We need YOU: Defund Racism. Defend Anti-Racism.
Brussels, Belgium – 18 March 2026
ENAR is facing a significant funding disruption.
Across Europe, advocating for racial justice and fighting structural racism is becoming increasingly difficult. The rise and normalisation of far-right ideologies and growing repression on social and racial justice work make it increasingly difficult for anti-racist organisations to operate.
Today, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) is facing one of the most critical moments in its history. An acute funding crisis threatens the continuation of our work supporting over 140 grassroots organisations across Europe. As of today, the renewal of our structural EU grant remains uncertain.
The reality is urgent: without immediate support, ENAR may not have the resources to continue its work beyond the coming months. We need to raise min. 50,000 EUR to continue supporting our network and building a strong anti-racism movement; and 100,000 EUR to pursue our fight against structural racism to hold institutions accountable.
On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ENAR is launching its emergency fundraising campaign: Defend Anti-Racism.
ENAR is meeting this moment with transparency, responsibility, and determination. We are taking decisive steps to protect our integrity, support our members, and sustain Europe-wide anti-racism leadership — but we cannot do this alone.
This campaign is also a signal. Every act of support — every social media post,, every letter of solidarity, every donation and every introduction to a funder — demonstrates the depth and breadth of the backing this network carries. It shows that the anti-racism movement in Europe is organised, is resourced by many, and is not standing still.
There are different ways to help, and all of them matter.
Firstly, through financial support. Direct donations at any level will not only help protect ENAR and sustain operations during this period, but will support the 140+ grassroots organisations – the frontline anti-racist defenders – that work daily under precarious conditions.
Every donation directly strengthens our network. It strengthens our capacity to train activists in fundraising, community organising, and advocacy — to ensure they have the skills, knowledge, and resources to unite and fight back. Sometimes that means simply financing a visa application so that an organiser can attend our meetings.
It strengthens our ability to organise joint actions. Through our thematic working groups on migration, climate justice, NAPARs and digital rights, members strategise, meet, and develop coordinated campaigns to resist repression and criminalisation and to advocate for ways forward.
It funds evidence-based research and policy analysis that is often missing in the European context. Notable examples include reports on the colonial legacy of the racial wealth gap, the trans-European mapping of National Action Plans Against Racism, the incoming migration shadow report analysing seven EU borders and highlighting the racialisation of migrants. ENAR also provides toolkits for activists, CSOs, public and private institutions, and policy makers as well as regular policy briefs, such as the recent brief on the EU Anti-Racism Strategy.
All of this might not be possible in the near future if we do not find further supporters.
Your donation would also finance grassroots organisations through our Empowerment and Resilience Fund — about 20 organisations each year that are often excluded from mainstream philanthropy.
And it helps promote solidarity and care within the movement, protecting activists and human rights defenders through our advocacy work, our dedicated support to members, and the creation of safe spaces such as our Summer Retreat, for anti-racists to heal, to strategise, to act, and to dismantle structural racism.
While you can support the campaign through one-off donations, we invite you to become long-lasting supporters of ENAR — of the essential infrastructure for the anti-racism movement. If you believe in the impact of our network, in the impact of having a coordination platform unifying racial justice activists across imaginary borders, you can become monthly supporters of our work.
The second is amplification. While being a strong anti-racist supporter, you can also become an ENAR ambassador. Sharing the campaign through your own networks, your social media, your friends, your family, your comrades, your communities, your member and partner organisations. Together we can help in making the call to action to ‘Defend Anti-Racism‘ visible and reach all those that can help and matter. If you know social influencers, activists, or content creators who would amplify this campaign, connect us. That visibility matters, now more than ever.
The anti-racism movement in Europe has been built over decades, by many hands, through sustained collective effort. ENAR exists because that work is stronger when it is connected, coordinated, and resourced.
What this moment requires is what this movement has always required: that we show up for each other. That we refuse to let essential infrastructure erode quietly. That we make visible — in rooms like this one, and beyond — the value of what is being put at risk.
The campaign starts today. The work continues. And this network — this movement — will not disappear without a fight.
