Artificial intelligence startups, famous for drumming up cash, are now giving it away. Or, at least, giving free access to their products for select nonprofits.
In a partnership announced Tuesday, San Francisco AI giant Anthropic and Daniel Lurie-founded nonprofit Tipping Point Community will give “up to 50″ grantees free access to the Claude Enterprise AI tool for six months. Tipping Point will provide an additional 12 months of access at a “deeply discounted price,” according to CEO Sam Cobbs.
“Artificial intelligence and AI is the talk of the world right now,” Cobbs said. “Nonprofits run five to ten years behind the technological trends. If you get 5-10 years behind where AI is, you’re done.”
A spokesperson said Tipping Point offered access to all of the organization’s core grantees, meaning the organizations the philanthropic organization funds on a continuing basis. Cobbs said around two-thirds of this group have told him they needed help understanding AI and how it could help them work more efficiently.
Still, it’s unclear exactly how most of these nonprofits — which range from apprenticeship programs to affordable housing developers — will use the tool, which is basically an upgraded version of Anthropic’s ChatGPT competitor.
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However, a peer education program from the job training nonprofit (and Tipping Point grantee) Jewish Vocational Service could help them make sense of it.
JVS will launch an Economic Mobility AI Accelerator in early 2026, according to a press release. This program, which will also funded by Tipping Point, Anthropic, and Crankstart, a foundation co-founded by Standard Chairman Michael Moritz, will provide participating California nonprofits with training and the opportunity to “co-develop practical AI solutions that address their most pressing challenges.”
JVS CEO Lisa Countryman-Quiroz said that with AI threatening to put many more people out of work, it was especially important for job-training organizations like hers to understand the technology. At the same time, these organizations are contending with a loss of federal funding and hope AI can help them better stretch their resources.
“The more you can be fully present for folks and not doing administrative work, the better,” Countryman-Quiroz said.
Thomas Lee, CEO of education and employment nonprofit First Place for Youth, said his team will use Claude to draft grant proposals, organize data, and develop training materials. He also said it’s important the approximately 620 foster youth his organization serves are fluent in the technology.
“Over the next year we will make sure every youth in our My First Place program will have digital and AI skills needed to thrive in the modern workforce,” Lee said.