GitLab Foundation Announces Largest AI for Economic Opportunity Cohort Yet, Backing 16 Organizations Using AI to Improve, Support Systems for Workers

The Foundation, with partnership and support from OpenAI, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Ballmer Group, backs organizations using AI, raising people's lifetime earnings through access to opportunity.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As artificial intelligence continues to reshape labor markets faster than the systems meant to support workers can respond, GitLab Foundation on Thursday announced 16 new AI for Economic Opportunity Fund grant recipients. 

Emerging from more than 800 applications — and tackling critical economic issues ranging from climate resistance to eviction prevention — this is the largest cohort since GitLab Foundation launched the AI for Economic Opportunity Fund in 2023. Their work reflects emerging trends about how AI is being deployed in the social sector and demonstrates the range of AI's potential to improve people's economic opportunity.

"AI is not just a tool for efficiency, if it's applied the right way, it's an accelerant that fuels income growth and economic mobility at scale," said Ellie Bertani, CEO of the GitLab Foundation. "This group of grantees shows the breadth of AI's potential: From improving pharmacists' business intelligence to AI-enhanced weather forecasts for farmers to supporting immigrant communities in wage negotiations — and everything in between." 

She added, "This cohort also shows we can't afford to sit still. We must move with the pace of change around us and invest accordingly. GitLab Foundation has been able to invest in nearly 50 promising AI projects and I'm eager to see the way these organizations tackle our most important challenges."

Across this cohort, five trends stand out:

• AI emerging as a piece of decision infrastructure for governments. Projects from MIT, U.S. Digital Response, and CESER/NASWA/NYSDOL are embedding AI in public systems to shift policy from being reactive to more predictive.
• AI serving as a powerful complement to human services that are difficult to scale. Per Scholas, Community Economic Defense Project, and National Domestic Workers Alliance are testing whether AI can deliver training, legal representation, and professional coaching at dramatically lower cost.
• AI supporting a navigation layer over fragmented systems. Scholar Fund, Moms First, SkillUp Coalition, Career Path Services, and Foundation for California Community Colleges are targeting the same structural failure: critical benefits and programs exist, but people can't find or access them.
• AI delivering critical intelligence and scale to existing work. Development Innovation Lab and Accion are layering AI onto infrastructure people already use — government agricultural extension networks, pharmacy supply chains — delivering real-time, context-specific guidance at near-zero marginal cost.
• AI bridging labor supply and demand. Colorado Thrives, Moses/Weitzman Health System, and Roadtrip Nation are tackling an inefficiency of matching jobs with workers.

Each organization selected for the AI for Economic Opportunity Fund will receive $250,000 in catalytic funding, six months of cohort-based technical support from OpenAI engineers, API credits, and access to a growing network of practitioners and funders working at the intersection of AI and economic mobility.

Since launching, the Fund has now invested nearly $10 million across nearly 50 organizations making it one of the most active philanthropic funds deploying capital specifically at the intersection of AI and economic mobility.

GitLab Foundation is partnering with OpenAI, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Ballmer Group on the fund with OpenAI again providing expanded support — including advanced technical expertise, API credits, and cohort-based project assistance — to help grantees move from prototype to impact.

In the coming months, grantees will enter a demonstration phase led by GitLab Foundation, receiving technical mentorship and resources from OpenAI Academy, along with eligibility for additional funding from partner philanthropies to help scale the highest-potential projects.

The organizations receiving grants, along with a high-level overview of their funded projects, are:

Accion — Boosting incomes for 16,000 pharmacy professionals in Kenya by 21–33% through AI-powered business intelligence and clinical training tools, with pharmacy supply chain partner, Field.

Career Path Services — Serving 6,000+ job seekers annually with AI navigation tools, targeting a 10% higher job placement rate and 20% increase in training program enrollment.

NASWA / CESER — The National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) (via its services arm, the Center for Employment Security Education and Research, or CESER), in partnership with the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL), connecting 15,000+ students and job seekers annually to registered apprenticeships, with completers earning an $80,000 average starting salary.

Community Economic Defense Project — Preventing evictions at scale by giving renters AI-powered legal guidance, with potential reach to 3.6 million households and a direct response to the 84% of cases tenants lose by default.

Colorado Thrives — Connecting 5,000 Coloradans to in-demand, living-wage careers through an employer-led, AI-powered career marketplace, projecting 1,000 job placements across business operations, construction and emerging tech.

Development Innovation Lab (DIL) — Delivering AI-enhanced weather forecasts to 100 million farmers across low- and middle-income countries to enable informed, climate-responsive farming decisions.

Foundation for California Community Colleges — Helping 2.1 million California community college students each year identify high-wage pathways, with $12,000–$20,000 in projected annual earnings increases for completers. Learn more at www.foundationccc.org.

MIT Media Lab — Identifying 18 million at-risk workers 12–18 months before displacement and helping them maintain wages — avoiding 15–25% post-layoff losses — through proactive reskilling.

Moms First — Connecting 75,000 low-income parents to $3,000–$8,000 in annual benefits they didn't know they qualified for.

Moses/Weitzman Health System — Replacing generic job boards with scalable, AI-driven longitudinal career mapping and personalized mentorship for 500,000+ workers over five years, leading to 5-8% wage growth in year one, and sustained career advancement

National Domestic Workers Alliance — Testing whether AI can deliver training, legal information, professional coaching, and workplace support to complement and scale organizing for 220,000 domestic workers.

Per Scholas — Leveraging AI to scale training capacity to reach 15,000+ immersive learners annually, transforming the lives of low- to moderate-income individuals and communities by supporting 80% of alumni in attaining careers with wages averaging 2.5X their pre-training earnings.

Roadtrip Nation — Guiding 3,200+ underserved learners through AI-powered career exploration, building on a pilot that showed a 17.2% increase in career confidence.

Scholar Fund — Simplifying the benefits process so families spend less time on paperwork and more time staying financially stable, with meaningful income gains projected in the first year.

SkillUp Coalition — Helping 500,000 job seekers navigate careers and financial challenges with AI-powered guidance, driving a projected 20% increase in employment and 15% higher wages.

U.S. Digital Response — Improving language access for Maryland residents seeking benefits from Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, and TANF and the future paid family and medical leave program.

Return on Investment

• This fund is estimated to increase annual earnings by $1,735 per person, for a total increase in lifetime earnings of $52,035 per person for 27,478 people.
• Total estimated increase in lifetime earnings across all people impacted: $1,429,818,676
• $4M invested.

About GitLab Foundation

GitLab Foundation is committed to improving lifetime earnings through access to opportunities. Founded in 2022, the Foundation provides innovative organizations with capital and capacity building to help people achieve economic mobility in the United States, Colombia, and Kenya. With an ambitious goal of generating at least $100 in additional lifetime earnings for every $1 invested, GitLab Foundation backs solutions with the real potential to transform lives and unlock opportunity at scale. To date, we estimate our investments will generate more than $34.7 billion in increased lifetime earnings. See our progress at https://www.gitlabfoundation.org/.

SOURCE GitLab Foundation