Civitates provides mostly multi-year, core grants. We also provide small project grants to support organisations to address specific challenges or opportunities. We work either through open calls and/or through the invitation of specific organisations, which we identify through research in our priority countries. We do not accept unsolicited proposals. The grant selection process is driven by the Working Groups in close collaboration with the Secretariat, and informed by recommendations from practitioners, experts and former grantee partners.
Beyond grant making, Civitates works with its grantees, and fosters support between them and peer-learning. Civitates follows a ‘cohort’ approach with its civic space and media portfolios. In practical terms, this means it supports a diverse group of civil society coalitions who work across media and civil society. This enables the flow of ideas, tactics, analysis and tools for strengthening democracy between different coalitions and across Europe’s borders. This approach is paying dividends: spurring collective action which is preventing or mitigating restrictions on civic space, and giving activists and journalists protection, and increasing solidarity between them.
As a pooled fund, Civitates is uniquely placed to foster learning and exchanges of knowledge among its grantee and donor partners. Civitates’ grantees and donors come together to hear what is happening in a field or issue area, share information and best practices, and explore ways of designing more effective strategies and aligning their agendas.
We do not accept unsolicited proposals but if you think there is a fit, please describe yourself to us here.
Civitates supports independent civil society organisations and independent public interest media that are national or European in scope, or can leverage a local scope to achieve a broader national or European impact. We provide both general support grants and project grants.
Grant applications should focus on one or more of our three portfolios (or Sub-Funds): civic power, tech and democracy, media. Read more about our mission, our goals and our existing grantee partners to understand what we support.
