About HRF
The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. We unite changemakers across the world to stand against tyranny everywhere.
What we fund
HRF supports open-source, censorship-resistant AI work that protects individual rights on the frontlines. We fund researchers, developers, and journalists building the tools dissidents need, not the tools their captors want.
Focus areas
- Privacy-preserving communication for activists in closed societies
- Censorship-resistant network access and circumvention tooling
- Detection and exposure of state-sponsored disinformation
- Secure document analysis and translation for journalists at risk
- Identification of synthetic media used to discredit dissidents
- On-device inference and freedom technology for low-bandwidth environments
- Open-source AI safety tooling applicable to civic-tech
- Credential and key management for human rights defenders
Who can apply
Independent researchers, developers, journalists, non-profit organizations, and academic teams worldwide. We are nonpartisan. We have supported recipients in dozens of countries, including from inside authoritarian regimes. We fund the work; we protect the people doing it.
How to apply
Submit a brief written proposal (2–4 pages): the problem, the approach, the timeline, the people who benefit on the ground. We respond within 30 days. Grants are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Submit a proposal