Supporting Justice-Impacted Individuals Through Employment

Introducing, Talent Nova: a technology platform, powered by AI, built to translate nontraditional experience into employer-recognized skills—reducing hiring friction and increasing access to work.

What’s happening in this space

The U.S. workforce is rapidly evolving, with millions of individuals entering or reentering employment through nontraditional pathways, often encountering structural barriers to access and advancement.

• 10,000+ individuals reenter society from incarceration each week
• ~200,000 service members transition to civilian life annually
• 70+ million Americans have a criminal record
• 1 in 5 workers are STARs (no four-year degree)
• Millions of caregivers return to work each year
• Young workers face increasing credential inflation and automated hiring filters

What’s missing

Hundreds of organizations exist across the country to help, yet the vast majority are localized service agencies, unable to address the scale of this need.

Why this initiative is needed now

Talent Nova addresses the massive scale of the issue by leveraging AI tools to customize an employment solution for each individual, with a custom created resume, cover letter, and local job recommendations.

Our mission

• To address inequity at scale by enabling those who have served their country and paid their debt to society to become productive working members of their communities.
• To enable people to achieve their full potential through meaningful employment despite cultural, societal, and personal barriers.

Who it serves: Underrepresented and overlooked Americans, including justice-impacted citizens, veterans, caregivers reentering the workforce, and skilled workers without four-year degrees.

Core strategy

Strategy 1: Skills Translation AI Engine

Leverages conversational AI and simple dialogues to transform lived experience, caregiving, military service, or justice involvement into employer-ready language.

Strategy 2: AI Resume and Cover Letter Generation

Professional, ATS-aligned documents are created in minutes with no design, copywriting, or formatting skills necessary.

Strategy 3: AI Intelligent Job Matching

AI deconstructs the user’s resume to find roles in their specific area that they are ready for by matching stated skills and qualifications with open jobs. Not only a direct match of job titles, but also roles they may not even know about.

Strategy 4: Readiness Kits

Now in development: Structured guidance that helps users to successfully onboard into new work environments, preparing them for success by preparing them for the realities and expectations of a new workplace environment.

How we measure success

The platform is measured by number of users, and most importantly, the number of users who are connected to employment opportunities.

2025 statistics

• ~48,000 new users
• 10,800+ total resumes and cover letters
• 65,000+ job opportunities surfaced
• 50 states covered by Talent Nova

Reporting cadence: Annual updates, comprehensive visual report annually.

Decision-making and updates

Who is responsible: The team at Anonymous Philanthropy is led by a number of people with expertise in Veteran’s Affairs, Criminal Justice Reform, Technology Development, Marketing and UI/UX design.

How often strategy is reviewed: Strategy is reviewed and set annually.

Subject matter expert

Genevieve Martin

Genevieve Martin is the former Executive Director of Dave’s Killer Bread Foundation (DKBF), and one of the pioneers of the Second Chance Employment movement. While at DKFB, she led the foundation’s efforts to increase employment opportunities for justice-impacted individuals by educating employers on the benefits and best practices of Second Chance Employment. Under her leadership, the foundation produced events around the country, and provided training, tools, and resources that ultimately helped hundreds of employers hire people with records. In 2019, she was named Executive of the Year by HR Dive, a top trade publication for the human resources industry.

User testimonials

“They didn’t just help me put words on a page, they helped me see the value in my journey. I learned how to explain my experience in a way that made people listen. I’m closing this year more confident, more prepared, and finally able to speak for myself in rooms I never thought I’d enter.”

Anthony

“Before Talent Nova, my resume told where I’d been. After the coaching session and training, it finally told who I am capable of becoming.”

Becky