Better Preparedness Shaping the future of funding: from rapid response to long-term resilienceLearn more
From Launch to Leadership: Better Preparedness at the Clinton Global Initiative In 2025, we return to CGI to share our impacts, bring lessons learned, and contribute our expertise in the Human Rights and Humanitarian Working Groups.Learn More
Crisis Response in Action AfghanistanGet involved
Funders moved from talk to action to sustain civil society through a prolonged crisis.
Georgia
BPI convened funders and activists to share lessons and prepare for Georgia’s authoritarian turn.
US
Over 100 funders rapidly coordinated against sudden threats to civil society and democracy.
better preparedness: Funding Resilience
Better Preparedness responds to the urgent need for new approaches to funding civil society under threat.
Better Preparedness is a growing community of funders working to ensure that human rights movements and civil society organizations receive the resources they need during times of crisis and in heavily restricted civic spaces. It brings together funders from the human rights, peace and security, and humanitarian sectors with social movements to drive significant resources to the frontlines.
Civil society and human rights groups is facing unprecedented, intersecting crises: from wars and authoritarianism to climate crisis and democratic backsliding. Yet, billions of foundation dollars are failing to reach them, while billions more are needed to meet the rising tide of oppression and instability.
This urgency is growing: HRFN’s latest research warns of a projected decline in funding for global human rights movements, with instability in philanthropic support and cuts to foreign aid threatening the very infrastructure of civic spaces.
Better Preparedness exists to change this trajectory.
By building infrastructure for coordination, improving funding flows, and connecting diverse sectors, the initiative is pioneering a new way to fund resilience and crisis response, so movements can survive today’s crises and thrive tomorrow.
Shape the future of funding, from response to resilience. Join the community today.
Better Preparedness is hosted by Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN), in partnership with Peace and Security Funders Group (PSFG). Learn more about HRFN, explore membership, or get involved. For more information about Better Preparedness, contact us at bpinfo@hrfn.org.
Better Preparedness Strategy
Radically improve coordination around crisis through the Better Preparedness Crisis Coordination Playbook and a strong, mobilized community ready to take action.
Build the first-ever field-wide philanthropic infrastructure capable of acting at speed and scale. Learn and iterate in order to shift from crisis-to-crisis models to strategic, long-term global funding strategies across geographies.
Collaborate as an ecosystem to leverage philanthropy’s unique potential to listen to movements, support long-term resilience, and directly reach civil society in contexts where human rights are most heavily restricted.
Drive the transformative shifts needed to change the future of funding for crisis and closed civic spaces. Explore the Crisis Coordination Playbook today.
the CRISIS
COORDINATION playbook
Philanthropy is being called on to move resources where civil society is most under threat. The Crisis Coordination Playbook meets this call. Developed through a yearlong codesign process with over 40 foundations and in consultation with social movement partners, the Playbook is ready for action.
TIMELINE
HRFN and PSFG convened over 100 funders in a three-part learning journey, Chronicles of Crises Foretold, to explore how philanthropy can prepare for, respond to, and build resilience in human rights crises.
Highlights:
Through conversations shaped by the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and other global emergencies, funders examined several issues:
- Lessons from movements and emergency responders,
- The importance of practicing crisis preparedness,
- The need for sustained trust with civil society before, during, and after crises.
This series marked the starting point for a deeper commitment to embedding preparedness into funder practice.
HRFN and PSFG deepened the work through research and a co-design process with funders, launching Better Preparedness: Funding Resilience. The aim: to create a coordination blueprint by June 2024 to help funders act more effectively in crises and shrinking civic space.
Highlights:
- Conducted landscape research on systemic barriers and opportunities for crisis funding.
- Validated findings at a meeting in London with 15 foundations, setting the initiative’s strategic direction.
- Designed a series of Learning and Codesign Labs to prototype tools, mechanisms, and coordination practices.
HRFN launched the Better Preparedness: Funding Resilience lab series, bringing over 300 funders and experts together to test ideas and design practical solutions for crisis response and resilience.
Highlights:
- Explored early warning systems for faster, more coordinated action.
- Tackled legal and banking barriers to moving resources in emergencies.
- Debated how to decolonize and localize grantmaking practices.
- Examined the role of AI in shaping human rights futures.
The Better Preparedness: Funding Resilience labs evolved into an ongoing co-design process, with members organizing around three key pillars of the BPI community.
Highlights:
- Core Group: 75+ funders from 40 foundations meeting monthly to prototype solutions.
- Guiding Group: 10 sector leaders shaping vision and direction.
- Civil Society Advisors: voices from 8 countries grounding the work in movement realities.
BPI members moved from co-design to testing and finalizing practical tools for funders.
Highlights:
- Led sessions at HRFN’s Funding Futures Festival, engaging 390+ participants.
- Core Group participated in a 2-day retreat to test and validate the emerging Playbook.
- Ongoing testing ensures the Playbook remains practical and responsive to real-time crises.
The Better Preparedness Crisis Coordination Playbook was formally launched, marking a major milestone in coordinated funding for human rights crises.
Highlights:
- Playbook formally released after a year of codesign and ideation.
- BPI featured as an invited Commitment to Action at Clinton Global Initiative, with 10+ organizations joining.
- $1 million raised to establish the first-of-its-kind infrastructure supporting coordinated crisis response.
In response to sharp cuts in global foreign assistance and attacks on foundation support for human rights, BPI activated its Rapid Coordination Response.
Highlights:
- Mobilized 494 Funders from 130 Foundations to coordinate quickly.
- Focused on ensuring critical resources reached civil society under threat.
- Demonstrated BPI’s capacity for real-time, agile collaboration during crises.
BPI continues to share impact, lessons learned, and expertise at CGI, contributing actively to the Human Rights and Humanitarian Action Working Groups.
Highlights:
- Bringing BPI’s insights to global conversations on human rights and humanitarian action.
- Engaging with CGI partners to strengthen coordinated responses and preparedness.
Better Preparedness takes the guesswork out of funding in crisis. Our tools are tested by our community and ready to use today.
Get Involved
Curious? Participate in open spaces like Learning Labs and help shape strategies for the future. For more information, get in contact with us! bpinfo@hrfn.org
Frequently
Asked Questions
Wherever you sit, there is an entry point for you. From working with full institutional buy-in, to joining as a lone staff advocate, to coming from a legal or compliance team, there are tools for you.
Explore events and latest resources on Better Preparedness
This initiative is first and foremost for human rights and peace and security foundations working in highly restricted civic space and/or in crisis contexts.
For questions or to express interest, please contact us at bpinfo@hrfn.org.
Events
Check out upcoming events from the Better Preparedness community and beyond.
Publications, Blogs & More
Read resources related to crisis, human rights defenders, and funding civil society under threat.
Guiding Group
A Guiding Group of advisors provides feedback on direction, content, and blueprint components:
Abi Knipe
Funders Initiative for Civil Society
Bryan Sims
Humanity United
Celia Turner
Urgent Action Fund
Iva Dobichina
Ford Foundation
Jerusha Burnham
Freedom House
Karen Karnicki
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Kate Kroeger
Urgent Action Fund
Olive Moore
Front Line Defenders
Sponsors
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the initiative’s sponsors, whose generous contributions make Better Preparedness: Funding Resilience possible.
American Jewish World Service – AJWS
Freedom House
Humanity United
Ford Foundation
Open Society Foundations
Packard Foundation
Peace & Security Funder Group
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Urgent Action Sister Fund
Rockefeller Brothers Fund
Wellspring
Women’s Fund Asia