Status: ROLLING | Verification: VERIFIED | Last verified: 30 September 2026.
The Open Technology Fund (OTF) Rapid Response Fund supports urgent digital-security and internet-freedom needs affecting journalists, human rights defenders, NGOs and activists.
Deadline: Rolling; no application rounds.
Funding: typically USD 1 to USD 50,000.
Duration: generally no longer than six months.
Typical support: around USD 5,000 to USD 25,000.
What can be supported?
Eligible responses can include digital-security audits, DDoS mitigation, secure hosting, censorship circumvention, emergency communication infrastructure and rapid development or translation work needed to respond to a recent digital emergency.
What is not a fit?
The fund is not intended for long-term organizational digital-security capacity building or projects that do not respond to a recent or ongoing internet-freedom threat.
Read the official OTF Rapid Response Fund page.
Should you apply?
Best fit for: journalists, human rights defenders, NGOs or activists facing a recent or ongoing digital emergency where a focused technical response can reduce immediate internet-freedom or digital-security risk.
Probably not a fit if: the need is long-term routine IT support, broad digital-capacity building or an unrelated technology project without a current emergency.
Africads application tips: describe the threat and affected users clearly; explain why the response is urgent now; and connect each requested cost to a specific risk-reduction action.
Before you apply: Check whether you have enough safe, credible evidence to explain the emergency
Use the Africads Grant Evidence Inventory to identify the incident records, risk documentation and supporting proof you can safely organise without oversharing sensitive information.
Need a fit or application review?
If your organisation needs help checking grant fit or application completeness, request Africads support. Do not share sensitive security information beyond what is necessary for the review.
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