Anthropic, OpenAI promote philanthropy by letting workers donate their equity to charity

Tucked into Anthropic’s 300+ page prospectus were details about an employee benefit that, while still fairly niche, is becoming more popular among private companies.

Under a donation matching program, “employees can pledge a meaningful portion of their equity awards toward charitable giving, which we match with shares of our Class N common stock,” per the S-1 filing, which was released in the weeks before the AI giant is expected to IPO.

Charitable giving has long had a foothold in the corporate world, partly because tax laws make it advantageous for workers and companies to donate part of their earnings to non-profits. And while a handful of public companies allow employees to donate their publicly traded shares to charity, such programs weren’t on private employers’ radar until more recently.

That’s starting to change due in part to the immense amount of wealth currently locked up in private markets, according to Adam Nash, co-founder and CEO of Daffy, a donor-advised fund vendor that administers Anthropic’s donation matching program.

“We actually have private companies that are worth a trillion dollars,” Nash said. (Anthropic is targeting a $1.5 trillion valuation for its IPO.) When you consider “new solutions for charitable giving that just react to that, coming up with a solution that doesn’t include private stock, frankly, I think doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he added.

How Anthropic’s program works. Under Anthropic’s current donation matching program, employees can donate up to 25% of their equity grants to charity through a donor-advised fund, with the company matching that donation 1:1, according to Daffy.

Donor-advised funds are a type of charitable giving account that allow employees to choose where their donations are directed. After the fund is established, the employee can recommend an eligible US public charity to receive a grant from the fund.

If Anthropic goes public at the valuation investors are anticipating, charities could see a windfall from this employee matching program.

That was the case for beneficiaries of Figma’s program, which Daffy helped launch ahead of its 2025 IPO. In 2024 Figma employees donated nearly 1 million private shares through the program, and by the time the design software company went public in July 2025 those shares were worth more than $100 million, according to Nash.

There are considerations around liquidity when employees donate private stock to charity, sources told us.

Fidelity Charitable, which allows employees to donate private stock to donor-advised funds through its 501(c)(3), considers how soon private shares can be redeemed as part of its diligence process when deciding whether to accept private assets, Margot Navins, VP, national fundraising manager with the organization, said.

“Our biggest, most important goal is getting the funds out to charity, and we need that liquidity event to happen in order for the funds to be able to be granted. So that’s a really important part of our diligence process, is understanding when liquidity can happen, so that we can fulfill our charitable mission,” she said.

A differentiator. It’s perhaps unsurprising that big AI tech firms like OpenAI and Anthropic are leaning into charitable giving programs for their workforces, given both companies have been intentional about highlighting their philanthropic efforts.

Anthropic runs a public benefit fund, and recently announced that it plans to donate 5% of the firm’s shares to the fund, provided shareholders approve the plan, with commitments to increase donations based on company valuation going forward. The OpenAI Foundation, a non-profit that holds a major stake in the AI company’s for-profit arm, has invested billions of dollars in the life sciences as well as research into diseases such as Alzheimer’s, in addition to areas likely to be affected by its own technology, such as jobs and the economy. (OpenAI also has an equity donation matching program, and is a Daffy customer.)

Such commitments are expected to reshape philanthropy in the coming years.

“These are companies that really truly believe that they are going to impact not just the workforce, but the economy, society, and in big ways,” Nash said. “It’s not surprising to me that employees who work for those companies actually want to see some of the money go to work for causes and organizations that they believe in,” he said.

What’s more, these companies see a potential return-on-investment for their talent strategy and brand from allowing employees to donate part of their compensation to charity, Nash said. In a sector where competition for talent is significant, such programs could help employers stand out.

Another practical reason charitable giving might appeal to employees at these companies is that it can lessen their tax bills. If an employee donates appreciated stock directly to a 501(c)(3) non-profit instead of selling it first, they might avoid paying capital gains on the appreciation, or qualify for a charitable deduction based on the fair market value of the stock that was donated, according to a US Bank explainer.

Such considerations are always part of Fidelity Charitable’s education sessions with employees, Navins said.

“Education around the benefit and some of the tax strategies…will be critical in people understanding and then adopting and taking part in a program” like this, she said.