Funders contribute to the advancement of human rights around the world by using a human rights approach to their grantmaking. Grants varying in type and amount provide support towards a broad range of initiatives, including:

• Public education to inform people about their human rights and how to exercise them;
• Documenting, reporting and fact-finding to expose human rights violations;
• Litigation to uphold human rights and hold abusers accountable;
• Policy advocacy to ensure that states and non-state actors conform to human rights standards;
• Research and scholarship to define the content of rights;
• Networking and coalition building to further the effectiveness of a global human rights movement; and
• Capacity building for organizations engaged in the above work, locally and internationally.