Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Grants

The Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Grants aim to eliminate child sexual abuse through strategic initiatives and partnerships with survivors, change makers, and researchers. Focused on impactful data and strong accountability, the foundation supports innovative ideas across six interconnected funding areas. While not limited to specific countries, the grant-making prioritizes regions like the UK, EU, and USA for digital safety, and the Americas for justice initiatives.

Overview
Child sexual abuse is preventable. This fact drives our commitment to end child sexual abuse online and offline.
Our grant-making focuses on bringing together: powerful data and solutions; strong accountability mechanisms; and vibrant leaders, organisations, and movements. To support our partners, we have divided our grant-making into six priority funding areas which overlap and are connected to each other. We strive to work together as a team across these six areas of funding.
Where we fund
While we do not have priority countries across the programme, we prioritise some geographies based on where we see the most opportunity. For example, our grant-making under safe digital environments is concentrated in the UK, EU, and USA, while most of grant-making under justice for survivors is currently focused in the Americas.

Application Details

Grant-making strategy

Oak Foundation / Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme / 2019-present Grant-making strategy
a ction at the community, national,
and global levels.
a nd long-lasting, affecting mental and
partners’ efforts to bring about change.
_
communities, and digital environments.
updated the strategy in 2023 to explain and
F or years, child sexual abuse has been describe our strategy in more detail.
continue to refine it as we learn more from our
investment, and impunity. The good news partners.
is that there is growing public pressure to there are any changes.
t he solutions needed to prevent harm
before it happens.
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Oak Foundation / Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme / 2019-present Grant-making strategy
public pressure. Alliances are also critical to scale
Building on Oak’s values and Oak’s funding up solutions and strategies quickly, build
aspirations into our grant-making practices expertise and resources to achieve lasting
and decisions: change.
relationships between our grantee partners, with
opportunities, support bold initiatives, governments.
for the greatest impact. We also support bold
initiatives that may fail.
from our partners, taking advantage of political sexual abuse
ensuring our Trustee’s vision to end child
sexual abuse is reflected in our grant-making. UNICEF, among others), and that
violence against children, including
as a team.
incest, peer-to-peer abuse,
and support communities and (grooming and illicit images), sexual
people across the globe exploitation, and rape.
Sexual abuse impacts all children, regardless
of their economic situation, race, or gender.
in prevention; and projects led by local
communities and people facing discrimination.
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Oak Foundation / Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme / 2019-present Grant-making strategy
What we fund: • invest in local researchers around the globe
to reach and help more children, families,
solutions are needed for positive change.
funding areas that focus on evidence &
sexual abuse).
solutions and accountability. These funding
areas overlap and are connected to each other.
We strive to work together as a team across
these six areas of funding.

1. Men & boys

and behaviours that encourage positive

1. Solutions & research masculinity and healthy relationships can protect

Preventing child sexual abuse requires multiple children against child sexual abuse. However,
strategies and solutions (e.g., parent education there is a lack of investment and evidence in
programmes, new legislation, public promoting positive masculinity.
communications campaigns, and perpetrator two developmental periods where gender norms
prevention programmes). In addition, effective are particularly malleable: early childhood and
strategies and solutions need to be locally adolescence.
informed, designed, and tested. Then they can
and communities as possible.
evidence in understanding the nature of the up of programmes to: 1) positively engage
problem and the most effective and scalable men in early caregiving, and 2) promote
solutions for different contexts. healthy and equal relationships in
adolescence; and

• bring together advocates, survivors, investment in solutions to challenge ideas

implementers, and governments to test,
caregiving and adolescent relationships.
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Oak Foundation / Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme / 2019-present Grant-making strategy

1. Safe sports
2. Safe digital environments

governments are responsible for making sports
a responsibility to keep children safe online.
violate survivors’ rights to privacy, dignity, and
inaction.
justice. They need to prioritise the safety and
wellbeing of children.

Oak Foundation / Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme / 2019-present Grant-making strategy

1. Justice for survivors
2. Survivor-led organisations

s ystems, fostering little incentive to report
to advocate for change safely and effectively.
a nd inaction. Ultimately, we believe that bringing
j ustice to survivors can deter child sexual abuse. we support efforts that: build connections and
within our priority areas;

Oak Foundation / Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme / 2019-present Grant-making strategy
In addition to these six focus areas, we invest
in a wide variety of partnerships to allow us to our grantee partners
Application process
fall outside of our six focus areas of funding.
an organisation to apply for a grant, we discuss
to fall into these categories:

• the size of the grant and whether it will be
• project support or core support (i.e., flexible
• • field-building efforts to strengthen networks
• and unrestricted funding). We work with
• and alliances, groundbreaking research to
• organisations to develop the application in
• track progress in the field and to support
• partnership, ensuring we communicate
• advocacy, watchdog reports to hold
• consistently about when and who will make the
• governments and institutions accountable,
• decision on a grant, how the application process
• and strategic communications, including
• works, and how long it will take. We also discuss
• creating hope-based messaging;
• the possibilities of renewal well in advance of
• • experimental grants to test new approaches
• the end of a grant. We consider all renewals
• and partnerships;
• as distinct and separate grants.
• • exit-, emergency-, and bridge-grants to
• Download this document to learn about the
• support our partners’ transition to new
• grant-making timeline and process.
• funding sources and to address unforeseen
• challenges and opportunities; and
• Communications
• • special initiative grants and legacy
• We believe that the best relationships are built
• investments in areas of interest to the
• on trust, and we foster that in our relationships
• Trustees (e.g., preventing family separation
• over time. We maintain a relationship with our
• in Bulgaria and supporting LGBTQI+ youth
• grantee partners throughout the lifetime of the
• in Switzerland).
• grant to share learning and impact with other
• grantee partners and the foundation. We value
• Where we fund honest, open, and frank exchange and invite
• feedback on how we can be better grant-makers.
• While child sexual abuse is a
• We will ask for formal reports on an annual basis.
• public health crisis impacting
• At the start of the grant, we discuss the regularity
• all communities, most of our of our communications and communications

partnerships are in Southern and preferences.
Eastern Africa, Europe, the UK, the
our grantee partners in person when possible.
partnerships outside these regions,
within broader efforts at the start of the grant.
we aim to concentrate our grant-
making in countries and regions Events and partner convenings
where we have other grantee Where practical, we attend events organised
their experience. We also explore opportunities
connections and collective action.
to better inform our grant-making and foster
joint learning and connections.
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Oak Foundation / Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme / 2019-present Grant-making strategy
Through our social media channels, we amplify
requests for support the voices of our grantee partners and support
the work of our programmes. We want to
inspire hope and possibility.
Our annual budget is currently USD 43.3 million,
with a plan to grow to USD 48.5 million by 2025.
grants per year. This means that we have to
turn down many requests that come our way, Our grantee partners
For information on our current grantee partners,
visit our grant database on our website or read
can submit an enquiry through our website: learn more about our partners’ work.
https://oakfnd.org/submit-enquiry/.
it can be challenging for organisations with grant-making approaches.
an enquiry does not guarantee a formal
invitation to apply for funding.