We are a participatory fund that connects movements, fosters resilience, and drives systemic change across CEECCNA regions.
Our grounding truth is that communities across Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central and North Asia (CEECCNA) live in compounded and protracted crises, but despite being systematically and chronically underfunded, the regional social justice movements have been at the forefront of responding to the polycrisis. The Fund is an offering to philanthropic, humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding sectors to strategically channel funding into movement-led resource distribution mechanisms aimed at people-centered systemic transformation in 16 countries of the CEECCNA regions.
We are on a mission to transform how CEECCNA regions are resourced, fostering resilience and the collective power of intersectional social justice movements in and for the regions.
Dalan Fund´s role is shaped by the two worlds we are part of – the funding ecosystem and an ecosystem of CEECCNA movement organising.
We facilitate connections and synergies between movement-led political visions, funding strategies, and collective action to advance human rights and dignity for all.
In late 2022, six months into the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine and decades after Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central and North Asia (CEECCNA) regions lived through cycles of crises and emergencies, an idea emerged to build an activist-led participatory fund to resource regional intersectional social justice organising.
Dalan Fund was seeded in early 2023, and we started our flagship participatory crisis response 18 months into the seeding period. By the end of 2025, we made 98 grants for 78 movement partners in 16 countries.
Learn about the seeding story of Dalan Fund, communities behind the Fund´s creation, and the political vision we move with through our Seeding Report: Looking Back, Weaving Forward: Seeding of a Participatory Fund in Polycrisis for Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central and North Asia
We are on a mission to transform how CEECCNA regions are resourced, fostering resilience and the collective power of intersectional social justice movements in and for the regions.
Dalan Fund´s role is shaped by the two worlds we are part of – the funding ecosystem and an ecosystem of CEECCNA movement organising, facilitating connections and synergies between movement-led political visions, funding strategies, and collective actions to advance human rights and dignity for all.
The name of the Fund brings together multiple languages and cultural references from across CEECCNA regions: “Dalan’’ in Armenian means an arch, a passageway; in the Buryat language, it means a garden bed; in Mongolian, it signifies the edge of the mountain; and in the Yakut language, it denotes free, spaciousness. A passageway, a gathering and resting space, an edge of what is possible, freedom, and spaciousness — these concepts encapsulate the core identity of Dalan Fund.
Our logo and visual elements are inspired by the Kurak pattern, a traditional patchwork textile art form from Central Asia. Just as Kurak weaves together different fabrics to create something unified and meaningful, our visual language symbolizes the power of connection across identities, geographies, and struggles. It honors resilience born from complexity — an ecosystem of difference held together by shared purpose.
To ensure that we move toward our mission as a participatory multi-regional fund, we employ the following strategies centering on lived experiences and political guidance of social justice organizers from Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central and North Asia:
Through our participatory grantmaking, we distribute resources for movement-led crisis prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery efforts, as well as political imagination beyond crises.
We mobilise donor communities and put CEECCNA regions on the funders’ map. We advocate for increased and improved funding and offer funders an alternative infrastructure for safely transferring resources to intersectional movements in the regions.
We foster cross-regional exchange and knowledge production, facilitate collective strategizing among organizers and funders, and strengthen critical movement infrastructure for movement resilience.
We acknowledge that for historically and currently excluded communities, there is no such thing as a single-issue struggle. Our intersectional approach transcends artificial funding silos and is reflective of the complexity of how movements organize cross-movement, cross-thematic, and cross-identity.
We are the first regional fund in CEECCNA with participatory grantmaking, bridging the political vision and priorities of local movements and the global funding ecosystem. Collective co-design and decision-making processes ensure that we are in tune with dynamic and ever-shifting organizing landscapes in the regions, and we move resources in nimble, responsive, responsible, and strategic ways.
In recognition of the deeply entangled roots of our shared past, diverse realities, and the artificial grouping of the regions of CEECCNA, we affirm interconnectedness and distinction of the local contexts. This is reflected in our work through remaining grounded in cross-regional connection and solidarity, while ensuring that funding priorities and strategies are defined within our specific subregional advisories.
We are reflective of the vast array of strategies and tactics employed by organizers in rapidly changing and complex political environments. To provide a systemic response to the polycrises in the regions, we fund four dimensions of crisis work – prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery – as well as future visions, imaginations, and systemic alternatives led by local organizers.
Our practice of crisis work is informed by our belief that while crises are systemic, they are also contextual and situated, and communities with lived experiences and movements at the frontline response are best placed to define them. This framework is our contribution to rethinking how humanitarian and human rights crises are understood and to reshaping how frontline organizers are funded. It responds to often-overlooked, overlapping forms of oppression and complex crises. We recognize that social justice movements are not just responders – they are essential actors in all areas of crisis response and transformation. To this end, we work on the following crisis dimensions:
Local activists and community organizers are the first to signal that a crisis is on the horizon, assess risks, and develop strategies and tactics to prevent escalation. Dalan Fund intends to listen to these signals and move resources to strengthen movement-led crisis prevention work.
To address emerging crises across the regions in a timely and effective manner, the fund aims to resource strategic and proactive infrastructure and coordination efforts. This supports movement-led frontline responses so that organizers can strategize and address crises as they see fit.
To address the complexity of multiple ongoing and interconnected humanitarian and human rights crises in the regions, the fund resources emergency, mid-term, and long-term movement-led strategies and responses.
Coming out of the state of emergency and moving toward stabilization and full recovery is crucial, especially with the movement-led vision and tactics at its very core. The Fund enables the creation of movement-led crisis recovery strategies and supports rethinking and rebuilding, as well as generating vital resources for continuing activism.
