GitLab Foundation and OpenAI Fund 16 Nonprofits Using AI for Jobs

The GitLab Foundation, in partnership with OpenAI, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Ballmer Group, has selected 16 nonprofits to receive $250,000 each through its AI for Economic Opportunity Fund — the program's largest cohort since launching in 2023.

The organizations were chosen from more than 800 applications and will enter a six-month demonstration phase with technical support from OpenAI engineers, API credits, and mentorship through OpenAI Academy. The cohort will present results at a Demo Day at OpenAI's San Francisco headquarters in August.

The 16 Selected Organizations

The grantees tackle economic mobility from multiple angles:

• Accion is building AI business intelligence for 16,000 pharmacy professionals in Kenya.
• Career Path Services will deploy AI navigation tools for over 6,000 job seekers annually.
• Community Economic Defense Project is developing AI-powered legal guidance to prevent evictions.
• Foundation for California Community Colleges plans to identify high-wage career pathways for 2.1 million students.
• MIT Media Lab aims to flag 18 million at-risk workers for reskilling interventions.
• Moms First will connect 75,000 parents to $3,000–$8,000 in annual benefits.
• National Domestic Workers Alliance is building training tools for 220,000 domestic workers.
• Per Scholas will scale tech training to serve 15,000+ learners annually.
• SkillUp Coalition plans to guide 500,000 job seekers through career transitions.
• U.S. Digital Response is improving language access to Maryland's benefits programs.

Additional awardees include Colorado Thrives, Development Innovation Lab, Moses/Weitzman Health System, NASWA/CESER, Roadtrip Nation, and Scholar Fund.

Projected Economic Impact

The fund projects an estimated $1,735 annual earnings increase per person served, scaling to a $52,035 lifetime earnings increase across 27,478 individuals — a projected $1.43 billion in cumulative lifetime earnings gains.

Since 2023, the AI for Economic Opportunity Fund has invested nearly $10 million across close to 50 organizations.

What Nonprofits Building With AI Should Do Next

"Applied the right way, AI is an accelerant that fuels income growth and economic mobility at scale," said GitLab Foundation CEO Ellie Bertani.

Nonprofits developing AI tools for workforce development, benefits navigation, or economic mobility should watch for the next application cycle. Similar opportunities are tracked on grantedai.com, and a full analysis of how the fund's model compares to other AI-for-good programs is available on the Granted blog.