The Internet Society Foundation Common Good Cyber Fund Grant Program 2026 ($300,000 grant) – Opportunities For Africans

Application Deadline: 4 August 2026 at 21:00 UTC.

Applications at the moment are open for the 2026 Internet Society Foundation Common Good Cyber Fund Grant Program. The Common Good Cyber Fund (CGCF), launched in 2025 in shut collaboration with the Common Good Cyber Ecosystem Committee and a Strategic Advisory Committee, goals to maintain nonprofit organizations whose work strengthens the public-interest cybersecurity ecosystem. 

Digital and cyber threats are rising in frequency and class, with disproportionate impacts on weak communities and underserved areas the place digital defenses are weakest. High-risk actors, together with NGOs, journalists, human rights defenders, and dissidents, face focused exercise that may attain throughout borders within the on-line data surroundings. 

The nonprofit cybersecurity ecosystem performs an important but under-recognized position in countering these threats, mitigating hurt, and defending on-line civic house. However, this ecosystem stays severely underfunded and overstretched, leaving neighborhood actors and weak populations uncovered to escalating digital cyber threats. 

The Common Good Cyber Fund is designed to strengthen this ecosystem by supporting the nonprofits who present these vital providers. An preliminary pilot program was initiated in late 2025, which offered a proof of idea for an open name for functions launching in June 2026. 

CGCF Program Objectives 

The Common Good Cyber Fund seeks to fund nonprofits throughout the globe whose work helps the next targets:

• Objective 1: Maintenance of vital cybersecurity infrastructure.
• Objective 2: Delivery of scalable help to safe Internet customers from digital hurt, together with state-directed cyber activity and digital transnational repression.
• Objective 3: Advancement of a safer Internet for weak teams and high-risk communities, together with civil society and journalists.

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

CGCF helps nonprofit organizations whose work aligns with the Fund’s targets and who present cybersecurity infrastructure and/or direct providers for high-risk digital actors.

In 2026, CGCF expects to prioritize organizations able to ecosystem constructing, particularly these based mostly within the world majority, or these with the capability to regrant to smaller organizations working within the world majority. Organizations who show a historical past of addressing problems with gender fairness, together with technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), can be moreover prioritized when making use of for grants aligned with Objectives 2 and three.

Applications are assessed based mostly on:

• Confirmation that the applicant is a qualifying nonprofit group (U.S. 501(c)(3) or equivalent) targeted on cybersecurity.
• Confirmation that the applicant group has an official checking account of their title that may obtain funds from a basis based mostly within the United States
• Alignment with CGCF’s objective and program targets.
• Evidence that the group delivers cybersecurity infrastructure and/or providers that shield high-risk communities and strengthen broader resilience.
• Demonstrated organizational capability, together with credible implementation and governance.
• Potential to contribute to ecosystem constructing, together with attain throughout geographies and, the place related, the power to help smaller organizations.

funding

In 2026, the Internet Society Foundation is anticipated to award no less than USD $3.5 million via multi-year working grants funded by the Common Good Cyber Fund. grants awarded via this open name are anticipated to be two-year awards, sometimes within the vary of USD $100,000 to $300,000, with a most complete grant quantity of $300,000 over the total grant interval.

Timeline

• The name for proposals will launch by June 2026, with an application window open for no less than six weeks.
• Applications can be screened by late July, with the strongest functions advancing to exterior evaluation.
• Declined candidates can be notified of the choices after grant awards have been made.
• Due to the excessive quantity of functions anticipated, particular person suggestions on declined proposals won’t be attainable.

How to Apply

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the Internet Society Foundation Common Good Cyber Fund Grant Program