As Open Briefing marks 15 years and prepares to launch our 2026–29 strategy, we have refreshed our brand identity to better reflect our work, values, and regenerative approach to protection. This is an evolution in how we show up – not a change in who we are.
For 15 years, Open Briefing has worked alongside defenders, organisations, and collectives navigating risk in hostile and fast-changing environments. We have seen those risks shift and intensify – but also seen the courage, care, and solidarity that allow people and movements to continue.
Today, defenders and organisers face growing physical, digital, and psychological threats. Civic space is shrinking amid democratic backsliding, accelerating climate breakdown, and widening inequality. Funders and civil society organisations are also operating under increasing legal, political, and reputational pressure.
In this context, protection and wellbeing are no longer secondary concerns. They are essential to sustaining movements, organisations, and the people driving change.
As we prepare to launch our 2026–29 strategy and mark Open Briefing’s 15th anniversary, we are refreshing how we present our work and values.
This refresh is about clarity and accessibility: helping people understand who we are, what we do, and why holistic security support matters now more than ever. It is an evolution in how we show up – not a change in who we are.
Why we’re evolving
Open Briefing has grown from a small organisation providing specialist security support into a trusted partner embedded across the global protection ecosystem.
Today, we work with grassroots movements, frontline defenders, civil society organisations, and foundations across diverse and complex contexts. Alongside direct support, we help strengthen networks, shape practice, and influence how protection and wellbeing are understood across civil society and philanthropy.
As demand for support has grown, so too has the need for greater clarity and consistency in how we communicate our role.
Too often, protection is still seen as reactive or defensive – something separate from movement-building or social change work. Our experience tells us something different. Protection and wellbeing are not only about reducing harm. They are about creating the conditions for people and movements to continue organising, resisting, and acting together over the long term.
This understanding underpins our evolving approach to holistic security, which we describe as regenerative protection. Regenerative protection builds on 15 years of practice and learning. It does not replace holistic security; it sharpens its purpose. It is an approach to protection that not only responds to threats, but also helps renew the people, relationships, and systems that make collective action possible over time.
As the risks facing civil society intensify, we believe this work is more necessary than ever. Regenerative protection will sit at the heart of our new strategy for 2026-29. Our refreshed identity gives clearer expression to this strategic direction and reflects the evolution in our approach: clearly, professionally, and accessibly.
What’s changing
The most visible changes are in how Open Briefing presents itself. Over the coming weeks, you will see these changes across our website, publications, social media, and the materials we use to explain our work.
You’ll see a new logo, accessible colour palette and fonts, updated messaging, and clearer language about our work and role. The aim is simple: to make it easier for defenders, organisers, clients, and funders to understand what we offer, how we work, and what we stand for.
Our refreshed logo, for example, reflects our evolution. It builds on the core elements of our original logo while bringing greater clarity to how we present ourselves. The circle remains at the centre, representing the defenders, organisers, and movements at the heart of our work. Around it, the surrounding shape suggests protection, structure, and forward movement – creating a space where hope can become collective action and lasting change.
We are also sharpening how we describe our work and impact – the stories we tell and the narratives we build.
Open Briefing is not simply a service provider responding to isolated crises. We are part of a wider ecosystem of care, protection, solidarity, and resourcing that helps movements and organisations continue their work under pressure.
As we roll out our 2026–29 strategy, you’ll see new resources and action-orientated communications designed to strengthen how collectives, networks, and grantmakers support grassroots defenders – and to help shape the practices that enable people to work safely and sustainably over time.
What’s not changing
Our purpose, culture, and commitments remain the same.
We continue to believe that protection support should be accessible, tailored, locally-grounded, and collaborative. We will continue to work alongside defenders, organisers, movements, and communities with care, humility, and trust. And we remain rooted in the same purpose: helping people and movements continue their work under pressure.
Our values will continue to shape how we work: listening first, sharing power, responding with humility, and recognising the expertise communities hold within their own protection strategies. If anything, this evolution is about becoming more effective at sustaining those relationships and making our support clearer and more accessible to the people who need it most.
Meeting the moment
As we mark 15 years, we’re proud of what we’ve built together with our community. The challenges ahead are significant. They will require us all to think differently about protection, resilience, and collective care.
Our updated brand identity reflects the organisation Open Briefing has become: grounded, trusted, and equipped to evolve and respond to a more complex world.
What we stand for has not changed. How we show up is evolving so we can better meet this moment.
Access further support and get involved.
Open Briefing provides fully-funded assistance to activists and organisations facing threats related to their work. You can request support through our responsive assistance mechanism. If you’re a foundation or philanthropist who believes in protecting the people who defend human rights and our environment, we’d love to hear from you.
Contact our director of development, Vicky Nida, at [email protected] to discuss how you can join our incredible community of donors or read more about how Open Briefing works with foundations to strengthen civil society in our latest blog.