The AI for Humanity Gift Guide
Sleigh your holiday giving.
Welcome to the AI for Humanity Gift Guide, where every gift comes with impact instead of a return policy. This list features the kind of gifts that stay with people long after the holidays: food security for a family, mental health support for a teen in crisis, math tutoring for a student halfway around the world.
Whether you’re treating yourself to a year-end donation or looking to allocate remaining philanthropic funds, you’re sure to find an AI-powered nonprofit — or two, or seven — worth supporting. Happy holidays and happy giving!
❣️ Love them all? Donate here with the payment description “AI for Humanity,” and we will distribute your donation evenly among each team.
$3 - Connect a family to food resources for a full year
One in eight Americans needs help with food. Making ends meet is hard enough, but getting help shouldn’t be. Lemontree pairs AI with real human support to match families with the closest and best food resources, from fresh produce to SNAP benefits. Lemontree helps 18K families put food on the table every single day.
For less than your morning coffee, you can help one family access food for an entire year. And here’s the cherry (lemon?) on top: every dollar you give will be matched through the end of 2025. Your $3 becomes $6, and one family helped becomes two.
$5 - Deliver proven mental-health support to one young person exactly when it matters
When a young person is struggling online at 2 a.m., they need help now, not an appointment three weeks from Tuesday. Koko meets young people where they already are: online. Their AI tools help identify when someone’s in crisis and instantly helps connect them with free, short, evidence-based mental health support. And it resonates — 88% of users find Koko’s service helpful.
Koko has helped more than 6M young people. Your $5 helps them reach another.
$10 - Give 10 students a personal math tutor for a year
Millions of students don’t have access to quality math tutoring. What do most have? Access to a mobile phone. Darsel turns that phone into a personal math tutor. Their AI chatbot texts students practice problems through messaging platforms like WhatsApp and helps when they get stuck. It’s simple text-based learning designed for maximum accessibility.
Since 2022, Darsel has reached 330K students who’ve answered 347M math questions. For $10, you can support 10 more students for an entire school year.
$30 - Enable 30 hours of AI-powered literacy tutoring
When students receive timely feedback on their writing, their skills grow fast. Quill.org makes that possible with free tools that use AI to deliver instant guidance and personalized practice. Through short, targeted activities, the platform helps elementary through high school students become stronger writers, readers, and critical thinkers.
So far, 12M students have written 3B sentences on Quill. For $30, you can enable 30 hours of literacy tutoring for the next student who needs it.
Support Quill (Write “Quill” as the payment description)
$57 - Support one worker crisis conversation
Job loss is spiking right now, and people need help navigating what comes next. Empower Work connects people facing work crises with trained peer counselors through free, confidential text-based support. Their platform pairs human counselors with an AI assistant that helps guide next steps, from résumé advice to emotional support.
The tool is so helpful that USA Today shared it in their list of job loss survival tips. For $57, you can power support for one person in a work crisis that could change their trajectory.
$317 - Help restore a vote
Millions of Americans with criminal records want to vote but face a maze of confusing laws and fines that make exercising their constitutional right feel impossible. Free Our Vote cuts through that maze. Their AI-powered tool identifies eligible voters, then they launch targeted outreach, navigate the restoration process, and ultimately help them vote.
Since 2020, they’ve reached over 1M eligible people and driven a 26% increase in voter turnout. For $317, you can support a net new vote cast and restore one more voice to our democracy.
$5,000 - Cover trucking school tuition for a returning citizen
68% of people released from prison are rearrested within three years, largely due to unemployment and poverty. Breaking that cycle requires a clear path to economic stability. FreeWorld provides that through full CDL training, an AI-powered coach, and five years of career support for people with criminal histories.
FreeWorld maintains a less than 5% recidivism rate for over 2.3K graduates. For $5,000, you can cover trucking school tuition and help one person build a stable future.
Quick Bytes
A Few of My Favorite 2025 Things
And the best chart award goes to…this chart. It captures the vibe of most AI conferences I attended this year: AI could END SCARCITY, END HUMANITY, or...boost trend growth by 0.2%. A crystal ball would sure save a lot of headaches. Adding one to my wishlist.
Watching the sector put Fast Forward’s report to use has been one of the highlights of my year. Some recent examples: Mashable featured our data alongside AI Equity Project’s to highlight what’s emerging in the field. Tech To The Rescue’s co-founder drew on our findings in a Fast Company piece arguing that AI readiness is philanthropy’s hidden multiplier. And All Tech Is Human included it in their Responsible AI Impact Report, which maps the risks, safeguards, and solutions defining 2026.
A state with a well-known bay might have pulled off one of the coolest AI initiatives this year — and no, it’s not California. Maryland forged a novel partnership with a frontier AI company (Anthropic), a major foundation (Rockefeller), and a digital transformation firm (Percepta) to modernize government services. Governor Wes Moore, who has previously supported SIRUM, will lead on using Claude to help residents access benefits, navigate housing permits, and get the support they need. This will be a use case worth watching.
APN Opportunities and Funding News
The WIN AI Challenge will award up to eight solutions $2.5M or $5M each to help women thrive and build a better workplace for all. Register by December 11.
The Chat for Learning & AI Accelerator, led by Turn.io with support from the Gates Foundation and Anthropic, is accepting applications. Participants will refine their learning models, test real-world chat solutions, and generate evidence of impact. Apply by December 12.
Applications for the Activate AI: Economic Opportunity Challenge are open. The challenge, led by data.org and Zoom, is a global call for innovative AI applications that empower people and communities, and that unlock economic opportunity for a resilient future. Apply by January 8.
The Mozilla Data Collective is rebuilding the AI data ecosystem with communities at the center. Access over 300 high-quality global datasets, built by and for the community in a transparent and ethical way.
Center for Civic Futures and partners committed $8.5M for AI solutions that improve safety net program delivery.
Bezos Earth Fund announced $30M in AI Grand Challenge Awards. The award went to fifteen global teams to deploy artificial intelligence to protect climate and nature.
The OpenAI Foundation shared the first recipients from the People-First AI Fund, a multi-million dollar investment in community-based nonprofits working to strengthen local communities and expand the opportunity of AI.
Let’s Talk
I am living and breathing AI for humanity these days. If you are too, let’s talk!