The Embattled CSO Assistance Fund (Provides Small, Short-term Emergency Grants to CSOs )
The Embattled CSO Assistance Fund
The Embattled CSO Assistance Fund; ICNL is part of the civil society consortium led by Freedom House implementing Lifeline: the Embattled CSO Assistance Fund.
This fund, which is supported by 18 governments and two foundations, provides support to civil society organizations (CSOs) under threat or attack.
There are three categories of Lifeline assistance:
(1) Through Freedom House and Front Line Defenders, Lifeline provides small, short-term emergency grantsto CSOs threatened because of their human rights work. Emergency grants can address security, medical expenses, legal representation, prison visits, trial monitoring, temporary relocation, equipment replacement, and other urgently needed expenses.
ICNL will receive and forward request for emergency grants to Freedom House and Front Line Defenders.
(2) 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 analysis, civil society coalition building, strategic litigation, awareness raising campaigns, and advocacy capacity building.
ICNL issues advocacy grants to help CSOs push back against legal threats to the freedoms of association and/or assembly, as well as other civic space related threats.
(3) Lifeline resiliency grants are meant to provide support to CSOs at high-risk to avoid or mitigate the threats they face.
Resiliency grant activities may include developing, expanding, and/or bolstering protection networks and local support mechanisms; mapping and/or coordinating civil society access to pro-bono services and support;
implementing joint protection strategies, contingency plans, and/or protocols; sharing protection and resiliency strategies nationally, regionally and/or internationally; supporting disrupted CSOs to safely reestablish and reorient their work; boosting at-risk CSO capacity to conduct organizational risk assessments; or providing protection training or legal technical assistance.
Applications for advocacy support and resiliency support are accepted on a rolling basis.
For more information, please contact Lifeline@icnl.org
For more information and application details, see; The Embattled CSO Assistance Fund