Grant Funding for Nonprofit Security: Where to Start Looking
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Security tooling is expensive, and most nonprofit budgets weren't built with a line item for it. Here's where organizations actually go for grants and free services to cover it, and how Kanary can help if you're still short.
Nonprofits, especially ones doing visible advocacy work, are targets. But "get better security" and "have a budget for it" rarely show up in the same sentence. The list below is a starting point: organizations that specifically fund, subsidize, or provide free security services to nonprofits, plus the large foundations already funding this work for their grantees.
Organizations That Fund or Provide Free Security Services
Digital Defense Fund (DDF) Free security evaluations, staff training, website/DDoS protection help, and technical support for qualifying nonprofits. Started for the abortion access movement in 2017, DDF expanded in 2023 to support Trans rights, harm reduction, and other autonomy-focused organizing. Reach out through the contact form on their services page.
NGO-ISAC Not a grant, but a membership community built specifically for nonprofit cybersecurity: threat intel, incident support, and a peer network of orgs facing the same threats. Built with smaller teams without dedicated security staff in mind.
Open Technology Fund (OTF) Funds internet freedom and digital security technology broadly. Its Rapid Response Fund is worth bookmarking specifically: emergency support for organizations facing an active digital attack, censorship event, or similar emergency.
Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC) Free and discounted cybersecurity products and services, but specifically for political campaigns, committees, and state parties. Narrower eligibility than the rest of this list, but worth knowing if you fit.
Public Service Alliance (PSA) Worth knowing if your team includes current or former public servants: PSA runs a marketplace of free, discounted, and subsidized security services, including digital and physical security, data privacy, and security consultations, for people who've worked in government at any level.
Brennan Center for Justice and ACLU Neither writes a check for tooling directly, but both are useful entry points. Brennan Center tracks and explains funding streams like the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), particularly for election-adjacent organizations. ACLU's Speech, Privacy & Technology Project is a solid resource if your security need touches surveillance, doxxing, or government overreach.
Foundations Already Funding Nonprofit Security Programs
A handful of large foundations have been directly funding their grantees' security and resilience work, not just their core programs:
Emerson Collective: has directed support toward operational security and staff safety for grantees facing elevated threats, particularly in immigration and reproductive justice work.
Open Society Foundations: one of the largest civil society funders globally; recent initiatives explicitly include defending grantee organizations against the attacks they face.
Gates Foundation: best known for global health, but has funded technology infrastructure improvements, including security, for grantees in aligned program areas.
If you already have a relationship with any of these funders, ask about security tooling in your next conversation. It's a reasonable line item, not a separate favor. And if you know of others funding programs that we should highlight, please let us know!
We Know Budgets Are Tight
Kanary works with a lot of nonprofits, and we know most of you aren't walking in with a security budget. We're happy to work within what you have, especially for organizations willing to do a case study with us, the way NNAF and Campaign for Southern Equality did. If that's of interest, get in touch and let's figure out something that works.
