Open Technology Fund - The Rapid Response Fund

Deadline: As soon as possible

Projects

Grant

Location(s)

  • Worldwide

Overview

The Rapid Response Fund aims to facilitate the digital emergency response community to resolve threats in a timely and comprehensive manner for individuals, communities, and organizations whose free expression has recently been repressed. To resolve digital emergencies, OTF offers both direct financial support as well as technical services from trusted partners to high-risk people and organizations, such as bloggers, cyber activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.

Details

Setting the stage

The Rapid Response Fund offers two types of support to organizations, activists, journalists, and other human rights defenders facing digital attacks and emergencies of various kinds: 1) technological services from trusted service partners and 2) direct financial support for the many needs that cannot be fulfilled by available service partners. For either form of support, the process starts with a single application. Support is only available through the Rapid Response Fund when there is a clear time-sensitive digital emergency in which an applicant is seeking short-term and urgent support.

The Rapid Response Fund does not provide support for projects that are more long-term in nature or that aim to build digital security capacity among groups or organizations. If you are interested in receiving support for longer term capacity building, please consider applying to OTF’s Digital Integrity Fellowship Program. You can stay up to date on all OTF submission deadlines and open submissions windows for other potential funders by joining the OTF-announce mailing list. To join, please send a message via this page with subscribe in the subject line.

Service Providers

We only work with service providers who are highly sensitive to and well-aware of specific needs and challenges of human rights activists, journalists, and the Internet freedom community. OTF’s current partners include Virtual Road, Greenhost, Security Positive, Conexo and Equalit.ie. These service providers regularly work with individuals and organizations who are subject to repressive regimes or vulnerable to malicious censorship and surveillance. To respond to requests as quickly as possible, OTF maintains open agreements with these partners to provide the following services.

Currently supported services

  • Digital security audits for organizations
  • Urgent risk mitigation for organizations
  • Rapid assessment and crisis response planning for organizations
  • DDoS response and mitigation
  • Secure web hosting
  • Secure hosting, monitoring, and resiliency of websites during special events (elections, campaigns etc.)
  • VPN connections
  • Safe Internet connections
  • Forensic analysis of digital attacks
  • Recovery of compromised websites
  • Audit of presumably compromised websites
  • Malware analysis

Direct Financial Support

When a rapid response applicant’s needs are not sufficiently covered by our Services Partners, OTF can provide financial support directly to activists, journalists and related organizations to help prepare for or mitigate digital threats or emergencies. We provide anywhere from $1 to $50,000 for a period of six months or less for individuals or groups carrying out efforts such as:

  • Establishing new Internet connections (such as VPNs) when existing connections have been cut off or are being restricted;
  • Providing personal digital protection for online journalists, human rights defenders, NGOs, activists and bloggers;
  • Rapid development of tools or translations needed to respond adequately to emergencies;
  • Developing decentralized, mobile Internet applications that can link computers as an independent network (mesh or delay-tolerant networks);
  • Any appropriate response to digital emergencies not listed above

Opportunity is About


Eligibility

Candidates should be from:


Description of Ideal Candidate

Criteria

  • Quality of project idea: When applying for direct funding, applications should exhibit originality, substance, precision, and relevance to the mission of promoting freedoms of expression, assembly, and association online. Ability to achieve objectives: A relevant work plan should demonstrate substantive undertakings and logistical capacity of the organization. The work plan should adhere to the program overview and guidelines described above. Objectives should be ambitious, yet specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. For complete scopes of work, applicants will have to provide a monthly timeline of project activities.
  • Multiplier effect/sustainability: Proposed programs should address how the expected results will contribute to improving Internet freedom goals.
  • Applicant’s record and capacity OTF will consider the past performance of prior recipients and the demonstrated potential of new applicants.

Submissions are view-able by the OTF team and advisory council for evaluation and acceptance. To this end, all Rapid Response requests are reviewed and approved by RFA’s President, legal counsel, budget officer, and OTF to assess the project’s necessity, appropriateness, risk, legality, and contractual structure. Though we cannot guarantee absolute secrecy of information disclosed, we seek to avoid disclosure of sensitive information beyond the Advisory Council and OTF team. We strive to assess and approve Rapid Response applications as quickly as possible, and make every effort to make a decision within 5 days.


Dates

Deadline: As soon as possible


Cost/funding for participants

+ More Info / Application Save Opportunity Un-save Opportunity


find-dream
Search from 4991 opportunities in 164 countries

Internships, scholarships, student conferences and competitions.