Open Briefing builds resistance and resilience among the people and movements challenging unaccountable power. We know that working for justice or change can carry real risks, and that asking for help isn’t always easy. We’re here to help you navigate those risks.
Am I eligible for support?
Open Briefing offers fully-funded holistic security support to a wide range of people and organisations at risk. You might be a defender, activist, or journalist. Or you could be part of a community group, loose collective, or formal NGO. All we ask is that you meet the following criteria:
- Purpose-led. You are working towards positive social or environmental change.
- At risk. You are at high risk of harm as a result of your work.
- Low resource. You lack access to support due to underfunding or systemic barriers.
- Non-violent. You do not use physical violence against people.
You can request support directly below, or ask one of our trusted referral partners to do so on your behalf.
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If you’re a grantee or sub-grantee of the Waverley Street Foundation, please speak to your programme officer about referring you to Open Briefing’s dedicated programme for that foundation.
How can you support me?
We offer support across three risk areas:
- Protection and security: personal safety, home and office security, organisational security, travel security, collective protection, partner security.
- Digital risk and resilience: information security, device security, account security, network security, secure communications, website security.
- Wellbeing and collective care: mental health, emotional resilience, staff care and wellbeing, collective wellbeing, ecological belonging, digital wellbeing.
Common ways we might work with you include:
- Mentoring and coaching
- Targeted advice
- Remote accompaniment
- Training and capacity sharing
- Counselling
- Audit and assessment
- Contingency planning
- Documentation
We offer our support in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Arabic. Additional languages are covered by some teams or through interpreters. Our support is designed for remote delivery, so we can work with you wherever you are in the world. If needed, one of our local consultants or someone from our international team may also be able to work with you in person, even in remote communities.
What’s not covered?
To keep our support timely and focused, our responsive assistance does not include:
- Financial aid
- Legal support
- Support with asylum or resettlement
- Routine IT or tech support
- General capacity building
Due to US law, there are also some restrictions on our counselling provision in some states, though wellbeing coaching is available across the whole country. Please contact us for more information.
Organisations with an annual budget over $1 million USD (or local equivalent) are usually not eligible for funded support through our open programme. But please get in touch – we may still be able to help.
- Full terms and conditions.