Rapid Response Fund

• Eligibility Criteria:
  Any organization or person within OTF’s remit who requires urgent assistance related to a digital emergency can apply to the Rapid Response Fund. Specifically, those who:
  – demonstrate skill and ability to conduct rapid response work; and
  – have intimate knowledge of the communities they are working with and the digital threats they experience.
• Type of funding: Programmatic
• Target country: Global
• Application language: English

The Open Technology Fund (OTF) is seeking applications for the Rapid Response Fund to resolve threats for individuals, communities, and organizations whose free expression has recently been repressed.

To resolve digital emergencies, OTF offers both direct financial support as well as technical services from trusted partners to high-risk people and organizations, such as bloggers, cyber activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.

The Rapid Response Fund offers two types of support to organizations, activists, journalists, and other human rights defenders facing digital attacks and emergencies of various kinds:

• technological services from trusted service partners and
• direct financial support for the many needs that cannot be fulfilled by available service partners.

Relevant activities might include:

• Establishing new Internet connections (such as VPNs) when existing connections have been cut off or have been restricted;
• Providing personal digital protection for online journalists, human rights defenders, NGOs, activists and bloggers;
• Rapid development of tools or translations needed to respond adequately to emergencies;
• Developing decentralized, mobile internet applications that can link computers as an independent network (mesh or delay-tolerant networks);
• Emergency patches
• Any appropriate response to digital emergencies not listed above

OTF accepts applications on a rolling basis.

Before completing a submission, OTF strongly encourages potential applicants to review their Terms of Service. Questions may be emailed to hello@opentech.fund.

See here to learn more and apply.

Access the Fundraising Guide for expert advice on how to improve your fundraising applications and to identify prospective donors.