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A free guide by Mariah Brunner ↗ INSTAGRAM ↗ TIKTOK

Get Paid $85K
To Bring AI
To A Nonprofit

Claude Corps is Anthropic’s 12-month paid fellowship for people at the start of their careers. No degree required. Here’s every verified detail, plus my playbook for actually getting in.

On June 11, 2026, Anthropic announced Claude Corps, a national fellowship that places early-career people inside U.S. nonprofits for a full year. Your job as a fellow is to help that nonprofit actually use AI on its real problems.

Anthropic put in an initial $150 million and plans to place 1,000 fellows across three cohorts. It runs with two nonprofit partners. CodePath is your employer and runs the training, and Social Finance handles measurement.

Where Things Stand Today

The first cohort (about 100 fellows) started October 19, 2026, so that July deadline is gone. The open application now is for Cohort 3, about 600 fellows starting in late August 2027. The deadline is January 31, 2027, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. If you can start sooner, the posting says you may be considered for an earlier cohort. (Official FAQ)

What You Get

01

$85,000 salary plus full benefits

Paid through CodePath twice a month. If you’re placed far from home, you get a one-time relocation stipend for things like moving and your first month’s rent.

02

Paid AI training every week

An intensive training period at the start, then about five hours a week of structured training for the whole year. The rest of your time goes to your nonprofit.

03

A mentor and Anthropic support

A CodePath mentor, office hours for the hard technical questions and a national cohort of peers. The launch post also promises an "expansive Claude token budget."

04

A year of real AI work on your resume

Twelve months putting AI to work inside a real organization, trained by Anthropic and CodePath. That’s hard to get any other way when you’re just starting out.

Who Can Apply

01

18 or older

By your cohort’s start date.

02

At the start of your career

The launch post said under two years of full-time work. The FAQ now says there’s no set limit on years of experience, but the program is built for early-career people, and the posting says "Not sure which side you’re on? Apply anyway."

03

Any education

There’s no minimum education requirement. College, bootcamp, self-taught, all fine.

04

U.S. work authorization

Your authorization can’t depend on employer sponsorship. You also need to be willing to relocate and work full-time for a year. Cohort 1 is in person or hybrid, and later cohorts include some remote spots, but remote isn’t guaranteed.

The Cohort 3 posting also asks for three things up front. You need proof you finished AI Fluency and Claude 101 (both free), something you’ve built with AI and some community, nonprofit or public-interest experience. After the application comes a take-home assessment and interviews.

Apply for Cohort 3 here →

Run a nonprofit? Host applications are open for every cohort.

My Playbook For Getting In

01

Finish the two courses this week

They’re required now, so don’t leave them for January. Each takes a few hours and ends with a certificate. Save the certificate links as proof. My free Claude certifications guide walks through both.

02

Build one nonprofit-flavored project

Don’t say you’re comfortable with Claude. Prove it. Build a volunteer-shift scheduler, a donor thank-you system or a grant-research tracker, then screenshot it. It doubles as your answer to the AI question.

03

Write the two short answers with real stories

One asks about something you did for a community "that nobody asked you to do." The other asks about a time you used AI to get something real done, including what didn’t work. Specific, honest and small beats impressive and vague.

04

Make early-career your advantage

They built this for people who learn fast. Frame your story around one thing you went from zero to good at, quickly, with proof.

05

Apply well before January 31

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so applying early gives you more time for the take-home and interviews.

The Application Coach Prompt

This is the prompt I’d run before submitting anything. It finds your gaps against the real requirements, builds a 10-day plan to close them, drafts both short answers in your voice, rewrites your resume bullets and mock-interviews you.

Claude Corps Application Coach
You are my application coach for Claude Corps, Anthropic's fellowship that places early-career people inside U.S. nonprofits for 12 months at an $85,000 salary to help them put AI to work. Your job is to make my application impossible to ignore, using only true things about me. WHAT THE APPLICATION ASKS FOR (from the official job posting, check it again before I submit): - Proof I finished two free Anthropic courses: AI Fluency and Claude 101. - Something I've built with AI (a tool, automation, dashboard or Claude project). - Community, nonprofit or public-interest experience. - Two short answers, 350 words or less each: Q1: "Tell us about something you did for a community you belong to that nobody asked you to do." (What was the problem, what did you do, and what did it cost you to keep going?) Q2: "Tell us about a specific time you used AI to get something real done for yourself or someone else." (What worked, what didn't, and where did a person need to stay involved?) - After that: a take-home assessment and interviews. MY BACKGROUND: [Paste your resume, or describe yourself in plain words: education (or none), every job you've had even if it was retail, food service or babysitting, anything you've organized, and how you use AI today. Be honest. A thin resume is fine. We'll position it.] MY COMMUNITY WORK: [Anything you did for a group you belong to: a team, a church, a school, a neighborhood, an online community, your family's business. Small counts.] THE CAUSE I CARE ABOUT: [The kind of nonprofit work that matters to you: food security, veterans, education, conservation, housing. Include any personal connection.] MY AI EXPERIENCE: [What you've actually done with Claude or other AI, including daily use. If it's "not much yet," say so.] Do this in order, and stop after each step so I can respond: 1. POSITIONING. In one sentence, the strongest true story my application can tell. Then list every requirement above I don't clearly meet yet. 2. GAP PLAN. A day-by-day plan (10 days max) to close each gap: finishing AI Fluency and Claude 101, and building ONE small nonprofit-flavored project in Claude (for example a volunteer-shift scheduler, a donor thank-you email system or a grant-research tracker). Tell me exactly what to screenshot or write down so I can prove it. 3. SHORT ANSWERS. Ask me 3 questions for Q1 and 3 for Q2 to pull out real details. Then draft both answers in my voice, under 350 words each, specific over impressive. For Q2, include an honest "what didn't work" and the moment a human had to step in. 4. RESUME BULLETS. Rewrite my top 3 resume bullets around service, initiative, learning speed and results. Ask me for numbers instead of inventing them. 5. MOCK INTERVIEW. When I say "ready," ask 8 questions one at a time, mixing motivation, nonprofit scenarios ("a staff member refuses to use AI, what do you do?") and basic Claude skills. Grade each answer 1 to 10 and show me a stronger version. RULES: Never invent experience, numbers or quotes. Be direct, no flattery. Flag anything in my drafts that sounds AI-written so I can make it sound like me.
  1. Use it once. Paste the Application Coach into a new chat in Claude or ChatGPT, fill in the [brackets], and send. Work through it over a few days, not one sitting.
  2. Keep it. In Claude, make a Project, click Set project instructions, paste it in and save. Every chat in that Project starts with it. In ChatGPT, do the same with a Project’s instructions.

Do the gap plan FIRST, then come back to the same chat and say "gaps closed, here’s what I did" so your answers can point to real work. Run the mock interview out loud with voice mode before any real interview.