CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3 Opens With Up to $20,000 for Global South Civil Society Groups

The CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3 is a nine-month funded programme offering civil society organisations in the Global South grants between $10,000 and $20,000 to design and deliver digital projects that strengthen democracy and civic space.

Applications for the CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3 are open with a deadline of 30 April 2026 through the official CIVICUS portal. This is an organisational grant programme, not an individual scholarship

CIVICUS Digital Action Lab 2026: Programme at a Glance

What CIVICUS Is and Why the Digital Action Lab Exists

The CIVICUS Digital Action Lab sits inside the broader Digital Democracy Initiative launched by CIVICUS, a global civil society alliance founded in 1993 and headquartered in Johannesburg with over 9,000 members across 175 countries. The DAL was designed specifically to empower civil society actors in countries facing restricted civic space, providing them with the skills, resources, and confidence to take effective digital action for inclusive democracy.

The CIVICUS Digital Action Lab runs three cohorts between 2024 and 2026, with Cohort 3 representing the final and most competitive intake of the current cycle. Unlike conventional grant programmes, the CIVICUS Digital Action Lab combines financial support with hands-on technical coaching — a model that directly addresses the implementation gap that plagues under-resourced civil society groups globally.

CIVICUS Digital Action Lab: Exactly What Each Organisation Receives

The CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3 provides two distinct categories of support. First, each selected organisation receives a direct project implementation grant of between $10,000 and $20,000 USD. This grant covers both the costs of participating in the programme and the costs of implementing the organisation’s specific pilot project in their local setting. It is not a general operating grant — the funds are tied to a defined digital intervention that the organisation designs during the co-creation phase.

Second, beyond the financial award, the CIVICUS Digital Action Lab provides tailored skills workshops, one-on-one coaching from technical experts, structured peer learning sessions across cohort members, and access to major civil society events including RightsCon and Vuka!. At programme close, each organisation contributes to knowledge products — case studies, videos, infographics — that are shared through the CIVICUS Digital Democracy Initiative knowledge hub, giving participants visibility within global civil society networks long after the nine months conclude.

CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3: Who Qualifies 

The CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3 is open to civil society organisations from OECD DAC ODA-eligible countries that are actively working on democracy or civic space issues and have some existing experience with digital tools for advocacy or service delivery. Both formal and informal groups, networks, movements, and coalitions are eligible — individual applicants without organisational affiliation are not.

Organisations representing historically excluded groups, including rural communities, indigenous peoples, women, youth, and LGBT+ communities, are explicitly prioritised and will constitute at least 50% of the cohort. Priority is also given to organisations operating in countries with restricted civic space.

Civil society organisations from the Global South already engaged in climate or environmental advocacy may also find relevant funding through other active Global South programmes open in 2026. All work and reporting must be conducted in English, and participating organisations must be able to dedicate staff time consistently across the full nine-month period.

CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3: Application Deadline and How Selection Works

The CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3 selects up to ten organisations through an open and competitive process. Applications are submitted through the official CIVICUS portal and must clearly set out the organisation’s background, the specific problem it aims to address, the proposed digital intervention, and its capacity to deliver within nine months.

The deadline is 30 April 2026. Following selection, organisations participate in an in-person co-creation workshop where cohort priorities and individual project focus areas are defined collaboratively. Implementation then runs with ongoing technical accompaniment.

For the CIVICUS Digital Action Lab Cohort 3, the most competitive applications will present a specific, testable digital solution tied to an existing and documented civic challenge — broad ambitions toward digital adoption without a grounded local problem statement will not advance. Organisations with a digital innovation focus may also want to explore technology-centred funding programmes open globally in 2026 that run on similar timelines. With only ten places available globally, the programme is among the most selective civil society digital grants currently open.