How Anthropic And Claude For Nonprofits Is Putting AI In The Hands Of Changemakers
Claude for Nonprofits | Anthropic
On GivingTuesday, when inboxes fill up with appeals and acts of generosity big and small, Anthropic is choosing a different kind of gift for the social sector – access to powerful AI.
With the launch of Claude for Nonprofits, Anthropic – the public benefit company behind the Claude family of AI models – is putting powerful tools in reach of mission-driven organizations, with nonprofit-friendly pricing, sector-specific integrations, and a focus on impact rather than revenue.
For Elizabeth Kelly, Anthropic’s Head of Beneficial Deployments, this isn’t a side project – it’s a direct expression of why the company exists in the first place. As she puts it, “Anthropic is a public benefit corporation that was really founded with a dual mission. One, making sure that we're developing AI safely and responsibly. And two, that we're deploying AI in a way that really benefits all humankind and raises the floor on outcomes.”
Claude for Nonprofits is one way that dual mission comes to life.
Meeting Nonprofits Where They Are
Before designing the program, Kelly’s team spent months sitting with funders and grantees, listening more than talking. The stories they heard were painfully familiar across organizations of all sizes: staff stretched thin, switching between systems, pulling data for reports, drafting grant proposals and donor updates late into the night.
“We've spent the last couple of months working side by side with grant makers, nonprofits, to really understand all of their needs and how AI can work for them,” Kelly explains. “We're hearing from nonprofits that are spending too much time switching between systems, pulling data, answering routine questions, things that AI can really help address.”
Elizabeth Kelly, Anthropic’s Head of Beneficial Deployment
At the heart of Claude for Nonprofits is a simple conviction. As Kelly puts it, “in our view, AI shouldn't be a luxury for well-funded organizations. It should be accessible to everyone working on critical social challenges, and that's exactly what we're trying to do with Claude for Nonprofits.”
On December 2, Anthropic is making its offering available across the sector with discounts of up to 75 percent and key integrations with platforms like Blackbaud, Candid, and Benevity that nonprofits already rely on for donor management, data, and giving. The idea is not to force organizations into new tools, but to let Claude slot into workflows they already trust.
Access is not just about cost. Claude for Nonprofits does not use customer inputs or outputs to train models by default, and Anthropic has designed the program with the realities of beneficiary data and donor information in mind. For organizations handling personal stories, financial histories, or case notes, that kind of privacy-by-design is a prerequisite to even getting started.
Turning Paperwork Into Impact
The part that energizes Kelly most is what happens once the tools are in people’s hands.
Some of the most striking examples come from organizations working on economic security. As Kelly explains, “You’re also seeing folks like My Friend Ben who are powering their core offerings with Claude, helping 70,000 households nationwide secure over $45 million in benefits, which is really key if you can, with a six-minute screening, help folks claim another $1,500 to $2,500 monthly in life-changing support.”
Global organizations are experimenting too. World Vision International has deployed Claude across its strategic finance operations for lease analysis, financial reporting, and audit summarization. The International Rescue Committee is using it to streamline data analysis and accelerate how staff support local partners responding to humanitarian crises.
“There’s so much administrative overhead that is part of the core work that nonprofits do,” Kelly observes. “We're really excited to help streamline, provide efficiencies there so they can focus on maximizing their impact and on the human connections.”
For her, that idea is not abstract. “As a daughter of social workers, I watched my parents spending so much time on paperwork, financial analysis, fundraising, donor thank yous, all of that,” she recalls. Being able to use AI for those friction points so organizations can “focus on directly serving their clients, on human connection, on maximizing their impact, that's just really rewarding for us” is what makes the project feel personal as well as professional.
Claude for Nonprofits
Building AI Fluency, Not Just AI Features
Kelly is also clear that giving nonprofits log-ins to a powerful tool is not enough. People need to feel confident using it in the real, sometimes messy context of day-to-day work.
To help with that, Anthropic has launched a free AI Fluency for Nonprofits course, developed in partnership with the GivingTuesday movement. “It focuses on how staff can use AI in grant writing, program evaluation, donor engagement, organizational efficiency, and more,” she notes. “And what I'd underscore is it's really focused on those who are new to AI. It doesn't require a technical background.”
The curriculum is grounded in lived experience, not theory. In the months leading up to the launch, Anthropic partnered with Constellation Fund, Robin Hood, and Tipping Point to pilot Claude with more than 60 of their grantees. Those organizations used Claude for everything from producing grant proposals that align with funders’ interests, to analyzing the effect of programs on beneficiaries, to donor stewardship and preparing board materials.
That feedback loop – pilots, surveys, real stories from staff on the frontlines – shaped both the product and the training. It helped Kelly’s team understand where people get stuck, what kinds of prompts actually save time, and which tasks are better left to human judgment and relationships.
A Wider Blueprint For Beneficial AI
Claude for Nonprofits sits alongside a wider set of “beneficial deployments” that Kelly is steering across education, economic mobility, and public service.
Recently, Anthropic announced a partnership with the American Federation of Teachers to rethink what AI education and curriculum should look like for 1.8 million members. The company is working with NextLadder Ventures, a billion-dollar collaborative backed by major philanthropists, to use AI to support families facing housing loss, job loss, or a sudden need for benefits. And a partnership with the government of Rwanda and ALX aims to make Claude-powered education available to hundreds of thousands of learners across Africa, while training Rwandan teachers to use AI tools in their classrooms.
All of this comes back to a question that animates her work: how do you use AI to raise the floor, not just the ceiling?
“We really are trying to put the same investment, if not greater investment, into serving nonprofits based off the impact they have on the world rather than the revenue they drive,” Kelly stresses. “This is a key step in better serving the sector and really maximizing the impact of AI on the world. But there'll be a lot more to come in the coming months.”
On a day like GivingTuesday, when people around the world are asking how they can show up for the causes they care about, her answer is straightforward. Give nonprofits the tools, training, and trust they need – and let the people closest to the problems lead the way.
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