Mapping Funding for Intersectional Organizing in the CEECCNA Regions by Dalan Fund (2025)

This report, “Growing Against All Odds: Mapping funding for intersectional organizing in the CEECCNA regions,” by Dalan Fund, analyzes funding for intersectional organizing in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central and North Asia (CEECCNA). It highlights that movements in this region operate amidst crises, restricted civic space, and attacks on democratic institutions, yet are systematically underfunded.

Key findings include:

• Underfunding and Restriction: Funding for human rights and intersectional movements in CEECCNA is consistently low (2-6% of global human rights grantmaking) and highly restricted, with only 6% of funding delivered as direct, flexible grants.
• Vulnerability to External Funding: International foundations and foreign assistance constitute 70% of funding sources, underscoring vulnerability, especially with global cuts to foreign aid like USAID.
• Ukraine “Boom-Bust” Cycle: Funding for Ukraine skyrocketed in 2022 after the Russian invasion but declined in 2023, without a corresponding increase in funding for other CEECCNA countries.
• Financial Precarity: The average organizational budget in CEECCNA (excluding Ukraine) is $11,000-$30,000, remaining consistent from 2019-2023 despite declining total budgets. Most funding (71%) is short-term and project-based, leading to financial instability and undercompensated labor for activists.
• Mismatch in Funder Priorities: Funders often prioritize visible actions and policy wins, which can put activists at greater risk in repressive contexts. Grant requirements are often not feasible or aligned with movement needs.
• Underfunded Areas: Issues like labor rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, sex workers’ rights, HIV prevention, and Roma rights are particularly underfunded (“funding deserts”).
• Resilience and Self-Sufficiency: Movements utilize multifaceted strategies to combat authoritarianism, including “artivism” and community building. They also rely on self-generated resources, mutual aid, and unpaid labor to sustain their work.

The report by Dalan Fund recommends that funders provide flexible, core, multi-year grants; prioritize safety over visibility; set context-specific funding priorities; reduce bureaucracy; fund unregistered groups and individuals; support historically excluded communities; and see funding in CEECCNA as a strategy for regional and global justice.

About Dalan Fund

Dalan Fund distributes resources to a broad spectrum of intersectional movements, including formal organizations, informal collectives, and networks. The organization places a special emphasis on groups guided by and serving women, trans*, and gender non-conforming people from communities that have faced historical and ongoing exclusion. Furthermore, the dalan fund is dedicated to fostering environments for activists to build trust, exchange tactics, rest, and solidify their connections. This model serves as an invitation for the wider funding community to remain invested in the region and to have confidence in the guidance and foresight of multi-regional intersectional movements.