon Giving)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither named (first choices: Millie) (alternatives: Goodera, Selflessly, Uncommon Giving)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither named (first choices: Benevity Enterprise Impact Platform, Social Cues) (alternatives: Goodchange, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither named (first choices: Selflessly) (alternatives: Benevity Enterprise Impact Platform, Millie, YourCause)

## What the models said about Bright Funds

- "Nonprofit Confusion & Onboarding Friction... Basic and Slow UI" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "Bright Funds stands out as the top choice due to its focus on impact, ease of use, and alignment with corporate social responsibility goals" (Mistral Small, direct prompt, first choice)
- "The best employee giving and volunteering platform for a mid-market B2B company is Bright Funds" (Llama 4 Maverick, direct prompt, first choice)
- "I'd suggest starting with Bright Funds or Uncommon Giving" (MiniMax M2.5, direct prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Groundswell

- "Platforms like Groundswell or Selflessly (~$2–$4.50+/user/month or $4,500+/year) add giving but exceed tight budgets." (Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt, soft negative)
- "Groundswell: A modern, mobile-first platform built specifically to make enterprise-grade giving and DAFs accessible to mid-market companies. Very low administrative burden." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, scale prompt, first choice)
- "look into modern, employee-experience-first platforms such as Deed, Groundswell, Uncommon Giving, or Millie" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt, first choice)
- "positioned specifically as a Benevity alternative, addressing fragmentation and disbursement concerns" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.