Deadline: 27-Oct-2025
The Democracy at Work Fund (DAWF) is inviting applications for its latest round of grants aimed at empowering frontline worker organizations across Asia, Africa, and South America.
This initiative brings together support from multiple funders to strengthen worker resilience and amplify the voices of labor movements confronting social, economic, and environmental challenges.
This year’s fund is open to initiatives from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa, Argentina, and Brazil. It places a strong emphasis on projects led directly by workers, especially those in the informal economy, as well as by women and underrepresented groups. The DAWF seeks to support efforts at the intersection of workers’ rights, gender justice, racial justice, and climate justice, promoting inclusive and equitable labor systems worldwide.
The Fund focuses on three interconnected areas of impact. The first is worker organizing, where grants will strengthen the ability of worker-led groups to organize unrepresented and marginalized categories of workers—including migrant, informal, and platform workers—and advocate for fair working conditions and representation. The second focus is building the strength and influence of worker organizations by encouraging partnerships with social justice movements, cooperatives, civil society, and other alliances that help raise collective power. The third area supports organizing efforts to confront global crises and transitions, including the climate crisis, technological change, migration pressures, and rising gender-based violence.
Applicants can request between USD 10,000 and USD 80,000 for projects lasting 6 to 18 months, beginning from February 2026. The Democracy at Work Fund represents an important opportunity for grassroots labor movements to drive lasting, community-rooted change in the global workforce and to build a more inclusive and just future of work.
Examples of supported projects include initiatives promoting climate adaptation and just transition, campaigns to address workplace harassment and gender-based violence, and programs helping workers adapt to automation and AI-driven changes. Projects improving representation and protection for migrant workers and building systems-level advocacy for fair migration policies are also eligible.
Eligible applicants include worker-led organizations, such as trade unions, hybrid associations, informal cooperatives, and other locally-based groups engaged in labor organizing, advocacy, or movement-building. Priority will go to organizations with democratically elected leadership and dues-paying memberships, especially those led by women and marginalized communities. Collaborative proposals involving multiple entities are encouraged, provided roles are clearly defined.
For more information, visit FORGE.
