Today, Anthropic is telling the first wave of Claude Corps host organizations whether they made the cut. This cohort places roughly 100 fellows total, and the company warned applicants the review would take a while because of how many came in. Most nonprofits that applied are hearing no today. Most nonprofits, period, never knew the program existed to apply.
If you run a nonprofit and you assumed today's decision was your one shot at Anthropic's money, I want you to read the rest of this carefully.
There is no single "apply for a grant" button.
Anthropic has committed more than $555 million to nonprofits, universities, and outside researchers in 2026 alone: $150 million for Claude Corps, $200 million with the Gates Foundation, $200 million for the Economic Futures Research Fund, and $5 million for wellbeing research, on top of open-ended Claude credits for scientists and a standing nonprofit discount. None of it sits behind one form. Each program has its own eligibility bar, its own deadline, and its own idea of what counts as a grant.
Here is every route that is actually open right now, what it pays, and who qualifies.
Route | What you get | Who qualifies | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Claude Corps host | Up to 4 fully funded fellows, a $10,000 grant, up to $2,500 in Claude credits per fellow | US 501(c)(3) on Claude for Nonprofits, in-person or hybrid | Rolling for Jan and Aug 2027 cohorts |
Wellbeing Research Grants | Direct funding, Claude access, and technical support from a $5 million fund | Researchers building open-source AI wellbeing evaluations | Initial applications due September 21 |
Economic Futures Research Fund | Typically $5 million to $30 million per project | Universities, research institutes, nonprofits with field-experiment experience | Open, rolling RFP |
AI for Science | Up to $50,000 in Claude credits per project, not cash | Any researcher, with extra steps for life sciences work | Open, rolling |
Claude Team for Scientists | Free or $15 a month discounted Claude seats for a year | Principal investigators at academic or nonprofit institutions | Open, rolling verification |
Claude for Nonprofits | Up to 75% off Claude plans, plus free staff training, not cash | Verified nonprofits | Open, ongoing enrollment |
1. Claude Corps: host a fellow.
This is the one most people mean when they ask how to get Anthropic to fund their nonprofit, and it is the closest thing to a straightforward grant on this list. A host organization can take on up to four early-career fellows for a year, with salary and benefits fully covered by CodePath, the nonprofit that formally employs them. On top of the fellow, the host gets a $10,000 implementation grant, up to $2,500 in Claude licenses and API credits per fellow, structured fellow training, and two in-person convenings a year with travel covered.
Who qualifies. You need to be a US-based 501(c)(3) already enrolled in Claude for Nonprofits on a Team or Enterprise plan, with an in-person or hybrid workplace, a senior leadership sponsor, and a staff member who can supervise a fellow day to day.
Status. Cohort 1 applications closed July 17 and decisions go out today. Cohort 2, starting January 2027, and Cohort 3, starting August 2027, are open on a rolling basis, and fully remote organizations can only apply to those two. Apply at anthropic.com/claude-corps/host.
2. Wellbeing Research Grants: get paid to study what AI does to people.
Anthropic put $5 million behind independent research into how AI affects the people using it, specifically evaluations and benchmarks that other researchers can build on. They want proposals covering mental health and crisis conversations, emotional reliance on AI companions, eating disorders and other sensitive situations, the long-term effects of regular AI use, and methods for testing whether a model's responses actually help or harm.
Who qualifies. Clinicians, psychologists, methodologists, and independent researchers with real expertise in wellbeing evaluation, not AI companies pitching product research.
Status. Initial applications are due September 21. Anthropic invites a shortlist to submit full proposals by October 5. Selected grantees get direct funding, Claude access, and technical support. Apply at anthropic.com/news/wellbeing-research-grants.
3. Economic Futures Research Fund: the big one.
This is Anthropic's $200 million commitment to outside research on how AI reshapes work, and it is not built for small projects. Most awards land between $5 million and $30 million, the company says it will go higher for well-scoped, high-impact work, and it will not fund anything under $1 million directly. The five priority areas are AI's effect on workplace and organizational design, retraining and job transition programs, modernizing income support for displacement, equity-sharing and capital-account mechanisms that give workers a stake in AI's growth, and evaluations of public investment in human and community services.
Who qualifies. Accredited universities, independent research institutes and policy organizations, and nonprofits with a real track record running field experiments at scale. Individual researchers can serve as principal investigators, but only through one of those institutions. Anthropic does not accept personal applications.
Status. Open now as a rolling request for proposals, submitted through a Google form linked from anthropic.com/news/economic-futures-research-fund-agenda.
4. AI for Science: credits, not cash, for any researcher.
Researchers can apply for up to $50,000 in Claude credits per project to support compute-intensive scientific work. This is not a nonprofit-only program. Any researcher can apply, and the scope has expanded beyond the original focus on biology into other scientific disciplines. The one catch: researchers working in life sciences currently need separate government-partnership access to use the most advanced models, because of dual-use safety review.
Who qualifies. Any researcher with a compute-intensive project and a clear case for why Claude accelerates it. Anthropic has previously funded work on rare diseases, drug repurposing, and genetics through this program.
Status. Open, rolling, applied for through a Google form linked from anthropic.com/news/expanding-support-for-scientists.
5. Claude Team for Scientists: free seats for your whole lab.
Anthropic opened 10,000 seats for scientists worldwide to use Claude for free, or at a steep discount, for a full year. Standard seats are free. Premium seats, with five times the usage limits, run $15 a month.
Who qualifies. You need to be a principal investigator or equivalent at an academic or nonprofit research institution. Once you're verified, you can add your whole lab.
Status. Open, ongoing verification through the form linked from anthropic.com/news/expanding-support-for-scientists.
6. Claude for Nonprofits: not a grant, but the cheapest way in.
This one hands you a discount, not cash, but it's worth including for two reasons. First, it can cut a real cost. Verified nonprofits get up to 75% off Claude's Team and Enterprise plans, along with a free course called AI Fluency for Nonprofits covering grant writing, program evaluation, donor engagement, and general org efficiency, plus step-by-step workflow guides. Second, it's the prerequisite. You cannot host a Claude Corps fellow without already being on this plan.
Who qualifies. Verified nonprofits and equivalent organizations.
Status. Open, ongoing enrollment through anthropic.com/news/claude-for-nonprofits.
The two doors that don't have an application.
The Gates Foundation partnership. Anthropic and the Gates Foundation are moving $200 million over four years into global health and life sciences, education, and economic mobility, with global health taking the largest share. There is no public form for this one. It runs through Anthropic's Beneficial Deployments team working directly with named partners, consortiums, and future calls the two organizations announce jointly. If you already run a Claude for Nonprofits account in one of those three areas, that's the visible on-ramp today.
Employee equity donations. Anthropic employees can give up to 25% of their equity grants to charity, and Anthropic matches it 1:1. There is no portal for this either, and it means little until an employee's equity actually turns into cash. The practical move is the one every development director already knows: build relationships with Anthropic employees and alumni now, before a liquidity event puts real money behind that match.
Why this matters beyond the dollar amounts.
Anthropic is treating "who gets left behind by AI" as a line item, not a talking point. Six live programs, more than half a billion dollars committed this year, and a specific bet that nonprofits, universities, and independent researchers are the right vehicles to absorb the disruption its own products are causing. Whether that bet pays off is a separate question. Right now, it's real money on the table with real deadlines attached.
If you run a nonprofit, or you advise ones, and today's Claude Corps decision felt like the end of the conversation, forward this to whoever manages your grants pipeline. The closest deadline is September 21. Everything else is rolling.
Jenny
P.S. Every one of these programs shifts its fine print year to year, deadlines especially. Confirm the current terms directly at the links above before you build a proposal around any of them.