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  1. What is the AI for Economic Opportunity - Demonstration and Scaling Fund?

    The AI for Economic Opportunity Demonstration and Scaling Fund is the third annual round of a groundbreaking philanthropic initiative to harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to improve economic mobility for millions.

    In just two years, the Fund has reviewed more than 650 applications and awarded 27 grants to organizations using AI to unlock benefits, deliver personalized career guidance, modernize workforce systems, improve benefits access, and expand access to education and employment. [See highlights of recent progress from past grantees here]

    In this round, we’re inviting bold proposals that show how AI can meaningfully transform the systems that shape economic opportunity. Examples include reimagining service delivery, unlocking new forms of personalized education and training, improving efficiency at scale, or creating entirely new ways to connect people with income, skills, benefits, and opportunity. We welcome both transformative approaches and incremental applications, so long as they hold the potential to drive lasting, meaningful change.

    Selected grantees will receive $250,000 in catalytic funding to prototype solutions and demonstrate progress, six months of cohort-based technical support from OpenAI engineers and other experts, API credits, and access to a network of leading practitioners and funders advancing AI for economic mobility. All awardees will also be eligible for a potential larger infusion of scaling grant capital through a number of philanthropic partners (more to be announced soon).

  2. How does this year's grant opportunity differ from last year? This year's fund is very similar to last year, a two-phase initiative (demonstration & scaling) with increased funding and a focus on developing promising early prototypes and then directing additional capital at the highest potential projects.

We do anticipate announcing additional funding partners before the end of 2025 to increase the overall support for selected grantees, and having slightly more technically sophisticated support for grantees as part of our 6 month cohort process beginning in early 2026. 3. Who can apply for grants?

Applicants should be US-based nonprofit organizations, though the programs can be operating in non-US markets. We encourage partnerships between nonprofits and for-profit startups, consultants, and other technology experts. For-profit social enterprises will be considered on a case-by-case basis for mission alignment, with the opportunity to use a fiscal sponsor or nonprofit partner as an intermediary.
  1. What types of projects are you looking for?

    We're seeking projects that improve economic opportunity for people with low incomes—whether by streamlining access to services and benefits, enhancing labor market matching, deploying personalized career guidance, implementing adaptive learning systems, improving public program efficiency, or overcoming language and accessibility barriers.

    We're especially interested in helping people who face the biggest barriers to economic mobility: those from low-income households, people without college degrees, and workers in low-wage jobs.

    We're eager to see transformative applications we haven't yet envisioned—but here are some high-potential areas we're particularly focused on:

  2. When are applications due?

    The first round of “concept note” applications are due on Oct 31, 2025, 5pm PST.

    Once these are screened, we will invite a full application from a select group on or before November 14, 2025. Full applications for finalists will be due on December 12, 2025.

  3. What is the funding structure for this year? The fund has two phases:

  4. When will awards be announced?

    Funding will be announced to grantees on or before January 30, 2026

  5. How do we apply? Initial concept applications should be submitted using this form found on the main grant opportunity site. https://www.gitlabfoundation.org/futureofwork

  6. How will applications be evaluated?

    Applications will be reviewed by GitLab Foundation program officers, program advisors, select additional technical advisors including OpenAI engineers, as well as other funders.

    Our review will include an economic impact model (performed by GitLab Foundation staff) as well as a rubric that will include the following:

    Unweighted rubric scores will be a primary factor, but not always the only factor, in moving an applicant from concept note to finalist selection. GitLab Foundation reserves the right to take risks on high potential or very unique projects with early stage teams, or other permutations that may be valuable to the overall desired outcomes that may further the mission of this project and our organization.

    Final applications will also be reviewed with this rubric, but final selection of awardees will also include our traditional due diligence as well as a priority ranking and review of a core set of advisors to ensure technical feasibility, outcome potential and other relevant success factors.

  7. Can my organization submit more than one concept?

    Yes, but please limit to three submissions per applying organization.

    For large universities or institutions with a wide range of schools or departments we will consider more applications (i.e. treat each department or school independently). The intent of this limitation is not to limit the total number of inbound applications, but merely to encourage prioritization from applicants.

  8. How many applications did you receive during first two rounds? During our first round of these awards in 2023, ****we received 200 concept note applications, and over 450 during the second year in 2024. 27 demonstration grants have been awarded to date.

  9. Can existing or future grantees of GitLab Foundation apply?

    Yes, we are treating the AI for Economic Opportunity grant decision process as a separate and distinct process. Being an existing grantee will not diminish your chances of selection.

  10. What types of partnerships are encouraged for applicants?

    We encourage applicants to think creatively about partnerships that can strengthen their proposal. This is not mandatory, but these kinds of partnerships might include:

  11. What is the grant award or project period?

    Grant contracts will be one year in length, but please be clear about the goals and outcomes you seek to achieve by the end of the 6 month demonstration phase (approximately Feb - July, with in person demo day tentatively planned for August or September).

    For the demonstration phase of this project, we value short cycle iteration and rapid learning that helps show achievement of milestones and progress.

  12. Are we open to signing a non-disclosure agreement based on the proprietary nature of your submission?

    This is a very common question in early stage investment and technology related grantmaking, and a common stance that we agree with is that it’s generally not a good idea to sign NDAs. In short, early stage technologies and related ideas are quite rarely truly unique, but your ability to execute is everything. NDAs set up legal contention about idea sharing, which is not advised and may even be counterproductive to collaboration and progress.

    We also are specifically encouraging other funders interested in AI for Economic opportunity to review our pipeline of applications to encourage additional funding to flow to promising projects. NDAs would significantly limit our ability to do so.

    For the selected grantee cohort, if they believe it would be valuable, we will establish some form of mutually agreed upon privacy or non-disclosure norms or agreements to encourage open sharing of technical challenges and support with peer grantees and our technical advisors.

  13. Can you tell me more about the cohort-based activities for grant recipients?

    While specific topics are still in planning phase for 2026, we expect to at a minimum convene all grantees for a monthly project status update Zoom call (from approximately February through July) with technical support present to work through any blockers or challenges that might arise in those early project months, share learnings along the way, and ideally involve additional funders or partners in the process of supporting your projects.

    Topics from 2025 sessions included:

    We expect to culminate as we did in 2025 with an in person Demo Day @ OpenAI’s HQ in San Francisco.

  14. Is there a video of last year’s demo day we can watch? Yes! You can watch last year’s demo day presentations on the OpenAI Academy website here: https://forum.openai.com/public/events/hybrid-event-ai-for-economic-opportunity-demo-day-2025-g42ksgjryk