Ford Foundation Awards Telescope Grant to Accelerate Innovative Solution for Workers Affected by AI and Emerging Technologies

New funding strengthens Telescope's Tech Offset Program (TTOP), expanding efforts to support those navigating job transitions driven by technological change.

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ford Foundation has awarded a grant to Telescope to accelerate its innovative Tech Offset Program (TTOP). TTOP is a new tool designed to help workers transition successfully through job disruptions caused by AI and other emerging technologies, by enabling businesses, governments, and other stakeholders to pool resources, price risk, and directly support affected workers.

As AI reshapes the economy, Telescope is focused on building practical, scalable solutions to address workforce displacement and ensure technological progress serves the public good. Recent survey research from Gallup and Telescope reveals that people across all ages, genders, incomes, geographies, and political views are deeply concerned about AI's impact on jobs, privacy, and security — and want institutions to take action. TTOP focuses initially on the impact of AI on jobs. The partnership with the Ford Foundation comes at a pivotal moment for workers and communities across the country.

When jobs are displaced, workers need fast, flexible support. TTOP imagines a new marketplace, to move real resources thoughtfully and quickly—stimulating a market and drawing competitively upon the best providers for financial assistance, trusted networks, career guidance, retraining, education, and mobility support.

"We can't afford to wait to prepare ourselves for AI's impacts on workers in the future, the AI revolution is here. We need to work across business, government, and labor to support workers and their families while advancing technology for the public good," said Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation. "Telescope's Tech Offset Program imagines an innovative approach to help workers, and we're proud to help accelerate their work."

The Ford Foundation's investment in TTOP is part of its broader commitment to shaping a more inclusive technology future—one that centers people, not just profits.

"We are deeply honored to receive this support from the Ford Foundation, one of the world's leading institutions advancing justice and human progress," said Eric Braverman, Chair and CEO of Telescope. "This grant will help us accelerate the development of programs like TTOP that advance the benefits of technological change while also reducing the harm and risk for workers. Partnerships like this are essential to meeting the moment and unlocking the full potential of emerging innovation."

About Telescope
Telescope builds and backs products that ensure emerging technology makes us all more secure and prosperous. We work with government and business to address complex challenges that arise from innovation, such as AI-driven job displacement. We are creating practical solutions to reduce harm and risk – such as a tradable "offset" product to help communities affected by technology - and developing networks of people to ensure technology serves everyone. More information can be found at www.Telescopegp.com

About Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an independent organization working to address inequality and build a future grounded in justice. For more than 85 years, it has supported visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. Today, with an endowment of $16 billion, the foundation has headquarters in New York and 10 regional offices across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

SOURCE Telescope