Claude Corps is Anthropic's new 12-month fellowship for people EARLY in their careers. Under 2 years of experience. No degree required. This page has every verified detail plus my playbook for actually getting in.
On June 11, Anthropic announced Claude Corps: a national fellowship that places people early in their careers inside U.S. nonprofits, full-time and in-person, for 12 months. Your job as a fellow is to help that nonprofit actually use AI: building workflows, training staff, and putting Claude to work on the org's real problems.
The scale is real. Anthropic committed an initial $150 million. Over the life of the program they plan to train 1,000 fellows, with at least 400 nonprofits hosting fellows within the first 12 months. The program is run with two partners: CodePath (your employer of record, who also runs the programming and mentorship) and Social Finance (measurement and scaling).
The Number That Matters
The first cohort is only around 100 spots, and applications for it close July 17. More cohorts start January 2027 and August 2027, so missing this window does not lock you out. But first cohorts of programs like this are historically the easiest to get into. Apply now.
$85,000 salary plus benefits
A real full-time salary, paid through CodePath as your employer of record. Relocation support is available if you need to move for your placement.
5 hours of paid AI training every week
Intensive onboarding, then 5 hours of ongoing training each week for the entire 12 months. You are being paid to become an AI expert. That is the part most people miss.
A dedicated CodePath mentor
One-on-one mentorship for the whole fellowship, plus office hours with Anthropic for your technical questions.
An expansive Claude token budget
Anthropic's words, not mine. You get serious Claude usage to build with, which means a year of hands-on practice most people would pay for.
A resume that writes itself afterward
"Spent 12 months deploying AI inside a real organization, trained by Anthropic" is the exact line every employer is hiring for right now. The fellowship ends, the leverage does not.
The requirements are deliberately open. You qualify if you are:
Over 18
That's the age requirement. That's it.
Under 2 years of full-time work experience
This program is FOR beginners. Heavy experience actually disqualifies you.
Any educational background
No degree required. College, bootcamp, self-taught, none of it matters.
Authorized to work in the U.S.
And willing to relocate if needed (they help with relocation).
The only soft requirement: you should be comfortable working with Claude. If you are not yet, the playbook below fixes that in two weeks.
This is built for the exact people everyone claims AI is leaving behind. If that's you, this is your move.
JUN 11
Applications opened for fellows AND for nonprofits that want to host one (host applications are open for all cohort dates).
JUL 17
First cohort application deadline. About a 5-week window from announcement to close.
OCT 2026
First cohort of ~100 fellows starts.
2027
Two more cohorts: January 2027 and August 2027. Miss this window and you are delayed, not out.
Apply through the official announcement page: anthropic.com/news/claude-corps. It links to the Claude Corps application for both fellows and host nonprofits. If you run a nonprofit: hosting gets you a full-time, Anthropic-trained fellow embedded in your team for a year.
01
Get the free Anthropic certificates first
Anthropic Academy (anthropic.skilljar.com) has free courses with real certificates: AI Fluency, Claude 101, Introduction to Claude Cowork. Finishing the company's own courses before applying is the clearest possible signal that you are serious. It costs you a weekend and $0.
02
Build ONE nonprofit-flavored project and document it
Don't say you are comfortable with Claude. Prove it. Build a volunteer-shift scheduler, a donor thank-you system, or a grant-research workflow in Claude. Screenshot it. Reference it in your application. A tiny real build beats a paragraph of enthusiasm every time.
03
Lead with the mission, not the money
The $85K is why you clicked. It is not why they should pick you. Find your genuine connection to a cause (food security, veterans, education, conservation) and put it in the first two sentences of every essay. Programs like this select for people who would do the work anyway.
04
Make "no experience" your advantage
They CAPPED experience at 2 years on purpose. They want people who learn fast and have not calcified into old workflows. Frame your story as learning speed: the thing you went from zero to competent at, fast, with proof.
05
Apply early, not on July 16
Rolling review is common in fellowship programs, and early applications get more reader attention regardless. You also leave yourself time to be contacted for follow-ups before the crunch.
This is the prompt I would run before submitting anything. It turns Claude into your application coach: it positions your story, finds and fixes your gaps before the deadline, rewrites your resume bullets, drafts your essays in YOUR voice, and then mock-interviews you until your answers are sharp.
Open a new Claude chat, paste this, and fill in the three bracketed sections honestly. Thin resume is fine. The prompt is built for it.
Copy this prompt
You are my application coach for the Claude Corps fellowship (Anthropic's program that places early-career people inside U.S. nonprofits for 12 months at an $85,000 salary to help them adopt AI). Your job is to make my application impossible to ignore.
MY BACKGROUND:
[Paste your resume here, or just describe yourself in plain words: education or no education, jobs you have had even if they were retail or food service or babysitting, anything you have built or organized, and your experience with AI tools so far. Be honest. This program is built for people with UNDER 2 years of full-time experience, so do not hide a thin resume. We will position it.]
THE CAUSE I CARE ABOUT:
[Name the type of nonprofit work that genuinely matters to you: food security, veterans, education access, conservation, community programs. If you have ANY personal connection to it, say so. "My family used a food bank when I was 12" is worth more than any credential.]
MY CLAUDE EXPERIENCE:
[List what you have actually done with Claude or other AI: projects, skills, automations, even just daily use. If the answer is "not much yet," say that, and we will build a 2-week crash plan into the strategy.]
Now do the following, in order:
1. POSITIONING. Tell me the single strongest story my application should tell, in one sentence. The fellowship wants people who are early-career, hungry, mission-driven, and genuinely comfortable with Claude. Find the angle in my background that proves those four things and name the gaps I need to close before I submit.
2. GAP PLAN. For every gap you found, give me a concrete fix I can complete before the July 17 deadline. If my Claude experience is thin, build me a 10-day plan: which free Anthropic Academy courses to finish (AI Fluency, Claude 101, Intro to Claude Cowork), and one small real project to build and document (for example: build a volunteer-shift scheduler or a donor thank-you email system in Claude and screenshot it). The project should be nonprofit-flavored on purpose.
3. RESUME REWRITE. Rewrite my resume summary and my top 3 bullet points so they speak the program's language: service, initiative, learning speed, and concrete results with numbers wherever possible. Do not invent anything. Pull the numbers out of what I gave you by asking me questions if you need to.
4. ESSAY DRAFTS. Draft my answer to the classic fellowship questions: "Why do you want to do this?" and "Why are you a strong candidate despite limited experience?" Write them in my voice based on how I have written this prompt, 150 to 250 words each, specific over impressive, zero corporate filler. Then give me 3 sharp questions to make my drafts more personal.
5. MOCK INTERVIEW. Once I say "ready," run a mock interview: 8 questions, one at a time, mixing motivation questions, scenario questions ("a staff member at your nonprofit refuses to use AI, what do you do?"), and basic Claude fluency questions. After each answer, grade it 1 to 10 and show me the stronger version.
Rules: be direct, no flattery, and flag anything in my materials that sounds like AI wrote it so we can make it sound like a human again.
What To Do With The Output
Work through the 5 steps over a few days, not one sitting. Do the gap plan FIRST (certificates plus the small build), then come back to the same chat and say "gaps closed, here's what I did" so your essay drafts can reference real things. Run the mock interview out loud, ideally with voice mode, the day before any real conversation.
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