FOR ALL TO SEE: The image shows the faces of five Black people—two men and three women—gazing resolutely toward the horizon. The photographs are layered over a vibrant yellow background, whose texture resembles crumpled paper. In bold letters, one can read: “Call for Proposals: Tackling Racism from the Grassroot Up. Brazil Fund.”
INTRODUCTION
The Brazil Human Rights Fund invites organizations, collectives, and movements led by Black activists to submit proposals for the call for proposals “Tackling Racism from the Grassroots Up – 2025.” The call for proposals focuses on the institutional strengthening of these groups, providing funding and technical support so that the they can reinforce their material and institutional structures, optimize their performance in their communities, and guarantee the sustainability of their initiatives to promote racial justice and defend the human rights of the Black Brazilian population.
Brazil Fund is committed to contributing to the empowerment of organized civil society in Brazil by supporting grassroots rights advocacy groups in their communities, so they can have a voice and play a leading role in countering violations of their rights. We promote initiatives that strive to overcome institutional violence, discrimination, and inequalities, as well as to prevent setbacks, and that contribute to furthering the rights and protection of the most vulnerable groups.
In this sense, this specific support seeks to strengthen groups whose leaders and key figures are Black activists, providing the material and structural conditions crucial for their effective action in the communities where they are based. Thus, we seek to foster the sustainability of their activities and the struggle for racial justice and the defense of the rights of the Black population.
This call of proposals will support projects for the institutional strengthening of organizations, collectives, and groups that combat racism and promote the human rights of the Black population. We believe that strengthening institutional capacity refers to meeting the essential needs of organizations, guaranteeing support for their structure, the improvement of their processes, and the consolidation of their organizational development.
The support covers areas such as governance, planning, financial management, monitoring, and evaluation, and may include actions such as:
- Strategic planning
- Staff training
- Implantation of monitoring and evaluation systems
- Fundraising, communication, and advocacy planning
- In-house training
- Maintenance of headquarters
- Procurement
As well as advocacy efforts, social mobilization, and activities engaging their communities and supporters.
These actions can be implemented on an individual basis or combined with institutional strengthening initiatives that the groups are already carrying out.
The grant can be flexibly allocated, and selected organizations are free to decide on the best allocation of the funds, in line with the objectives of this call.
Brazil Fund gives priority to proposals from organizations, groups, and collectives that promote racial and gender equity in its composition. Projects must consistently incorporate racial, ethnic, and gender dimensions in their approaches and actions.
PLEASE NOTE: We encourage you to carefully read the full call for proposals, which contains all necessary guidelines, as well as the frequently asked questions section (located at the end of this text). If you still have any questions, please contact us by email at [email protected].
SUBMISSION KEY DATES
Proposals may be submitted from May 15, 2025 to June 27, 2025, by 6 p.m. (GMT-3).
NUMBER OF GRANTS AND FUNDING AMOUNT
Twenty organizations, groups, and collectives will receive grants of up to fifty thousand Brazilian reais (BRL 50,000.00) each, totaling up to one million Brazilian reais (BRL 1,000,000.00) in grants under this call for proposals. The projects shall be carried out over a period of no more than 12 months.
BACKGROUND
Racism—deeply rooted in Brazil’s social and material structures—continues to violate the rights of the Black population in multiple ways.
State violence remains one of the main drivers of social exclusion. Data from the Brazilian Forum on Public Security released in 2024 indicate that Black people still make up the majority of victims of police lethality throughout the Brazilian territory.
Data from 2023 reveal that Black people represent 87.8% of victims of police interventions in nine Brazilian states, highlighting the disparity in police lethality. Furthermore, Quilombola communities face significant challenges related to environmental racism, including land expropriation or lack of access to land and the denial of basic rights.
The determined action of Black movements has achieved significant progress in bringing racial issues to the spotlight and strengthening public policies geared towards equity. In addition, there are renewed prospects for dialogue with social movements; however, the influence of extremist and anti-democratic sectors still hinders the effectiveness of these measures, as well as the achievement of more rights. This reality undermines the fight against injustices such as the genocide of the Black population and the full access of Black people to democratic guarantees.
In this context, strengthening Black organizations is crucial to systematically addressing these historical inequalities and effectively promoting the racial justice that Brazil needs to become a better country for the entire Brazilian society.
CONDITIONS TO APPLY
- The applicant must be a group/collective/organization working in defense of rights.
- Each organization, group or collective may submit only one project. Should a same organization, group or collective send more than one project, ONLY the last one registered will be considered.
- Projects from grassroot organizations, groups and collectives with little to no access to other sources of funding will have priority.
- We will accept proposals submitted by non-profit organizations, groups, and collectives, even if they are not yet officially registered and/or do not bear a CNPJ (Brazilian Corporate Taxpayer ID).
- WE WILL NOT ACCEPT projects submitted by individuals, governmental organizations, universities, international organizations, political parties, small or medium sized enterprises, microenterprises, and individual microentrepreneurs.
- Proposals may be submitted to all Brazil Fund calls that are currently accepting applications, even if they are running simultaneously.
ORGANIZATIONS THIS CALL FOR PROPOSALS AIMS TO SUPPORT
The Call for Proposals “Tackling Racism from the Grassroot Up – 2025” aims to support the strengthening of institutional capacity of grassroot organizations, groups, and collectives engaged in defending the rights of the Black population and countering setbacks in this field. The eligible issues include:
- Defending the rights of Black women and the Black LGBTQIA+ community: Combating intersectional discrimination and violence based on race, gender, and sexuality.
- Countering state violence and the genocide of Black youth: Actions against police violence and racial profiling in the justice system.
- Defense of Quilombola territories: Support for proposals that fight for the recognition and titling of ancestral lands.
- Protection of Afro-Brazilian religions: Combating religious intolerance and defending freedom of religion and belief.
The listed topics do not constitute an exhaustive list. Proposals that do not fall into these categories but are considered strategic and relevant by participating organizations are also welcome.
IMPORTANT DIMENSIONS FOR PROJECT SELECTION AND APPROVAL
This call for proposals aims to support proposals covering the multiple dimensions of institutional strengthening, including the following examples:
- Institutional planning;
- Enhancement of internal processes and financial management;
- Staff professional development;
- Development of internal monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems;
- Specific plannings (fundraising, strategic communication, advocacy, comprehensive safety, etc.);
We will also consider projects that focus on—either solely or jointly with strengthening of institutional capacity—actions in defense of rights (social mobilization, community outreach, and training). Thus, the call for proposals encourages the submission of projects featuring initiatives that:
- Aim to reflect on the current scenario in order to develop counter-narratives against hate speech/intolerance/misinformation;
- Campaigns and actions for dialogue with the general public that promotes the population’s understanding of the importance of democracy, fostering a democratic culture.
It is worth noting that proposals outside these specific categories are still welcome, provided they are strategic and relevant to the defense of human rights for Black population.
In addition, we will observe the following conditions:
- Alignment with the call for proposals’ objective and formulation of expected results that are comprehensive and feasible;
- Focus on strategies for defending the rights of the Black population;
- Coordinated actions;
- Adequacy of the budget to the proposed activities;
- Focus on the defense of the rights of the Black population and its racial, ethnic, and gender intersections that determine the multiple violations in the current background;
- Regional diversity;
- Priority for organizations that have a majority of Black people in their leadership and composition;
- Proposals for innovative and unconventional approaches;
- Existence of links between the proposing organization and the groups and/or communities affected by the problem to be addressed;
- WE WILL NOT FUND initiatives EXCLUSIVELY geared towards income generation, entrepreneurship, professional or educational training, after-school programs, welfare support, cultural production, or academic research.
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT?
Proposals may be submitted from May 15, 2025 to June 27, 2025, by 6 p.m. (GMT-3).
Projects to compete for Brazil Human Rights Fund grants must be submitted exclusively through the Project Portal. Please follow the instructions below, based on the status of your group/organization:
- If you have already submitted projects, access the portal through this link, insert your username and password. If you cannot remember your password, click “Esqueci a senha” and follow the instructions to create a new password. Access the detailed instructions here..
- If you are registering for the first time, access the portal, click “Primeiro Acesso” and fill in your group’s details. Access the detailed instructions here..
Application must be done at once since the portal does not permit saving part of the completed form to finish it later.
Therefore, we provide an editable version of the draft application form (click here to access it). This version is for informational purposes only and is not valid as an application. In addition, we offer a budget template to be attached to the system (click here to download the template).
DON’T LEAVE IT TO THE LAST MOMENT: create/update your password or register your organization, group, or collective now and send your project the earliest possible. Proposals can only be submitted online. We do not receive proposals by e-mail, nor do we accept projects delivered directly to the Brazil Fund’s headquarters.
We will not accept proposals sent after 6 p.m. (GMT-3) of June 27, 2025.
The Brazil Human Rights Fund will not extend the deadline for this call.
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE PROJECT AFTER IT IS SENT TO THE BRAZIL FUND?
The Brazil Fund team reviews the submitted projects and forwards them to an Evaluation Committee composed of independent experts. The Committee will evaluate the proposals and recommend which projects will be supported and approved by Brazil Fund’s management.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF WINNING PROPOSALS
The result of the evaluation process will be announced as of October 10, 2025, exclusively on Brazil Fund’s website and social media channels.
IN THE EVENT OF QUESTIONS
Questions will be answered only by email, please write to [email protected].
Questions about the application mechanisms will be answered through the e-mail [email protected].
PLEASE NOTE: before submitting your question, we suggest that you carefully read the full call for proposals, with the guidelines contained herein and the “Frequently Asked Questions” section. If you still have any questions, please write to us.
You can also download the call for proposal PDF, with all the information and links for the application, by clicking here.
KEY DATES
Opening date: May 15, 2025
Proposal submission: from May 15, 2025 to June 27, 2025
Q&A session: June 10, 2025, at 11 a.m. (GMT-3)
Deadline: June 27, 2025
Announcement of winning proposals: October 10, 2025
Partnership formalization: As of October 2025
Project implementation: 12 months, starting from the partnership formalization.