Due to the current lack of clarity around the availability and timeline of the remainder of our FY2020 funds, we have decided to postpone the opening of the upcoming rounds of the Internet Freedom Fund and the Core Infrastructure Fund and will not accept submissions.
We hope to have further clarity soon, at which time we will open the September 1 round, which was scheduled to open July 2nd. We will however consider all applications that were submitted by July 1st at 23:59 (11:59PM) GMT.
This is the first time in OTF’s eight year history that we have ever delayed the opening of an application round, and we did not make this decision lightly and only after recent events decided to pause the round. However, given the current circumstances related to the reliability and security of our funding, it is clear that we don’t have a choice. Because we cannot guarantee that we will have the funds available to move forward with great applications, and because we know how much time and resources our applicants devote to applications, we cannot move forward with the September 1 round as planned responsibly and in good faith until we know more.
We will revisit this decision in the upcoming weeks, depending on the developments with OTF’s FY2020 budget.
We will provide further updates on the status of the Internet Freedom Fund and Core Infrastructure Fund as soon as we can. We are always available for your questions – feel free to contact team members directly or get in touch via [email protected].