Funds

Two-thirds of the world’s population—nearly 5.5 billion people—live in a country where the global internet is censored.

And this number is only increasing as authoritarian governments around the world are harnessing technological advances to increase the scale, scope, and efficiency of digital repression.

As a result, we see increasingly sophisticated challenges to protect internet freedom, and see evolving community needs:

  • the constant evolution of repressive censorship and surveillance tactics
  • growing demand for anti-censorship tools
  • secure, privacy-enhancing technology to counter surveillance
  • shutdown-resilient tools that help people stay connected
  • rapid digital security support for at-risk communities
  • under-funding and under-support for the FOSS ecosystem

We fund technical solutions to address these and more.

Do you have a project that fits within the following areas?

  • Applied research to better understand where and how censorship is occurring, and the technical methods to combat it
  • Development & deployment of anti-censorship and privacy-enhancing technologies
  • Emergency, short-term digital security support for human rights defenders, journalists, and civil society groups
  • Long-term maintenance of established, free, and open source software projects underpinning the open, global internet
  • Sustaining large-scale, open source, anti-censorship tools operating in highly repressive contexts
  • Systemic improvements to the digital security ecosystem
  • Technology-focused convenings that empower internet freedom communities to collaborate and share knowledge

Check out the funding options below to learn more.

Our Applicant Guidebook can help you with the application process.

Facing a clear, time-sensitive, state-sponsored digital emergency and need short-term, urgent digital security support?

Need maintenance support for your established, free, and open source software project?

Need support for user costs for your large-scale, open source VPN or anti-censorship tool to respond to demand in repressive information contexts?

Have an idea for an innovative technology or research project that helps people facing repressive censorship and/or surveillance?

Interested in researching the technical orchestration of repressive information controls and the methods to combat it?