Ashgro is a 501(c)(3) public charity that provides Model A fiscal sponsorship to AI safety projects, handling their accounting, HR, legal compliance, and grant management so project leads can focus on their mission.
Ashgro is a 501(c)(3) public charity that provides Model A fiscal sponsorship to AI safety projects, handling their accounting, HR, legal compliance, and grant management so project leads can focus on their mission.
People
Updated 05/18/26President and Chief Executive Officer
Former Chief Operating Officer
Secretary (officer)
Board member
Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
- $2,672,983
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- -
- Funding Raised to Date
- $6,419,964
Org Details
Updated 05/18/26Ashgro Inc. is a Delaware nonprofit corporation and 501(c)(3) public charity (EIN: 88-4232889) founded in 2022. The organization provides comprehensive fiscal sponsorship services to AI safety projects globally, enabling them to receive charitable donations and grants without establishing their own legal entity. Ashgro was founded by JJ Hepburn, who had previously run AI Safety Support, an organization that shut down in 2023. The board of directors includes Luke Freeman, Greg Sadler, and JJ Hepburn. Ashgro primarily offers Model A (comprehensive) fiscal sponsorship, under which a sponsored project becomes a legal program of Ashgro and the project lead is employed directly by Ashgro. This structure allows projects to access funding from donor-advised funds, private foundations, and other charity-only funding sources. Ashgro handles all back-office operations including payroll for global teams, accounting, budget tracking, grant management, legal compliance, and tax reporting. Project leads access their finances through a dedicated project portal. The fee structure is tiered at 5-10% of project revenue depending on project size and complexity. The organization is primarily self-funded through these fees, with additional donations sought to improve services and provide operational stability. Ashgro's revenue grew rapidly from $75,031 in FY2022 to $2,104,518 in FY2023 and $4,240,415 in FY2024, reflecting a growing portfolio of sponsored projects. As of the most recent 990 filing, total assets stood at approximately $3.36 million. Known sponsored projects include AI Safety Info (aisafety.info) and Timaeus (timaeus.co), as well as Apart Research, with its broader portfolio encompassing multiple AI safety initiatives. The organization is based in Wilmington, Delaware, and employs a small operations team.
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26Ashgro reduces the administrative burden on AI safety project leads by absorbing all legal, financial, and compliance overhead through fiscal sponsorship. By removing bureaucratic obstacles, Ashgro enables more people to work on AI safety without needing to establish their own nonprofit structures. This increases the number of viable AI safety projects and helps talented researchers access philanthropic funding that would otherwise be inaccessible. The net effect is more AI safety work happening faster, contributing to reduced existential risk from advanced AI.
Grants Received
Updated 05/18/26Projects
Updated 05/18/26AISafety.info is a volunteer-maintained wiki and Q&A resource with hundreds of answers on AI existential risk, complemented by the Stampy chatbot that searches a large corpus of AI safety material.
Alignment Ecosystem Development (AED) is an AI safety field‑building nonprofit that builds and maintains digital infrastructure, such as online resources and tools, to grow and improve the AI safety ecosystem, and has received grants via its fiscal sponsor Ashgro Inc.
Apart Research is a remote-first AI safety research organization that turns technical talent into published AI safety researchers through sprints, studio programs, and fellowships, with donations in some geographies routed via fiscal sponsor Ashgro Inc.
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