GitLab Foundation and Families and Workers Fund Partner on Powering Economic Opportunity Fund
April 22, 2025 – GitLab Foundation and the Families and Workers Fund (FWF) today announced a two-year, $16 million partnership, the Powering Economic Opportunity Fund, designed to propel low-wage workers into high-growth careers in renewable energy, infrastructure modernization, and related advanced manufacturing sectors across the United States.
Flexible grants will be awarded to invest in innovative, results-driven projects that create opportunity and income for workers. These investments will also help communities and businesses facing hiring shortages at a regional level while supporting emerging industries nationwide.
The new fund builds on the success of the GitLab Foundation’s Green Jobs for Economic Opportunity Fund and FWF’s Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers Challenge, which is supported by Autodesk Foundation, Invest in Our Future, and Siemens Foundation, among others. These funds incubated a diverse portfolio of projects – strengthening workforce pipelines, increasing annual incomes by over $22,000 in the first year, and providing technical assistance to organizations in clean energy, construction, and other specialized industries.
“By bringing together community-based partners, policymakers, employers, and philanthropic investors, the Powering Economic Opportunity Fund will help create meaningful, lasting opportunities for workers nationwide,” said Roger Perez, senior program officer at GitLab Foundation. “Through our combined efforts, we aim to drive at least $1 billion in increased lifetime incomes for low-wage workers, realizing a high return on investment for these projects.”
Over the next decade, it’s estimated that investments in manufacturing, energy, and related industries will create more than nine million new jobs. Continued innovation in these emerging fields is driving increased demand for skilled workers; in the clean energy sector alone, there are more than 117,000 open jobs across 42 states.
“We are proud to be partnering with GitLab Foundation to invest in the nonprofits and public-private partnerships that are helping to address the talent shortages in rapidly growing sectors and to ensure that workers have quality jobs – jobs that let them support themselves, their families, and live a good life,” said Sarah Mostafa, program director at FWF.
Concept notes will be solicited in the coming weeks, and selected projects will be announced on a rolling basis throughout 2025 and 2026.
The Families and Workers Fund is housed at the Amalgamated Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) charity.
