Small and mid-sized nonprofits ready to go further. Skilled professionals who know Claude. Matched and supported, one project at a time.
By Cat Ward, Taproot CEO
Picture a small nonprofit running a housing hotline. Its team tracks every call across three spreadsheets and a shared inbox, and it has a clear idea: an app that flags urgent cases and drafts follow-ups, built with Claude. The tools exist. Someone who can build it around how the team actually works, and build it responsibly, is harder to find.
Most technology waves follow the same pattern: the organizations with the most capacity pull ahead, and everyone else catches up later, if at all. AI is on track to do the same.
We don’t think it has to.
That’s why Taproot is partnering with Anthropic, the company behind Claude, to match AI-fluent pro bono consultants with nonprofits as they put AI to work for their missions.
Anthropic recently launched Claude Corps, which pairs nonprofits with early-career workers trained in AI implementation. Nonprofits have embraced it.
Taproot is ready to build on that momentum. Through this partnership, Taproot plans to extend that model to more nonprofits, matching skilled professionals with them for shorter, project-based work.
Why this matters in a new era
Nonprofits are holding our communities together while more is asked of them than ever. In a 2026 Taproot survey, 89 percent of nonprofits reported that they expect demand for their programs to grow in the coming year, while only 33 percent believe their organization has the resources it needs to adapt.
Large nonprofits can often hire paid consultants to guide them through a shift like AI. Most small and mid-sized nonprofits can’t. They get similar tools but not the expertise to put them to work, and without intervention, the pattern repeats. They should have that expertise too, and they’re who this partnership is designed for.
How it works
Taproot will is planning to recruit skilled professionals and train them on the latest ways nonprofits can use Claude. They won’t all be engineers: A strategist might shape a five-year plan, a communications expert might sharpen a nonprofit’s messaging, or a finance lead might guide next year’s budget, and all of them would be fluent in AI. The plan is to match each professional with a nonprofit for a defined piece of work, with a clear scope, a start, and an end. Projects might include:
- A custom app that expands how a nonprofit delivers its programs
- Data analysis that shows a team which programs are working and where to grow next
- Automated workflows that take reporting and admin off staff plates, so they can spend more time on mission critical work
- An AI roadmap that turns a team’s boldest idea into a plan
Taproot scopes, matches, and supports every engagement.
Why we’ve been building toward this
For 25 years, Taproot has expanded what pro bono service can be, taking it beyond the legal field and making it a lever for lasting nonprofit capacity. Together with our community, we’ve connected more than 35,000 nonprofits with skilled professionals and delivered more than $400 million in pro bono service. More than 150,000 skilled professionals are part of the Taproot community.
That’s the foundation, and we’re planning to build on it. A new era asks us what it will take to make pro bono service something every nonprofit can count on. This partnership is part of our answer, and three commitments shape how we’re building it.
Quality comes first. We plan to draw on subject matter experts to shape the training, build on what’s working in Claude Corps, and bring 25 years of pro bono experience to every project. We’re building to reach more nonprofits, but never at the expense of quality.
We’re not waiting for a playbook. No one has one for this yet, not our sector and not anyone else. So we’re testing new ideas as we go, including a small stipend pilot that widens the range of skilled professionals who can take part. It’s a way to show what a more equitable model of pro bono could look like.
What we learn belongs to the field. Our goal at Taproot is for pro bono to become the norm for how nonprofits build and sustain their capacity. We plan to share what we learn so everyone supporting nonprofits through this change can build on it.
What isn’t changing
As a nonprofit leader myself, I know AI brings as many questions as answers. We’re working through them too.
Our goal is to help every nonprofit thrive in an AI era. We meet nonprofits where they are, including those still weighing AI or those that have decided it isn’t right for them. Pro bono service, in every form, stays at the heart of what we do.
Join us
Our vision is a future where every nonprofit can be as bold and impactful as its mission demands. Imagine what that expertise could unlock: a food bank getting meals out faster. A health center spending less time on paperwork and more time with patients. A small team with the expertise to take its boldest idea further.
This partnership is one step toward that future.
Join our mailing list to keep up with our work and explore ways to get involved with Taproot today.
When skilled professionals and nonprofits come together, that’s how we power what’s possible.
