The Lifeline Embattled CSO Assistance Fund provides emergency financial assistance to civil society organizations (CSOs) under threat or attack and rapid response advocacy and resiliency grants to support CSOs in responding to broader threats against civic space.
Lifeline is currently supporting CSOs in pushing back against opportunistic civic space restrictions accompanying the COVID-19 Pandemic. Learn more here.
Lifeline also prioritizes support to civil society organization that face additional layers of vulnerability and restrictions, including women’s rights and women-led organizations and indigenous, land rights, and environmental CSOs. In addition, LGBTQI+ defenders can apply for support from our dedicated sister fund Dignity for All.
PHOTO CREDIT: © OLEG MATSEKH
Lifeline provides small, short-term emergency grants to CSOs threatened because of their human rights work.
These grants can address: security, medical expenses, legal representation, prison visits, trial monitoring, temporary relocation, equipment replacement, and other urgently needed expenses.
Long-term support, core costs, and programmatic expenses are not covered.
PHOTO CREDIT: © NIMAI CHANDRA GHOSH
Lifeline rapid response advocacy grants give local CSOs the resources to push back against closures of civic space as they arise.
Lifeline advocacy grants are highly flexible, and can support a wide variety of activities, such as community mobilization, policy and legal advocacy, civil society coalition building, strategic litigation, awareness raising campaigns, advocacy capacity building, and security and protection training.
PHOTO CREDIT: © Aram Tahhan
Lifeline rapid response resiliency grants provide support to threatened CSOs to proactively avoid or mitigate the threats they face and help them continue to work in high-risk environments.
These grants are highly flexible and support a range of activities including digital or physical security training; technical training on how to respond to restrictive CSO legislation; building peer-to-peer support networks, or establishing temporary collaborative space to help CSOs return to work.
