Your weekly one-stop-shop for grant opportunities, calls for proposals, requests for applications, and other programs published by funders like GIZ, Gates Foundation, AECF, Norad, and many more.
Grants and investment opportunities under $50k -> free.
Grants and investment opportunities from $50k to $10m+ -> premium.
Looking for new funding?
You can:
- Subscribe to countless funder updates and wade through newsletter after newsletter of long reports, project updates, PR content, and donation requests… crossing your fingers hoping the next email has a relevant RFP
- Spend hours searching Google or asking ChatGPT about open funding programs
- Look through pages and pages of databases - bogged down by funding exclusive to nonprofits in the United States or scholarship/fellowship programs for students
- Follow 50+ influencers on LinkedIn, hoping their next post has the right opportunity for you
Or
You can just catch new relevant opportunities in your inbox on a weekly basis and then access a curated database here on FundraisingDispatch.com.
Quick note: we’re testing some new functionality with this edition of our weekly funding newsletter. If something looks off to you from what you normally see, reply here and let us know.
See below for the newest social impact funding opportunities in Africa and around the world.
IWRS Teaching Innovation Award. Insect Welfare Research Society.
• Instructors developing new approaches to teaching invertebrate biology that incorporate the 3Rs (replacement, reduction, and refinement). It also supports the development and implementation of any novel curricula addressing invertebrate welfare and sentience across invertebrate biology, animal welfare science, and/or veterinary medicine fields.
• An instructor at an educational institution, scientific society or museum, field-training course, or similar educational context.
• All countries that are not subject to sanctions from the UN and the USA.
• Up to $2k grants.
• Applications accepted on a rolling basis (2 annual application deadlines — July 15 and November 15).
Rainforest Journalism Fund (RJF). Pulitzer Center.
• Supports journalists, staff and freelancers, to report on issues in tropical forests, especially in three main rainforest regions—Amazon, Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia.
• Applications with in-depth reporting that follow illegal wildlife trades across borders; shed light on harmful forest extraction industries; and investigate the systems, organizations, and people that enable corruption.
• Journalists, freelancers, a staff reporter or an editor with an idea can also apply.
• All countries, quality, independent journalism in three key regions: the Amazon, the Congo Basin, and Southeast Asia.
• Up to $15k grants.
• Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
INISA call for projects – Initiatives-Sahel edition 2. Government of the Principality of Monaco (Directorate of International Cooperation).
• Supporting Sahelian civil society organisations implementing high-impact local projects focused on women and girls, livelihoods, agriculture, education, inclusion, climate, environmental protection, and peacebuilding.
• Civil society organizations and medium-sized civil society associations.
• Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal.
• Up to €20k grant.
• August 23, 2026.
Community and Civil Society Engagement (CCSE) Pilot for Lenacapavir. Wits RHI University of the Witwatersrand.
• Advancing equitable access to HIV prevention. Community-rooted organisations with innovative, participatory approaches and the capacity to advance equitable lenacapavir access and uptake.
• Community-based organisations (CBOs), Civil society organisations (CSOs), Networks, Coalitions and Intermediary organisations that are legally registered or formally recognised.
• Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Up to $200k total funding envelope across multiple projects.
• August 28, 2026.
Social Shifters Global Innovation Challenge 2026. Social Shifters.
• Projects must address a clearly defined social or environmental issue and must already be delivering some measurable social outputs and impact.
• Your idea must contribute to at least one of the United Nations’s SDGs.
• Individuals who are between 18 and 30 years old on or before the submission deadline.
• All countries except those subject to UK government financial sanctions.
• Up to $15k grant funding awards
• August 31, 2026.
2nd ECOWAS Startup Awards. ECOWAS Startup Awards.
• High-impact startups — advancing innovation, digital entrepreneurship and economic integration across West Africa.
• 1) EdTech, 2) FinTech, 3) HealthTech, 4) AgriTech, 5)CleanTech and 6) TravelTech.
• Startups
• West Africa.
• Up to $30k cash prizes alongside mentorship support.
• August 31, 2026.
Commonwealth Startup Fellowship. Imperial Enterprise Lab.
• A six-month programme, for market-validated startups preparing to scale, particularly technology-enabled ventures driving climate, energy, health, advanced technology, or science- and engineering-based solutions.
• Startups across all industries, with particular value for technology-enabled ventures.
• Low- or middle-income Commonwealth countries.
• Up to £2k equity-free grant.
• September 1, 2026.
CANEX Create-Thon 2026. Creative Africa Nexus - CANEX.
• A Pan-African creative technology competition that challenges creators to build innovative projects across Gaming, Video and Music using AI and emerging technologies.
• Participants may apply as individuals in one of three competition categories: Gaming, Video or Music. The competition welcomes game developers, musicians and producers, filmmakers, video creators, designers, digital artists, developers, creative technologists, AI builders, startups and multidisciplinary teams.
• Africa.
• Up to $7k cash prizes alongside Mentorship from Industry Experts.
• September 3, 2026.
Young Leaders in Research (YLR) 2026 Cohort. African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET).
• A 12-month grant. It supports early-career African researchers in economics and related fields to lead policy-relevant, context-driven research that advances Africa’s transformation agenda.
• Topics of research: 1) Gender Equality, 2) Regional Integration, 3) Innovation & Digital Policy and 4) Green Industrial Transformation.
• Early-career researchers 35 years old and under with a background in economics or a related field, who are African Nationals or hold permanent residency in African countries.
• Africa.
• Up to $15k research grants alongside mentorship.
• September 7, 2026.
2027 ffwd Accelerator. Fast Forward.
• Supporting technology-driven nonprofits using innovative tools, including AI, to tackle major social challenges and create scalable impact.
• Tech nonprofits.
• All countries.
• $25k unrestricted grant alongside expert mentorship from leaders in tech and social impact.
• September 7, 2026.
AI for SDGs: Global Youth AI Future Innovation Competition 2026. UNU Macau.
• Seeking mature, near-commercial AI solutions (TRL 6+) that transform education, advance social inclusion, or expand affordable AI-enabled learning in underserved and less-developed communities.
• Open to any company, group, or individual worldwide, regardless of nationality or background.
• All countries.
• Finalists receive complimentary hotel accommodation in Macao, plus the opportunity to apply for travel allowances of up to $1k per team.
• September 15, 2026.
The Circular Packaging Challenge. Circular Packaging Challenge.
• Promoting networking, business generation and the development of pilot projects between startups and companies in the packaging sector. New solutions for the circularity of packaging.
• Challenges: 1) Food & Beverage, 2) Beverages and Dairy Products, 3) Non-food and 4) Traceability.
• Startups already established, less than 10 years old and with a high degree of innovation.
• All countries.
• €4k prize alongside opportunities for co-development.
• September 18, 2026.
The Afreximbank–Edordu Research Competition. African Economic Research Consortium.
• Policy-relevant research advancing Africa’s trade and development through African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) implementation, industrialisation, trade finance, digital commerce, creative industries, diaspora investment, logistics, and regional integration.
• Postgraduate students, must be currently enrolled in a postgraduate programme (Master’s or PhD) at an accredited tertiary institution located in Africa or in an eligible CARICOM state.
• Africa or eligible CARICOM state: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname.
• Up to $20k prizes.
• September 30, 2026.
The Stephenson Exploration Advancement Program. The Explorers Club.
• To support conservationists and field scientists who are doing the hands-on work of researching, protecting, and caring for our oceans.
• College undergraduates, graduate students, or independent explorers
• All countries.
• $10k grants.
• October 2, 2026.
Call for nominations for the OPEC Award for Research. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
• Researchers, academics and experts from around the world are invited to nominate outstanding individual candidates whose work has made a significant contribution to advancing knowledge and understanding of the petroleum industry and oil-related issues.
• Individuals, institutions and organizations can submit nominations.
• Outstanding individual candidates, be well-known in the energy industry and/or academia.
• OPEC Member Countries and the developing world: Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
• Monetary prize of €10k.
• November 30, 2026.
👇16 Funding Opportunities above $50k 👇
But before we get to those…
Have you missed our last few updates and new grant programs we shared there?
Catch up on our previous newsletters or subscribe to our paid plan for direct access to our database and save you and your team hours in finding the right funding for you.
There are ~200 more funding opportunities with open or rolling deadlines in our database! (With 100+ opportunities for $50k and above.)
*(Prefer to use a different payment method like a Bank Transfer or M-PESA (in Kenya)?
Reply here or send an email to daniel@fundraisingdispatch.com.
Funding Opportunities above $50k
What’s below?
● 5 opportunities from $50k to $200k
● 8 opportunities from $200k to $1m
● 3 opportunities for more than $1,000,000
Including:
~$61k for MedTech in South Africa
~$67k for urban climate innovation
€2m for sustainable private-sector development
Millions in climate & nature solutions
Millions in cancer research