Ariadne Network

Ariadne is the European Network of Human Rights grant-makers.  The aim of the Network is to increase the impact of human rights grant-making and to grow the number of funders investing in this work.

It does this by providing a supportive meeting place for funders to help deepen knowledge and understanding of human rights, to encourage better grant making practices in a European context and to enable cooperation and collaboration amongst members as appropriate. It includes individual philanthropists, grant-makers from Trusts and Foundations, re-granting bodies and hybrid foundations, ie those partially backed by state funds. They are united by their investment in a range of human rights issues or by using a human rights lens to look at social justice issues.

Ariadne members are either based in Europe or fund in Europe, and support work in a across a broad field: children’s rights, migration and integration, asylum and detention, women’s rights, minority rights, civil and political rights, LGBT rights, anti-torture work, peace and security, economic and social rights, transitional justice and many others. Ariadne focuses on global human rights, but recognises that  it has a special role to play in supporting the ability of civil society to hold Europe’s institutions to account.

It operates on a dual track method, using the Ariadne Portal as a virtual clubhouse to allow flexible and fluid  communication and collaboration, backed by a series of regional or national face to face meetings and networking events to build trust amongst members.