ForHumanity is a non-profit organization, founded in 2020, that develops certification audit criteria for AI systems tied to specific regulations and trains and certifies independent auditors to apply them. It is featured in the IAPP AI Governance Vendor Report in the Independent Audit & Evaluation category.
| Founded | 2020 |
| Founder / Executive Director | Ryan Carrier |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) non-profit |
| Home | forhumanity.center |
Overview
ForHumanity develops certification audit criteria for AI systems tied to specific regulations, and it trains and certifies independent AI auditors to apply those criteria. As binding AI regulations proliferate, the supply of qualified independent AI auditors becomes a bottleneck; ForHumanity describes itself as building an auditor workforce under a consistent methodology, and is the largest organized effort to do so. The IAPP AI Governance Vendor Report lists it as a vendor in the Independent Audit & Evaluation category (IAPP AI Governance Vendor Report).
Audit frameworks
ForHumanity has developed audit criteria tied to several regulations:
- CCPA Automated Decision-Making Technology
- NYC Local Law 144 (automated employment decision tools), described as the first audit framework used at scale under a binding law
- Colorado AI Act — impact assessment audit criteria
- EU AI Act — conformity assessment criteria for high-risk AI
- Canada AIDA (when enacted)
- Children's privacy (COPPA, UK Age-Appropriate Design Code)
Mechanism
ForHumanity's method is to create specific, numbered audit criteria — hundreds per framework — that certified auditors apply to specific AI systems. The criteria are publicly available, auditors are credentialed, and audits produce formal certifications that companies can use to demonstrate compliance.
This approach is distinguished from several adjacent models. Big Four consulting audits are for-profit and less standardized, whereas ForHumanity's criteria are public. AI Safety Institutes (UK AISI, US AISI) are government bodies, whereas ForHumanity is an independent nonprofit. Commercial governance tools such as Credo AI and OneTrust provide software, whereas ForHumanity provides audit criteria and training. Its explicit nonprofit posture distinguishes it from commercial auditing and advisory firms and positions it as a third party in regulatory regimes that require independent audit.
Relationships
- supports: IAPP AI Governance Vendor Report 2026 — listed in Independent Audit & Evaluation category.
- supports: AI Compliance Industry / Regulatory Fragmentation — audit-criteria development is an operational response to fragmentation.
- related: Colorado AI Act (SB 24-205) and SB 25B-004 (Date Amendment) / EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) / California SB 53 — Transparency in Frontier AI Act — regulations ForHumanity develops audits for.
- related: ISO/IEC 42001 — AI Management System / NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0) — adjacent standards ecosystem.
- related: Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) / International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) — peer privacy-and-AI professional and policy ecosystem.
- related: Algorithmic Accountability and Bias Audits — audit-as-accountability mechanism.