“I’m so excited to welcome our new Civitates grantees. Each of them is doing incredible work to strengthen democracy and civic space across Europe at a time when the backlash against them is rising. Their energy, creativity, and commitment inspires me every day. We can’t wait to support their journeys and see the positive change they’ll create together.” Elisa Peter, Civitates’ Fund Director.
At times, it seems as if Europe’s civil society and independent media are being assailed from all sides, as civic space narrows, funding cuts bite, and the stresses on our democracies intensify.
The dire impact, for instance, of the dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) by US President Trump’s administration, is well documented – including on independent media.
Civitates’ response was to implement an emergency media fund, offering a lifeline to those journalists holding power to account in exacting circumstances.
These journalists and their media outlets are among the 47 new grantee partners across our three portfolios – Civic Power, Tech & Democracy and Media – that we welcomed in 2025, who are listed below.
Despite our grantmaking budget increasing by 25% in the past year, we received more outstanding project proposals than we were able to fund: clearly indicating the critically important work so many organisations are doing to protect civic space and democracy in Europe.
We have directed our resources where we believe they can have the most impact, including in Italy, where civic space is slowly being throttled. Our new Italian partners – along with all the others – represent our deepening commitment to our core mission, as well as reflecting our desire to respond to urgent, emerging threats.
Those defending democracy in Europe must not be abandoned. Instead, philanthropy and European institutions must mobilise and increase support for them.
Over the next 18 months, some of our new partners will be immersed in the battle over the next long-term EU budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), as they advocate for funding for civil society and independent media.
The stakes could hardly be higher.
“The future of European Democracy is currently being decided in the committee rooms of the Council of Europe. As negotiations over the next EU Budget unfold, one thing needs to be made clear: without a well-resourced civil society and independent media, the EU will not be able to meet its long-term democratic goals. I am proud of the expertise and experience of our new grantees and I look forward to working with them to advocate for a well-funded, accessible AGORA-EU programme.” Samuel Sigere, Programme Manager.
Civic Power
This cohort represents our deepening commitment to countries where civic space is closed or rapidly closing. Their work embodies the resilience and innovation needed to safeguard civic space across the continent.
“At a time when civic space is under pressure, this new cohort represents courage, creativity, and collective strength. Together, they are building the foundations of a more just, participatory, and resilient Europe — and I’m genuinely excited to work with them on this journey.” Eszter Szücs, Senior Programme Manager for Civic Power & Media.
Amnesty International Hungary leads the Civilisation Coalition, in which CSOs support one another and work for a liveable Hungary, where nature conservation, protecting the disadvantaged and caring for our communities is common cause.
Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL) is working to improve the environment in which civil society organizations operate in Bulgaria.
Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH) is a French coalition which aims to ensure that the fight for human rights is included in the EU’s agenda.
Asociația ACCEPT is Romania’s first LGBT+ rights organisation, combating discrimination and hate crimes through strategic litigation, among other things. It played a key role in securing Romania’s first anti-discrimination law.
Via Iuris is a coalition of 68 member organisations and three observers, which strengthens Slovakia’s civic society and democracy. It represents a range of CSOs who collaborate regionally to tackle democratic challenges.
Italy
In recent years, concerns have grown over the erosion of civic space in Italy, with civil society organisations highlighting serious setbacks to civil rights, including freedom of expression, the right to protest, and freedom of assembly.
In response to these trends, Civitates selected our new partners out of 76 applications for their ability to mobilise citizens, create new alliances and expand civic space.
“This is my first introduction to Italian civil society, and I was deeply impressed by the diversity of approaches and the depth of understanding around the closing of civic space and its implications. There’s a strong sense of urgency and commitment to act. This is a truly inspiring cohort, and I’m genuinely excited to work with them.” Eszter Szücs.
A Sud – Ecologia e Cooperazione is an independent, feminist environmental organisation which investigates the causes of environmental crises, exposes those responsible, defends human rights, build tools for local communities, and educates and informs.
ASGI Associazione Studi Giuridici Immigrazione unites lawyers, university professors, legal personnel and jurists with a professional interest in juridical issues linked to immigration, and promotes actions aimed to combat illegitimate public administration practices that hinder legal residence and access to fundamental rights for foreigners.
Fantapolitica! makes institutions more participatory, diverse, and accessible – supporting under-30s and marginalised people to enter politics as strong movements, not as individuals.
info.nodes supports journalists and activists in doing their fundamental job:
expose the truth and promote effective social changes.
Pro Bono Italia ETS is the first association of lawyers, law firms, and forensic associations, established to foster a cultural and juridical environment conductive to developing pro bono services within the Italian legal system.
Pot in Pot is a collective designing educational and cultural experiences based on play and creativity. They work with children, youth and educators and collaborate with schools, public institutions, NGOs, and others.
StraLi is a nonprofit organisation committed to protecting fundamental rights and freedoms through strategic litigation.
The Good Lobby Italia is a nonprofit organisation committed to making Italian society more democratic, united, and equitable. Citizens mobilise to defend the interests of their communities, especially those of its weakest, most marginalised members.
Tech and Democracy
In 2025 we added ten new organisations from 116 applications to our Tech and Democracy Sub-Fund. Our selection of organisations from the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Hungary aimed to expand into new countries, while identifying groups that could collaborate within them, drawing on different but complementary expertise.
Supporting the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) at nation level remains a prime objective, at a time when holding big tech to account and supporting Europe’s digital sovereignty is becoming increasingly urgent.
“By expanding our cohort to new countries, we want to bring the benefits of the EU tech rulebook closer to more people and build a movement to counter Big Tech massive power from the bottom up. I’m proud of the diversity and expertise of our new grantees and I’m excited to see the work they will do individually and collectively.” Claudio Cesarano. Senior Programme Manager, Tech and Democracy.
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) is a leading Hungarian human rights NGO, which defends civil liberties and promotes the rule of law. It provides free legal aid, strategic litigation, advocacy, and campaigns to protect fundamental rights.
Expert Forum (EFOR) is a Romanian think tank specialised in administration reform, public sector integrity, anti-corruption, and combating disinformation.
Maldita.es is an independent, non-profit Spanish journalistic platform using fact-checking and data journalism techniques to counter disinformation.
The PublicSpaces Foundation is a Netherlands-based coalition of public organisations and CSOs in public media, cultural heritage, education, healthcare, festivals, museums, and municipalities, working to reclaim the internet as a force for the common good.
Panoptykon Foundation is a Polish NGO defending basic freedom and human rights against threats posed by the development of modern surveillance technologies.
CEE Digital Democracy Watch provides decision makers with expertise on digital regulation and freedom of expression, monitoring elections in the online sphere. They do so through policy processes within Poland, the EU, the OECD, and the G20
Alia (Associació de dones per la recerca i acció) is a Barcelona-based organisation promoting the rights of women and people from diverse sexual, gender, racial, and functional backgrounds through creative projects.
ARTICLE 19 (ARTICLE 19 Europe) defends freedom of expression and access to information across Europe and Central Asia.
FELGTBI+ (Federación Estatal de Lesbianas, Gais, Trans, Bisexuales, Intersexuales y más) is Spain’s leading organisation advocating for LGTBI+ rights. They unite diverse LGTBI+ groups and individuals, provide support, resources, and guidance.
Bits of Freedom defends freedom and privacy on the internet though legal, technical and political work. Their team includes lawyers, technical researchers, campaigners and researchers. Their work is both at national and EU level.
Media
We welcomed 14 new grantees to our Media Sub-Fund this year – nine through open call proposals in which we received 56 applications, and five through emergency intervention.
This new cohort has significantly broadened the Sub-Fund’s diversity: both in terms of its geographical reach and the size of the organisations we work with. For instance, we are supporting media initiatives for the first time in Lithuania, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovakia, while a number of smaller and emerging newsrooms have joined the cohort.
“Independent, public interest journalism remains one of the most vital safeguards of democracy—holding power to account and keeping citizens informed in an age of disinformation and polarization. With this new cohort, we’re seeing a powerful expansion, both thematically and geographically, into countries and fields of journalism that are new and exciting to engage with. It’s inspiring to accompany these outlets as they enter their next phase of development, while also helping to sustain those essential media actors who are the backbone of Europe’s independent journalism ecosystem.” Eszter Szücs.
Atlatszo.hu is Hungary’s first nonprofit investigative newsroom, which promotes transparency, accountability and press freedom, with a record of groundbreaking investigations on public spending, state capture and systemic corruption.
Cittadini Reattivi is an online Italian civic journalism project focusing on the environment, health, and judicial issues.
MásPúblico is a democratic, non-profit media cooperative. Its outlet, Climática, advances climate literacy with articles, a podcast, and magazines, exposing greenwashing and fossil fuel lobbying.
FACTA is a non-profit Italian digital magazine and media organisation producing science-based investigations. FACTA’s urgent environmental, health, and climate stories are published in Italian and English.
FADA is an independent Italian newsroom, whose investigations focus on urgent issues such as the climate crisis and state accountability. FADA often works through cross-border collaborations.
Fundacja Reporterów responds to democratic backslide and disinformation in Poland and Central Europe with high-quality, data-driven reporting. It publishes two non-profit, investigative outlets: vqquare.org and frontstory.pl.
Investigative Centre of Jan Kuciak (ICJK) is a leading Slovak investigative journalism organisation, which investigates corruption, organised crime, money laundering, disinformation and terrorism.
Mediapool.bg is Bulgaria’s first online news outlet, delivering high-quality reporting and investigative journalism, promoted by Bulgarian non-profit, Info Space Foundation
Oštro HR is a small, dynamic Croatian investigative and data journalism team which investigates corruption, organised crime, environmental harm, and disinformation. It’s active in global journalism networks.
Emergency media fund
We set up an emergency media fund to help mitigate the immense damage inflicted on independent newsrooms across Europe by the dismantling of USAID.
Media organisations which were already reeling from multiple pressures have in some cases lost as much as half their budget, and this fund will help grantees build capacity over the next three years in order to become financially sustainable.
Context.ro is an independent Romanian investigative journalism platform exposing corruption, organised crime, and disinformation.
Siena.it is Lithuania’s only media outlet fully dedicated to investigative journalism. It collaborates on major cross-border investigations and has uncovered fraud, corruption, and money laundering.
CIReN, (the Cyprus Investigative Reporting Network) provides support to professional journalists across Cyprus seeking an independent platform to pursue and publish work that exposes social, financial, environmental, political and institutional wrongdoing.
Investigace.cz is a Prague-based investigative journalism outlet exposing organised crime, offshore finance abuses, and foreign influence. It has collaborated on some of the biggest global news stories of recent times.
Oštro is Slovenia’s leading independent investigative journalism centre. It produces investigations on systemic injustice, corruption, environmental harm, and public accountability, partnering with regional and international networks.
OCCRP (Organised Crime and anti-Corruption Project) is one of the largest investigative journalism organisations in the world, based in Amsterdam, with staff across six continents. It works with other media outlets on stories that lead to real-world action.
The Future of European Democracy
We are also supporting five organisations who are advocating for strengthening Europe’s civic infrastructure, at a time when the EU’s long-term budget, the MFF, is being decided. We are financing partners from the creative sector, independent media, and civil society, all of whom are focused on safeguarding funding for the AGORA-EU programme, which is crucial for civil society across the EU to flourish.
Civil Society Europe brings together 24 European networks of civil society organisations (CSOs) working towards regenerating the European project around the shared values of equality, solidarity, inclusiveness, and democracy.
European Civic Forum is a network of over 100 associations and NGOs across 28 European countries: from big federations of associations, national platforms uniting hundreds of thousands of NGOs from different sectors, and small community level groups.
European Federation of Journalists is the largest organisation of journalists in Europe, representing over 296,000 journalists in 74 journalists’ organisations across 44 countries.
Culture Action Europe is the major European network of cultural networks, organisations, artists, activists, academics and policymakers.
Centre for Sustainable Media is a think-tank and consultancy working with digital news publishers, media funders, policymakers and other stakeholders to improve the financial sustainability of independent newsrooms in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond.
