Empowering Civil Society

ISD is proud to work with partners in government, business and charities to deliver funding to community organisations at the front line of combating extremism, hate, polarisation and disinformation.

We believe that only through creating partnerships between the private sector and civil society organisations can we effectively challenge rising hate, extremism, polarisation and disinformation in society.

After a decade of engaging with grassroots initiatives, we know that civil society organisations have the power to build hyper-local solutions. Our collaboration with Google.org has allowed us to strengthen civil society across the UK and now in Europe.

Shared Endeavour Fund: The Mayor of London’s Shared Endeavour Network connects businesses, the public sector and civil society actors with cultural, sport and grassroots organisations in order to jointly stand up to hate, intolerance and extremism across the capital.

Google.org Impact Challenge on Safety: In 2019-2020, we launched a €10million European fund to support NGOs and expert groups across Europe working on internet safety topics. The NGOs that applied came from a range of backgrounds and either focused on tackling hate and extremism in their communities or helping young people stay safe online.

Google Innovation Fund: From 2017-2019, ISD ran the Google Innovation Fund, a £1m fund open to UK organisations tackling hate and extremism in their local communities. Read the impact report to find out more and read the inspiring stories from our grantees!

Google Africa Online Safety Fund: Since May 2020, ISD has been supporting Google.org and Impact Amplifier to deliver $700,000 of funding to projects that seek to address online safety issues across Africa, focusing especially on South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, and Cote D’Ivoire.

Campaign Toolkit: Since early 2019, ISD has worked with Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook, the founding members of the Global Internet Forum to Counter-Terrorism (GIFCT), to coordinate the redesign and relaunch of the ‘Counter-Narratives Toolkit’, which is a collection of free resources intended to support non-profit organisations in the development, launch and delivery of counter-hate and extremism campaigns.

Our online campaign toolkit helps civil society organisations create and implement impactful campaigns

Participants at a Google Innovation Fund event,
London, UK, 2019
ISD CEO Sasha Havlicek with attendees at
the Shared Endeavour Fund launch, London, UK, 2020
Google Impact Challenge on Safety workshop
Berlin, Germany, 2019

Latest Resources

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ISD’s Civil Society team

Zahed Amanullah

Resident Senior Fellow, Networks & Outreach

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Zahed Amanullah is a Resident Senior Fellow at ISD, leading on ISD’s civil society engagement, communications, and partnerships, coordinating the public and private sectors with activists, frontline workers, and relevant civil society networks. He has worked closely with Google.org to support British and European civil society organisations through the Innovation Fund, the Shared Endeavour Fund, and the Google Impact Challenge on Safety. He has given testimony to the UK and European parliaments and has been featured at the BBC, NPR, Channel 4, Sky News, the Guardian, CNN International, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Le Monde Diplomatique, and Newsweek, among others. He has co-authored the ISD reports The Impact of Counternarratives, Between Two Extremes: Responding to Islamist and tribalist messaging online in Kenya during the 2017 elections, and The Innovation Fund to Counter Hate and Extremism in the UK. He holds a BS from the University of California, Berkeley and a Diploma in Management from the University of Bath.

Kelsey Bjornsgaard

Director of Practice, Strong Cities Network

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Kelsey Bjornsgaard is the Director of Practice for the Strong Cities Network where she develops training models and resources to enhance locally-led approaches to preventing and countering violent extremism. She works closely with youth, civil society and national and local government actors to identify good practice, build critical capacities and drive cross-sectoral coordination to promote community-based solutions on a global scale. Kelsey leads the delivery of Strong Cities’ youth pillar, Young Cities, and is driving work on National Local Cooperation. Kelsey holds a Master's in International Conflict Studies from King’s College London and a Bachelor's in European Studies from the University of Oklahoma.

Jennie King

Director of Climate Research and Policy

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Jennie King is the Director of Climate Research and Policy, leading efforts to translate ISD's digital research into frontline programming and response. Through ISD, she helped found Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), a coalition of over 50 organisations working to identify, analyse and counter climate disinformation worldwide. She has spearheaded investigations on climate denialism and ‘discourses of delay’ in the contexts of Australia, Canada, Central Europe, Germany, South Africa, the US and UK, as well as co-authored a number of ISD’s flagship reports on this issue. Jennie also helped design, and currently manages, the COP Intelligence Units on behalf of CAAD, leading over 15 partners to produce real-time monitoring of mis- and disinformation around climate summits.

Charlotte Moeyens

Senior Manager, Networks & Civic Action

Charlotte Moeyens is a Senior Manager, Networks & Civic Action, at ISD, sitting in the central Resources and Methods team to support with the collation and distribution of counter-extremism best practice, overseeing the development and international delivery of training modules, materials and resources for practitioners and civil society. She has supported the delivery of the Google.org Impact Challenge on Safety in Europe, Africa Online Safety Fund and Mayor of London’s Shared Endeavour Fund. Most recently, she is working with the McCain Institute to develop and build the capacity of a US Prevention and Intervention Practitioners Network. Charlotte also forms part of the Strong Cities Network's (SCN) Central Management Unit, and is co-author of the SCN's Multi-Agency Models for Preventing Violent Extremism: A Guidebook for Bangladesh, as well as ISD reports YouthCAN: The Many States of Activism and Women, Girls and Islamist Extremism.