In 2011, the Kurdish women’s organization Asuda leveraged a Rapid Response Grant to build peace in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Urgent Action Fund’s Rapid Response Grants allow women’s human rights activists to seize unanticipated opportunities to make change or protect themselves when faced with immediate danger. Urgent Action Fund accepts applications in any language and responds to all requests within 72 hours. Activists can receive up to $5,000 USD within a week, or sooner if needed. Once an application is received, Urgent Action Fund reaches out to its international network of advisors to inform our grantmaking decisions. For more information about our advisors, click here.

In the past, human rights defenders were often unable to respond to unanticipated opportunities or threats due to a lack of flexible funds available on the timeline of activists, due to the lengthy approval processes employed by most foundations. Urgent Action Fund’s founders, in collaboration with activists from around the world, created Rapid Response Grants to fill this void. These grants enable women’s human rights defenders to act quickly, take advantage of unexpected opportunities, mitigate threats, and/or prevent backsliding in their ongoing work to advance the human rights of all people. Rapid Response Grants are a lifeline to women human rights and peace activists worldwide.

Women’s group Parivartan Kendra used a Rapid Response Grant to provide security for Dalit women organizing for economic self-sufficiency.

Urgent Action Fund provides grants to women’s human rights defenders without distinction of any kind as to race, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, political or other opinions, or national or social origin.

To learn more about our grantees, visit the Grantee Profiles menu, or search our grants database.

To learn how to apply for a grant, click here.