How We Fund

In the spirit of transforming how Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central and North Asia are seen, understood, and funded, we deliberately name them as three regions that need simultaneously distinct and interconnected resourcing approaches

WHERE WE FUND

Acknowledging the historical and ongoing complexities of forcible exile, displacements, and dislocations, we support political organizing led by regional migrant and diasporic activists working for social justice in the CEECCNA regions.

Central & Eastern Europe

South Caucasus*

Central Asia

**In the Russian Federation, we aim to fund the organization of indigenous peoples’ movements from the North Caucasus and North Asia.

Who And What We Fund

We distribute resources to intersectional movements, registered organisations, unregistered collectives, and networks led by historically and currently excluded communities. We prioritize organizing primarily led by, working for, and with women, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people at the intersection of the following movements:

Feminist, gender justice, and bodily autonomy

Racial, ethnic, and indigenous justice

Economic and labor justice

Climate and environmental justice

Migration and displacement

Sex workers´ rights

Harm reduction and people living with HIV

Peacebuilding and anti-militarization

Digital rights and tech justice

Disability rights and justice

*Please note that the list mentioned above is by no means exhaustive. We acknowledge that movements use various articulations to identify themselves, and we do not intend to offer a fixed framework to list the movements. The list serves as a generalized framework that is being adapted along the way, as we intend to offer spaciousness in how self-identifications may shift.

Our Funding Streams

Our resource distribution has been shaped by the Fund´s role, positionality, regional dimension, and approach to the crisis work. Our funding streams have various modalities of participatory decision-making.

At the moment, our grantmaking has the following layered funding streams:

Shield Fund

The strategic purpose of the Shield Fund is to address anticipatory preparedness and crisis response for the protracted and onsite crises in the CEECCNA regions. We make nimble grants to crises, and to date, through the Shield Fund, we have moved funding to country-specific responses to Georgia and Kazakhstan in the context of regressive legislation such as Foreign Agents Laws and Anti-LGBT Propaganda Laws.

Within the Shield Fund, we have developed Dalan Fund´s flagship participatory crisis response mechanism. From grantmaking strategy to selection of grantee partners, we co-shaped it with our Resource Distribution Committee.

In 2025, the Shield Fund moved crisis grants to CEECCNA regional movements in response to the global funding cuts, aiming to preserve democracy, access to human rights, and dignity in the midst of seismic shifts in philanthropy and bilateral funding.

Shareyne Fund

Inspired by the Kyrgyz custom of resource-sharing, Shareyne Fund provides core and flexible grants through our open grantmaking windows. The Fund moves resources to movement-led crisis prevention, preparedness, and recovery efforts.

Given that decision-making is led by regional advisory, and Shareyne Fund is open for all sixteen countries we work in, it takes up to two months to make a grantmaking decision with our participatory resource-distribution committee.

We made our initial grants in 2024 through a Pilot Cycle, which served us as a testing and learning opportunity as a newly established fund. As of now, we only have one open call for proposals, and a new window for expression of interests will open in late 2026.

Romani Program

In 2025, Dalan Fund launched the Romani Program, designed as a complementary mechanism to existing models of resource distribution for intersectional Romani organizing in Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Grounded in the lived experiences of Romani women, as well as trans, intersex, and gender-diverse people, the program aims to foster resilience, collective power, dignity, and access to human rights. We use decolonial, participatory, and Romani activist-led approaches.

The strategic direction of the Romani Program has been shaped in close collaboration with our Romani Resource Distribution Committee (RDC), consisting of five Romani activist women, and through consultations with community members across the respective countries.

Romani Program is the first of its kind thematic program for Dalan Fund, and we envisage/plan to expand our Thematic Program focus in the future.

Accompaniment Access

To complement the grants provided for CEECCNA movements, we have built strategic partnerships with PILnet and NGO RESIDENT through which our movement partners have legal assistance, as well as support with digital security. The strategic partnership grants are designed to accommodate the emerging needs and seek professional assistance in the rapidly changing political contexts in which CEECCNA-based movements organize.

Additionally, the Dalan Fund team offers in-house tailored training and assistance on resource mobilization, as well as support with monitoring, evaluation, and learning practices for our grantee partners.

Our Participatory Resource Distribution

As an activist-led multi-regional fund, Dalan Fund is committed to democratizing resource distribution practices and putting analysis of regional intersectional grassroots organizers at the center of the decision-making on where funding goes.

Our Resource Distribution Committee (RDC) plays a key role in co-designing the Dalan Fund’s resource distribution mechanisms and holds decision-making power in selecting the Fund´s movement partners. Composed of 15 members, the committee members connect and weave local expertise and analysis, guiding the sub-regional funding priorities and the Fund´s Resource Distribution practice.

We are committed to fostering resilience and the collective power of intersectional social justice organizers and movements in and for the regions. Therefore, the Committee is composed of CEECCNA-based organizers, as well as activists from the regions in migration and diaspora. They bring knowledge, networks, and political guidance from feminist and gender justice movements to climate, racial, and disability rights justice organizing.

Learn about our Resource Distribution Committee Composition and Background

Furthermore, for our Romani Program, we have a dedicated Romani Resource Distribution Committee. Rooted in participatory, activist-led, and decolonial practices, the Romani RDC comprises five Romani women activists from Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Serbia. The committee members bring deep knowledge, lived experience, and local political analysis to guide the Fund’s strategic priorities and resource distribution practices within Romani communities

Learn about the Romani Resource Distribution Committee Composition and Background

To ensure that the power of decision-making is shared among representatives of movements and geographies that Dalan Fund works with and for, the role is rotational.