Funding Opportunities - May 15, 2026
Inside: 23 grant & investment programs including $1m for circular economy, $200k for food systems, $200k for conservation, $50k for FinTech, $75k for WASH, & more!
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.
See below for the newest social impact funding opportunities in Africa and around the world.
Empowering Women Entrepreneurs. Indie EmpowerHer.
• A specialised women’s financing and business initiative designed to support potential women-owned businesses across Lagos, Nigeria.
• Women entrepreneurs, been in operation for at least 12 months.
• Nigeria.
• Business loans of up to ~$3,667 (N5 million) alongside Capacity Building & Mentorship.
• Deadline TBC.
eCooking Demonstrators. CLASP.
• Proposals for the Domestic, Commercial and Institutional eCooking Demonstrator Project, a strategic initiative designed to accelerate the adoption of eCooking for institutional (such as schools, health facilities, correctional facilities) and commercial (e.g. MSMEs), eateries, food vendors, agro-processing) settings, as well as households.
• NGOs, governments, the private sector, academia, research institutes, policy representatives, and communities.
• Ghana, Kenya (Kajiado, Kilifi, Makueni, and Nairobi counties), Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda.
• Up to $20k grants.
• Applications accepted on a rolling basis.
Artisan Support Grants. Weave a Real Peace (WARP).
• Supports textile artisans and their communities by offering small grants that prioritize preservation of cultural heritage and foster economic independence.
• Your product must be fiber-based, handmade, and not mass-produced. Designers, exporters, or importers who do not directly work with artisans are not funded.
• You can be an individual, cooperative, or small business.
• All countries.
• Up to $1k grants.
• May 20, 2026.
Skills and Mentorship to turbocharge your career. Young Professionals Bootcamp (YPB).
• A 3-day in-residence program designed to equip young people with world class practical training, inspire innovation, and accelerate solutions that will ultimately lead to the transformation of Nigeria.
• Young people (20 – 35 years), final year student or graduate from a tertiary institution.
• Nigeria.
• A seed grant from a fund pool of up to ~$109,798 (N150 Million) available to support selected participants alongside mentorship.
• May 24, 2026.
UNESCO ICT in Education Prize. UNESCO.
• Projects supporting learners to expand creativity, imagination and critical thinking skills with AI.
• For the application to be considered, it should be nominated by either the National Commission of the UNESCO Member State or an NGO in official partnership with UNESCO.
• Individuals, institutions, non-governmental organizations or other entities.
• All countries.
• $25k prize.
• May 29, 2026.
Transforming African food systems. Fonds Pierre Castel.
• Entrepreneurs who are transforming African food systems. Sustainable solutions that are in line with the economic, social, and environmental realities of the African continent.
• Entrepreneurs (18 and 45 years), founders or co-founders of a legally constituted company that has been in operation for at least two years.
• Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar and the DRC.
• Up to €35k prize money.
• May 30, 2026.
Breet Fintech Builder Grant. Africa Technology Expo.
• Integrate Breet's API into your product, show how it's powering your solution, and pitch live at ATE Lagos. Must have KYC/KYB Partners. Be prepared to present business registration and compliance documentation when requesting API access.
• Growth-stage businesses, building in fintech, crypto, stablecoins or payments.
• Africa.
• Two builders walk away with $5k equity-free grants each.
• May 31, 2026.
Japanese Award for Outstanding Research on Development (ORD) 2026. Global Development Network (GDN).
• 2026 theme: Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) for Peace and Human Security. Outstanding research proposals with high potential for excellence in research and clear policy implications for addressing development issues.
• Researchers.
• LMICs.
• Up to $30k grants.
• June 17, 2026.
TNE Exploratory Grants 2026. British Council.
• Projects that address one or more of the following overarching objectives: 1) Contribute to long-term and sustainable institutional change that promotes a more inclusive access to high quality education through TNE, 2) Contribute to a better understanding of the local context and facilitate a regulatory and operational environment to best support TNE partnership and 3) Support TNE initiatives that promote positive changes in the local education systems.
• Partnerships between higher education providers.
• The UK and 15 countries: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Türkiye.
• Up to £25k grant funding.
• July 6, 2026.
2027 Restoration Stewards Program. Global Landscapes Forum (GLF).
• A year-long fellowship supporting young experts and practitioners (aged 18-35) who restore their landscapes with and for their communities.
• Young landscape leaders, particularly young women, Indigenous People and youth from rural areas.
• Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America or the Caribbean.
• €5k in trust-based funding alongside mentorship and training opportunities.
• July 31, 2026.
👇 13 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 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?
● 9 opportunities from $50k to $200k
● 3 opportunities from $200k to $1m
● 1 opportunities for more than $1,000,000
Including:
- $50k for finTech in LMICs
- $50k for tech startups in Africa
- $75k for WASH and blue economy
- $200k for conservation in Madagascar
- $200k for resilient food systems
- $1m for circular economy
