Cloudflare said on October 2, 2026 that 30 nonprofit and public interest organizations have built AI and automation tools using more than $7.5 million in credits for its developer services, and that applications are now open for a second cohort of its startup program for nonprofits.
What Cloudflare announced
In a post on its blog, Cloudflare said it is "sharing what dozens of civil society organizations have built using our developer services with more than $7.5 million of Cloudflare credits."
The company said that during Birthday Week last year it expanded Cloudflare for Startups to include nonprofit and public interest organizations, providing each with up to $250,000 in credits for its developer services. It said it selected 30 organizations for the first nonprofit startup cohort, working on problems in climate science, humanitarian aid, mental health, civic engagement and education.
Cloudflare also said Project Galileo, its free cybersecurity program for civil society organizations, protects more than 3,400 domains across more than 120 countries.
Why the company says nonprofits hesitate on AI
Cloudflare said many organizations report financial strain after major reductions in government funding contributed to layoffs and program closures, and that some have reported using AI to do more with less, though adoption remains ad hoc.
Citing a CIVICUS survey, the company said more than half of civil society respondents viewed privacy concerns as a barrier to use, and 48% cited financial constraints limiting their adoption. Cloudflare said these groups hold sensitive data, such as the location of activists or the identities of anonymous sources, and that its own data shows they are disproportionately at risk of cyberattacks.
The company said its developer services include security and privacy protections from the outset, that applications on its network are automatically protected from distributed denial-of-service attacks, and that Workers AI removes the need to operate dedicated GPU infrastructure while AI Gateway provides rate limits, observability and model routing to control costs. These are Cloudflare's own claims about its products.
What the organizations built
LebTown, an independent nonprofit newsroom covering Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, is replacing an operation run across two Google Docs, a Google Calendar, Discord and Gmail with a custom editorial management system, plus tools that convert county real-estate transfer records from PDF exports into structured data and a real-time copyeditor agent integrated with its WordPress site, according to Cloudflare.
Kaya Guides built a WhatsApp-based mental health application pairing people experiencing depression in India with trained lay counselors. Cloudflare said that as of September 2026 the application has supported 10,439 people, with 2,325 currently enrolled, and now processes around 500,000 WhatsApp messages a month after migrating its care management system to Cloudflare. The team also built a live AI system that listens to counseling calls and gives counselors real-time feedback.
The Snorkelling Society, a UK nonprofit, is building a web and mobile application called SnorkelMap for the snorkeling community, using Cloudflare to secure storage for community contributions and uploaded images.
Engineering support for human rights workflows
Cloudflare said it also assembled a team of volunteer engineers, including product experts, front-end designers, back-end builders and security advisors, to work with larger organizations on more complex workflows involving sensitive data such as the names of human rights abuse victims.
Projects include an interactive dashboard for Freedom House that can ingest, structure and flag potential cases of transnational repression from public reporting, fine-tuned on the organization's methodology; a dashboard for the Global Network Initiative that surfaces and categorizes regulatory proposals and advocacy opportunities across jurisdictions; and a risk assessment tool for the consultancy Article One. Cloudflare said AI helps structure information, but Article One makes all judgments.
What to do
- Nonprofit organizations interested in the program can apply through the link in Cloudflare's post and select the non-profit checkbox, the company says.
Key facts and where they come from
- Cloudflare says civil society groups built tools using more than $7.5 million in its credits.
we’re sharing what dozens of civil society organizations have built using our developer services with more than $7.5 million of Cloudflare credits
- Thirty organizations were selected for the first nonprofit startup cohort.
we selected 30 organizations to participate in our first non-profit, startup cohort
- Each participant receives up to $250,000 in developer service credits.
providing each of them with up to $250,000 in credits for our developer services
- Project Galileo protects more than 3,400 domains in over 120 countries, Cloudflare says.
Project Galileo, which provides free cybersecurity services to civil society organizations, protects more than 3,400 domains across more than 120 countries
- A CIVICUS survey found privacy and cost barriers to AI adoption.
more than half of civil society respondents viewed privacy concerns as a barrier to use
- 48% of CIVICUS survey respondents cited financial constraints.
48% cited financial constraints limiting their adoption
- Kaya Guides' WhatsApp application supported 10,439 people as of September 2026.
As of September 2026, the application has supported 10,439 people, with 2,325 currently enrolled.
- The Kaya Guides system now handles roughly 500,000 WhatsApp messages monthly.
now processes around 500,000 WhatsApp messages a month
- Applications for a second nonprofit cohort opened the day of the post.
starting today we are officially opening our startup program to our second