SAN FRANCISCO — The Upwork Foundation announced Tuesday that it will award $800,000 in grants to nine nonprofit organizations across five continents that are training marginalized communities in skills considered difficult for artificial intelligence to replicate.
The 2025 grantees will focus on building proficiency in empathy, creativity, integrity, critical thinking, communication and leadership — competencies the foundation describes as “durable” and essential for workers to effectively shape, oversee and collaborate with advanced AI tools.
“This year, we’re focusing on the fundamentals of professionalism and the building blocks of savvy teams,” said Hannah Erickson, Upwork’s director of sustainability and impact. “These six human-centric skills will enable workforces to better leverage AI while building workplaces that support deeper collaboration, advancement and fulfillment.”
The nine selected organizations, recommended by the Upwork Foundation with input from its employee Giving Circle, are:
The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture / Arts2Work
Arts2Work helps artists build creative careers. Its National Apprenticeship Program in Media Arts and Creative Technologies provides on-the-job training for people from marginalized communities, enabling them to secure entry-level jobs as multimedia producers and digital video editors, while also helping employers build a pipeline of diverse, skilled, creative workers.
COOP Careers
COOP bridges the social capital gap by equipping underemployed first-generation and low-income college graduates with digital skills and peer connections that unlock upward economic mobility. Many of these graduates are more likely to support families and have heavy student debts, and yet earn less than their degree-holding peers for a full decade on average. COOP helps these graduates build the relationships their peers already have, that can lead to referrals for jobs commensurate with their degrees.
Forward Inc
Forward Inc is an Amsterdam-based, internationally operating organization devoted to supporting people with refugee backgrounds in pursuing their entrepreneurial ambitions. Since opening in 2017, Forward has trained over 3000 people and supported the launch of over 200 businesses. Its programs are free of charge, and designed to help aspiring entrepreneurs through the full life-cycle of business growth, from conception to scaling.
Impact Justice
Impact Justice works to advance safety, justice, and opportunity in the United States by shifting the status quo away from punitive systems and more toward investments in healing, human potential, and individual and collective accountability. Their work is evidenced-based, and through informed action they are shifting the narrative away from harmful legal systems to improved living conditions and life outcomes.
iLEAD Africa
iLEAD AFRICA is a dynamic leadership and social innovation hub harnessing the power of digital technologies to empower young people and marginalized communities. Its goal is to have a positive impact on, and help shape a better future for, the people living on the African continent by providing platforms for learning, dialogue, and collaboration for the youth.
Latin American
LALA works to develop a new generation of entrepreneurial and ethical leaders who will serve the Latin American region. It works with purpose-driven 14-to-20-year-olds — many from historically marginalized communities — and helps them build skills in leadership, entrepreneurship, social innovation, social-emotional learning, and critical thinking.
Prelude
Prelude partners with employers and schools to offer paid internships for high school students from lower-income communities. Its goal is to help students lead purpose-filled lives and achieve economic freedom by offering work-based learning experiences that empower students to identify and realize their most ambitious goals.
SheDev
SheDev is the first-ever women-led and women-owned tech company of Gilgit-Baltistan. It provides programs that teach in-demand digital skills that meet global standards to help empower women in Pakistan and drive social change.
Friends of Teach For India
Founded in 2008, Teach For India believes that a nation is built in its classrooms, and so works to develop the next generation of educators and leaders for India. It works to help its graduates enter college, and its Fellows work in partnership with children to create safe, happy learning spaces.
Grants are administered through the Tides Foundation, where Upwork maintains a donor-advised fund.
The awards come as rapid advances in generative AI reshape the global labor market, prompting workforce-development organizations to emphasize uniquely human abilities that complement rather than compete with automation.