#FridayFundingFocus, 28 August 2026 – AU-EU Youth Action Lab
Opportunity: Entrepreneurship Grants
The AU-EU Youth Action Lab is a transformative initiative under the broader AU-EU Youth Lab programme, designed to address the lack of opportunities for youth in Africa and Europe to collaborate, innovate and drive solutions to shared challenges.
The Lab’s Entrepreneurship Grants aim to support youth-led organisations that work to strengthen economic opportunities for young people.
For this Call for Proposals, youth-led organisations are invited to design and implement initiatives that advocate for creating a more enabling environment for young entrepreneurs. Proposals should focus on addressing structural and systemic challenges rather than directly providing financial support to individual businesses.
Applicants are encouraged to identify specific barriers affecting young entrepreneurs in their local, national, or regional contexts and to develop appropriate strategies to address them. These could include advocacy, accountability, engagement and other strategies that can influence sustainable change.
Applicants must be located and registered in one of 12 African countries, namely Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia (Somaliland region), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and implement their proposed activities in one or more of these countries.
Value: €31 500 each for 11 organisations
Deadline for applications: 23 September 2026
More information and to apply: https://aueuyouth.com/entrepreneurship-grants
Register for the online information session on 3 September 2026: https://tinyurl.com/5n843h5d
For information about other funding opportunities, refer to the African NGO Fundraising Hub’s Grants and Funding section.
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#FridayFundingFocus, 21 August 2026 – Development Innovation Ventures Fund
Opportunity: Open Call for Proposals
The Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) Fund is an innovation fund that identifies and supports cost-effective solutions to improve the lives of people living in poverty in low- and middle-income countries.
It supports innovators through a tiered funding model to pilot, test, and scale development interventions. This approach balances measured risk-taking with progressively higher requirements for discovering new ideas, validating what works, and catalysing the scale-up of proven solutions.
The DIV Fund is open to all kinds of innovations, operating across all sectors, with potential to impact the lives of millions of people when delivered at scale. It accepts applications from non-profit organisations, social enterprises, universities, research institutions, technical assistance providers that support government innovation and businesses, as well as from partnerships among multiple types of organisations.
Value:
Stage 1 – Piloting: Up to US$200 000
Grants support real-world pilots of early-stage innovations. These innovations are typically early in their development and use DIV funding for pilot testing to refine the basic model and establish real-world viability at a relatively small scale.
Stage 2 – Testing: Up to US$500 000
Grants are designed to determine if an innovation measurably and meaningfully improves people’s lives and has a viable path toward scale. Applicants should have already conducted successful pilot testing and be ready to rigorously test their innovation’s impact or market viability.
Stage 3 – Scaling: Up to US$1.5 million
Grants support the transition of proven innovations from piloting and testing to widespread scale. Applicants should have satisfied the criteria for Stage 2 and be ready to address the operational challenges of scaling.
Deadline for applications: Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
More information and to apply: https://www.div.fund/apply
For information about other August 2026 funding opportunities, refer to the African NGO Fundraising Hub’s Grants and Funding section.
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#FridayFundingFocus, 14 August 2026 – The Pollination Project Foundation
Opportunity: Daily Grant Programme
The Pollination Project Foundation supports the transformative potential of people who are driving change in their communities.
Through its pioneering Daily Grant Programme, it offers seed funding of up to US$500 per project, in collaboration with a network of 65 grant advisors and five country coordinators, each an expert in their respective fields. These micro-grants are designed to kick-start a volunteer’s or grassroots organisation’s work and provide the support they need to thrive and grow.
The Foundation introduced the Daily Grant Programme on 1 January 2023 and has already supported over 6 000 changemakers in 120 countries by funding a different project every single day.
Beyond financial support, it also offers capacity-building workshops, mindfulness retreats to prevent burnout and resource navigation to ensure that grantees’ work achieves tangible goals.
The Foundation accepts applications from individuals, groups and startup not-for-profit organisations worldwide as long as the work is volunteer-led and aligns with the following guidelines:
• The project must serve charitable community purposes and not personal gain.
• The applicant must not currently be receiving a Daily Grant.
• The project’s total budget must be under US$10 000.
Value: US$500
Deadline for applications: Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
More information and to apply: https://thepollinationproject.org/apply
Also reflect on the comments by Michael Abdullahi, Senior Manager of the Daily Grant Programme, on the risks of AI deepening philanthropy’s access gap and what needs to be done to change it. Click here.
For information about other August 2026 funding opportunities, refer to the African NGO Fundraising Hub’s Grants and Funding section.
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#FridayFundingFocus, 7 August 2026 – Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
Opportunity: Women, Peace and Security
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) is responsible for managing large parts of Norway’s development assistance to other countries. Beyond funding, it provides expert advice and monitors results to help ensure that Norwegian development policy makes a real difference for people, the environment and the climate.
The objective of this call for proposals is to support interventions that enable women and girls to participate meaningfully in peace processes and political dialogue, and ensure that their priorities increasingly inform decisions and implementation.
Norad will support civil society partners whose core mandate is “Women, Peace and Security,” aligned with the Norwegian Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security (2023-2030).
Priority thematic areas include women’s participation in peace processes, implementation of peace- and ceasefire agreements and transitional justice, conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), and protection of women human rights defenders.
Value: Not specified
Deadline for applications: 12 August 2026
More information and to apply: https://www.norad.no/en/for-partners/guides-and-tools/calls-for-proposals2/2026/invitation-based-call-for-proposals-for-international-organisations-with-women-peace-and-security-as-core-mandate-wps-ingos
For information about other August 2026 funding opportunities, refer to the African NGO Fundraising Hub’s Grants and Funding section.
