For every proposal, make sure that the Total Project Budget is larger than the Amount Requested. This demonstrates that you have identified other potential funders for the project.
FAQ: How can we help you?
Transparency is our goal; that’s why we’ve gathered our most frequently asked questions right here. If you don’t find an answer to your question, reach out anytime.
No, the funding topics simply serve as the specific subject or area that help Atlas Network connect priority proposals with its restricted funding. This approach helps ensure a closer match between the proposed initiative and currently restricted funding source available to Atlas Network partners.
Atlas Network has three main competitive grant opportunities: Public Policy Advocacy, Engaging Hearts & Minds, and Organizational Capacity. Those are the overarching categories of your initiative or proposal. You should select the application that best aligns with your initiative or proposal.
Within each Grant Opportunity application, you will need to choose from a list of specific funding topics, including:
Prosperity and Innovation Fund
Atlas Network accepts no government funding, so our giving capacity relies on the generosity of our donors. Funding topics simply serve as the specific subjects or areas that help Atlas Network connect priority proposals with its restricted funding, when applicable. Applicants are not required to select one of these topics when applying for funding, but are encouraged to do so if their proposal aligns with one or more of them. This approach helps ensure a closer match between the proposed initiative and currently restricted funding source available to Atlas Network partners.
The Smart Bets program includes a capacity-building grant aimed to amplify the impact of organizations that have been "punching above their weight" and generating impressive returns on philanthropic investments. Grantees receive an initial grant of $25,000, with an additional matching grant offer of $10,000. Their work is showcased during a Virtual Pitch Competition and live in New York City during Atlas Network’s Liberty Forum and Freedom Dinner, when they compete for an additional $25,000 to $50,000 in prizes. Additionally, the grantee that has shown the most promising progress in its initiative over the course of one year is eligible for a further $25,000 award.
Other grant opportunities follow Atlas Network’s traditional application process and do not involve high-exposure commitments.
Atlas Network has three grant cycles with the following application deadline schedule: February 1st, June 1st, and October 1st.
Atlas Network encourages our partners to apply with their highest priority projects. Please apply with no more than two grant applications per application cycle.
Reporting on time is essential for your prospects of continued grant support from Atlas Network. Our organization is not endowed, and we fundraise for every dollar that we grant out to organizations like yours. This means that we are required to report on the results of our grant-giving to the donors who so generously support our grant programs. When we do not receive grant reports on time, this means we lack the information necessary to report to our own donors on whether their funds were well spent. We are also required to report to our board members the rate of "grantee compliance" (on-time reporting) among our grantees.
For that reason, Atlas Network tracks grantee compliance for each of our grantees, and late reporting is taken into serious consideration when making future grant decisions. Frequently, our grants committee chooses not to fund an otherwise strong application due to the applicant's consistently late or unimpressive grant reporting track record.
Grant reports are assigned based on the project timeline provided in your grant application and can be found in your grant agreement. You may have several grant reports due or you may have only one. Take careful note of your grant report deadlines and let the respective Grant Program Manager (the person who sent you the approval notification) know if the report dates are not appropriate for your project timeline. The point of contact for your grant application will receive an emailed report reminder one month before it is due, but it is important for you to keep your own record of report deadlines in case the point of contact for your grant application is on vacation, no longer with the organization, or somehow misses that email.
If your point of contact has changed for grant reporting purposes, please contact the Grant Program Manager as soon as possible to inform us of the new name and email address the report reminders should be sent to. If you don’t know who your respective Grant Program Manager is, please contact Hane Crevelari at Hane.Crevelari@atlasnetwork.org.
The deadline displayed in the portal includes both your report deadlines and the current application deadlines for our grant programs, upcoming events, and award applications. To find your reporting deadlines, refer to your grant agreement or go to “My Grants & Reports” in the portal and click on the link under “Reports” for a list of due reports. If you're uncertain, please verify your grant report deadline with your Regional Grant Support Representative. If you don’t know who your respective Regional Grant Support Representative is, please contact Hane Crevelari at Hane.Crevelari@atlasnetwork.org.
Late reporting is taken into serious consideration when making grant decisions. Frequently, our grants committee chooses not to fund an otherwise strong application due to the applicant's consistently late or unimpressive grant reporting track record.
If your organization is currently considered "delinquent" on grant reporting—meaning you have not reported back on your grant despite numerous reminder attempts from our team—your organization is not eligible for grant funding with Atlas Network.
- On-time reporting
- Intentional, thorough, and descriptive responses
- Honest and transparent reporting
Often, circumstances outside our control can change and require a significant shift in strategy. If this happens with your grant project, we would be happy to work with you on revising your proposed outputs and outcomes to better reflect your new goals. Please reach out to the respective Regional Grant Support Representative as soon as you are aware of a change in project strategy and goals with suggested revisions, and we will be in touch to come to a workable solution. If you don’t know who your respective Regional Grant Support Representative is, please contact Hane Crevelari at Hane.Crevelari@atlasnetwork.org.
We understand that circumstances outside of your control can change unexpectedly and impact the timeline of your grant. If that is the case, reach out to the respective Grant Program Manager (the person who sent you the approval notification) as soon as you are aware of the delay with the reasons for the project delay and provide a suggested revised report date. We are often able to accommodate these changes; we ask that you reach out to us about delays as soon as possible rather than the month that your report is due. If you don’t know who your respective Regional Grant Support Representative is, please contact Hane Crevelari at Hane.Crevelari@atlasnetwork.org.
Congratulations! If we require any revisions to your application, we included that in your approval notification email. Once your application is finalized, you can expect to receive a grant agreement within 7 business days. Your grant agreement will come via the document-signing service, Docusign, and includes important information for your review, including (a) grant amount; (b) grant report deadlines; (c) payment schedule if applicable; (d) matching grant requirements if applicable (e) guidelines on legal restrictions for use of Atlas Network grant funds; (d) any additional requirements that come with acceptance the grant, which can include required training; and (f) promised outputs and outcomes. Read the agreement carefully before signing and take special note of grant report deadlines.
Your grant agreement also includes a Payment Information form. This is where you provide the banking information that allows us to transfer grant funds to your organization. Banking details must be formally associated with your organization, not a personal bank account, and the account should be based in the same country as your organization. Pay attention to the instructions on the payment information form so that your grant funds can be processed as quickly as possible. Incorrect banking information can result in delays of a month or more. It can also mean that your organization receives less funding than expected due to bank fees for rejected and returned wires.
Please be your Regional Grant Support Representative if you have any questions. If you don’t know who your respective Regional Grant Support Representative is, please contact Hane Crevelari at Hane.Crevelari@atlasnetwork.org.
We expect grantees to be as thorough and as transparent as possible in their grant reports. Provide a detailed explanation of what you accomplished, which outputs were completed and which were not, and which outcomes you accomplished and how. You are required to report on the final approved outputs and outcomes that were included in your grant application and grant agreement.
Always indicate clearly in your grant report if your project is delayed or incomplete in any way.
It's important that you share with us your proudest accomplishment of the grant even if it was unexpected and therefore appears unrelated to your original project outline, outputs, and outcomes. Relatedly, know that we are always learning about how to be a better partner and donor from both your successes and your challenges: transparency in your grant reports helps us do that. Please be transparent in your grant report when project plans do not go as expected, along with why and what your organization has learned from it.
When reporting on accomplishments, be as specific as possible. For example, if reporting on some sort of policy win or influence - provide details about dates that the accomplishments took place, the policy reform that took place, your organization’s role, and (very important) why that policy reform is relevant to ensuring human freedom and dignity.
Your grant report needs to be submitted on Atlas Network’s portal (the same one you used to apply for the grant). When you log in to your account and select the approved grant application, you will see the required report section to be completed. After you complete the required form and attach any additional documents, click on the “Submit” button to finalize.
Once you submit the report, a member of the Atlas Network Institute Relations team will review it in the following weeks. If the report is incomplete or missing any important information, we will reach out to you with additional questions.
No, progress reports are not optional; they are required for all Atlas Network grantees. Failure to provide sufficient progress reports on outstanding grants may result in ineligibility for future funding opportunities.
Be as specific as possible! Clearly state your organization’s mission and vision statements and be transparent about your funding sources. When the time comes to explain your organization’s purpose for seeking funding, use as much detail as possible, including:
Project Objectives
Describe the main objectives and/or outcomes for the proposed project.
Include a problem statement/needs assessment to explain how data shows the importance of your project.
Project Description
Articulate clearly.
Provide timelines (if applying for general support, provide a timeline for your organization over the next 12 months).
Include the expected number of participants, proposed budget details, institutional background, etc. What is your implementation plan? What methods will you use?
Have a clear point of contact. This is essential for communication between your organization and Atlas Network.
Evaluation, Assessment, and Sharing
What are three qualitative or quantitative milestones or goals you are planning to achieve during the project's time frame and how do you anticipate accomplishing each of them?
How will you measure the impact of your work?
Personal Statement
Why is the proposed project important to your organization? In other words, what motivates you to undertake the project?
Share any social media sites belonging to your organization—this helps us learn more details about your organization that may have been left out in the application.
Describe your organization’s current and past programs in a brief but informative manner. We want to know what you are currently working on, what you have achieved, and what outputs and outcomes you are attempting to achieve.
Outputs and Outcomes are one of the most important sections to complete in Atlas Network's grant applications. This summarizes what you are going to do and what you hope to achieve. Below we provide some working definitions that we hope help you formulate your outputs and outcomes:
Outputs – these are the strategic activities or products that you are planning that you think are critically important to achieving success.
Outcomes – these are the results of your outputs, the indicators that show evidence that you achieved success.
Outputs and Outcomes set your organization up for success because you know what success looks like and help you to report on your organization’s work more accurately to donors.
One way to think about Outputs vs. Outcomes is that outputs are controlled by you and outcomes tend to represent the desired response from others that your outputs are intended to inspire. Strong Outputs and Outcomes are specific and measurable. For more information and examples of strong outputs and outcomes, please visit our guide here.
Project timelines are typically between three months to two years. Atlas Network is also willing to entertain longer-term initiatives of 2-3 years, although those proposals will have higher achievement expectations. Similar to the Project Budget, please include a line-by-line chronological breakdown of the project. Please include your expected output deadlines as well as any important external dates that are relevant to your project’s success.
The project budget is an important component of any Atlas Network grant application. Please do your best to include a detailed budget breakdown. The project budget description should include any anticipated project expenditures in a line-by-line format. Please indicate which components of the project will be covered by Atlas Network funds if approved and which expenditures will be covered by other funding sources.
Feel free to use this template for inspiration and guidance.
There is no official limit for ongoing Atlas Network supported projects, however, it is rare for grantees to be approved for multiple grants. Approval decisions depend on the type of proposal, Atlas Network budgetary constraints, an applicant's track record with previous grants, and the competitiveness of the grant program.
Atlas Network grant portfolio is large and includes a wide range of funding amounts depending on region, project type, project timeline, and other factors. We have no specific guidelines on how much an applicant should ask, with the following exception:
Lights, Camera, Liberty Pitch Competition: Four finalists are selected to receive a US$5,000 grant toward their film project and end-to-end consulting support for the development of their film project. Four additional semi-finalists also receive US$5,000 and on-site training.
For specific grants proposal aligned with the following funding topics, consider the recommendations below:
Freedom & Prosperity Reform Fund: we will consider grant requests of up to $35,000 from Atlas Network partners in underdeveloped and developing countries as well as Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Human Dignity Fund: we suggest a request range of $20,000 and $60,000.
Resisting Illiberalism Fund: Support is typically awarded in amounts less than $20,000, and rarely exceeds $30,000.
Economic Freedom Audit: Support is typically awarded in amounts between $15,000 and $20,000. This opportunity is restricted to organizations based in countries placed in the lower half of the Economic Freedom of the World Ranking.
Book Translations Fund: Amounts vary depending on the scope of the proposal and the country in which the project will be taking place. Translation grants are on average US$7,000.
Think Tank Startup Fund: Amounts vary depending on the scope of the proposal and the country in which the project will be taking place and are almost always awarded with a matching funding requirement.
A business plan is a road map that outlines your organization’s goals and details how you plan to achieve those goals. It provides directions so your organization can plan its future and helps it avoid bumps in the road. The creation of a business plan allows you to establish a blueprint for how your think tank is going to run, what the heart of your mission is, and how you plan to achieve your goals.
Business plans will look different depending on organization structure, goals, and target audience. Regardless, some key elements you should include (in no particular order) are:
- The executive summary is your statement of purpose, succinctly encapsulating your reason for writing the proposal. It needs to hit the key highlights of the plan. It should provide a quick overview of the problem your organization attempts to better, your solution to the problem, your target market, key financial highlights, and a summary of who does what on the management team. This should also include your organization’s vision and mission.
- The marketing plan details the strategies that you will use to reach your target market. This should detail who you are trying to reach. It provides an overview of how you will position your organization and how you will promote your programs.
- The operations plan describes the goals of your organization and your proposal. As a think tank, you want to create social and political interaction, thus change. Therefore, your operational and impact plan needs to be accurate on how it will achieve that change. It should include details on what difference you’re seeking to make, how you’re going to make it, and how you’re going to measure it.
- The milestones and metrics chapter of your business plan lays out concrete tasks that you plan to accomplish, complete with target dates. It should also detail the key metrics that you plan to use to the impact of your organization’s efforts. It should clearly define your short-term goals, your midterm goals, and your long term goals.
- In your organization overview, you should clearly describe the structure of your team and who they are. Include your experts, members, board (if applicable) and also provide their backgrounds and expertise (this can be as general or as detailed as you want). Explain the various positions of management, your existing sponsors and donors, your key partners, and other important actors.
- The programs, services & products segment should provide detailed information on what you have to offer and what you actually do. It should answer these questions: What products or services do you produce and offer? What programs do you have? How does the community benefit from your think tank? What need does your organization meet and how is your model meeting that need?
- The financial plan is a key part of your business plan. It is important to know and share your financial details, especially in an environment, where the need for transparency on where donations and funds go, is crucial. So, you need to clarify what assets you already have and how you plan to secure more funds as well as what your on-going expenses and overhead costs are. This should include:
- An outline of your think tank's current and projected financial status.
- An income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, and financial estimates (if applicable).
- A list of any grants and donations you have received, significant contributions, and any other financial support.
- Your fundraising plan.
- The gaps in your funding, and how you will manage them.
- A budget plan, including your start-up costs (if applicable).
Please contact Casey Pifer (Casey.Pifer@atlasnetwork.org) with any questions about your business plan.
Atlas Network uses an applications portal where organizations can apply for grants. You will need to decide which grant program is the best fit for your project proposal. When you click "Apply," you'll be directed to a page where you will be asked to create an account in the applications portal before you are able to submit an application for this grant opportunity.
Please direct any questions about the portal to Hane Crevelari (Hane.Crevelari@atlasnetwork.org).
To be eligible for Atlas Network grant opportunities, your organization must share in our vision of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where limited governments defend the rule of law, private property, and free markets.
Atlas Network partner organizations are eligible for all available grant programs. Non-partners are welcome to apply to the Organizational Capacity Grant Opportunity.
We recommend prospective grantees carefully review all available grant opportunities and deadlines to identify the best fit. For most opportunities, we invite your organization to first apply to become a partner if it is not already. We also highly favor organizations that participate in our Atlas Network Academy—learn more and enroll here—and, in particular, those who have completed the Foundations Certification, a three-course layered certification track offered free online throughout the year within the Academy.
Atlas Network strives to champion all worthy efforts that increase the capacity and raise the ambitions of our independent partners to advance liberty, and grants are awarded on a highly competitive basis and in strict compliance with donor intent.
- Our grant opportunities are limited to professional civil society organizations only, and we are unable to award grants for independent research done by individuals.