ActionAid Nigeria is giving up to ₦20 million per idea to women-led organisations through its Strategic Innovation Fund 2026. The deadline is October 12, 2026 at midnight. Today is Saturday, October 10, so you have two days left.
One thing first. This grant is for organisations and networks, not for individual persons. If you are a student or an individual woman looking for money, skip to the part on other opportunities below.
Dates and money for the ActionAid Strategic Innovation Fund 2026
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Run by | ActionAid Nigeria |
| Funder | Global Affairs Canada, under the Renewed Women’s Voice and Leadership (RWVL) Project |
| Call opened | September 23, 2026 |
| Deadline | October 12, 2026, 12:00 midnight |
| Grant size | Up to ₦20,000,000 per idea |
| Number of grants | Up to 5 ideas |
| Project length | 6 months to 1 year |
₦20 million is the most one idea can get. It is not what every winner will collect. Five ideas at the full amount would be ₦100 million in total, and that is the ceiling.
About this ActionAid Strategic Innovation Fund grant
The money is for women’s rights organisations that want to test a new way of solving a problem women and girls face. You pilot it, you see if it works, and ActionAid wants to see that it can grow bigger later.
“New” does not have to mean something nobody has ever done. ActionAid says it can be a new approach, an old solution adjusted for your place, the use of technology, a method led by the community, a new partnership, or a new way of doing advocacy.
Who is eligible to apply for the ActionAid Strategic Innovation Fund
- You must be a women’s rights organisation or a women’s rights network.
- Women-led, and working in Nigeria.
- Your idea must be new, creative and useful to women and girls.
- Say how it moves gender equality and gender justice forward, and how it adds to work already going on.
- It must be something that can be scaled up.
- Can you finish it fast and show results you can measure? Show them that.
The call does not say whether your organisation must be registered with CAC, and it does not say you can skip it either. Don’t guess. The webinar ActionAid held on this fund had questions on registration, location and partnerships, and the recording and slides are on this ActionAid Feminist Hub page.
Types of ideas ActionAid wants for this grant
Your idea should deal with one of these:
- Violence against women and girls
- Women and girls in conflict, or on the move
- Women’s economic justice and empowerment
- Women’s political participation and leadership, including policy advocacy
ActionAid also says it really wants ideas for women and girls who are often left out. That means women and girls with disabilities, those in conflict areas, returnees, female inmates, survivors of gender-based violence, out-of-school girls, elderly women and women in politics.
Two quick examples to get you thinking, not from ActionAid: a phone-based reporting line for survivors of violence in one local government area, or a skills and mentoring plan for out-of-school girls in one community. Pick one small place and one clear problem. Six months to one year is short.
How to apply for the ActionAid Strategic Innovation Fund 2026
- Go to the official call page and download the SIF Application Template.
- Fill it in yourself.
- Get your organisational profile ready.
- Email both to RWVL.SIFGrant@actionaid.org.
- Use the subject line exactly as it is written on the call page: “Strategic Innovation Fund September 2026”.
A budget template is on the same page. The call text only lists the application template and your organisational profile as what to send. Still, open the budget file and check if the application template needs those figures before you skip it.
Warnings before you send the ActionAid application
Do not use AI to write any part of it. ActionAid says using ChatGPT or similar tools to draft, structure or generate your narratives, project descriptions or advocacy goals leads to automatic disqualification.
Only one application per organisation. Send two and you are asking for trouble.
If you don’t use the official template, you are disqualified.
Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted, so don’t wait for a reply saying “received”. Screenshot your sent email instead.
How to use the two days you have left
Saturday: download the template, pick your one idea, and find your organisational profile. Sunday: write the application and fill the budget figures. Monday: read it again and send it in the morning, not at 11:50pm.
Why not leave it for Monday night? The call says “12th October 2026 (12:00 Midnight)”. That could mean the end of Monday or the start of Monday. ActionAid does not explain, so don’t test it.
How this ActionAid grant has changed since 2020
The first Strategic Innovation Fund round in 2020 went to five women-led and women-focused organisations in Anambra, Oyo, Plateau, Kebbi and the FCT. Their projects covered sexual and reproductive health rights, women’s political participation, and getting more girls into secondary school and keeping them there.
In the 2022 round, the grant range was ₦1 million to ₦2 million. Now it is up to ₦20 million. Expect more groups to apply this time, so a clear, small, doable idea will do better than a big vague one.
Another ActionAid grant that closes after October 12
ActionAid also has a Strategic Opportunity Fund under the same project. The call I checked is for short-term, time-sensitive work like advocacy and strategic opportunities, with a maximum of ₦6 million per grant. It opened October 5 and closes October 19, 2026. Check the Grant Opportunities page on ActionAid’s Feminist Hub for the exact call and email address.
Other grants and opportunities on applytimes.com
Not an organisation? These might fit you better:
- Aliko Dangote Foundation Share Grant Initiative for Students and Women. Its own deadline is very close too.
- FG’s EMERGE grant by SMDF for mining exploration and research
- Fully funded scholarships Nigerian students can apply for without IELTS
- More on the Government Opportunities and Scholarships pages.
- The common mistakes that make Nigerian students lose scholarship slots post is about scholarships, but the lessons on wrong documents and late submissions apply here too.
I’m a community health practitioner from Borno State
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