Rapid Response Fund
Rapid Response Fund supports high-risk individuals and organizations with urgent technical services and project funding to counter digital attacks, censorship, and threats from repressive state actors.
Funder: Open Technology Fund
Due Dates: Rolling (technical services and direct financial support)
Funding Amounts: Typically USD $1–$50,000 for six months or less; average support $5,000–$25,000
Summary: Urgent technical services and financial support help high-risk individuals and organizations respond to digital attacks, censorship, and security emergencies caused by repressive state actors.
Key Information: Support must address a clear, time-sensitive emergency, not long-term digital security capacity building.
Description
The Open Technology Fund’s Rapid Response Fund helps individuals, communities, and organizations facing acute digital attacks and emergencies caused by repressive state actors. It supports high-risk groups, including activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and internet freedom communities vulnerable to censorship and surveillance. The goal is to resolve urgent threats through short-term responses to recent or ongoing internet freedom violations.
Applicants can request technical services from trusted community partners or direct financial support when partner services do not sufficiently cover their needs. Services include digital security audits and mentoring, crisis response planning, forensic and malware analysis, compromised website recovery, DDoS mitigation, secure hosting, shutdown response, and localization. Direct funding can support circumvention solutions, personal digital protection, rapid tool development or translation, emergency decentralized communications, and emergency patches.
