Comic Relief is offering £2m to domestic abuse and sexual violence charities.
The grant-maker said the funding, which has been provided by the government, would be broken down into 25 grants and would be given alongside digital coaching to small specialist organisations to support activities that improve their digital and remote capacity to deliver services.
The fund is open for applications from charities in England and Wales that are led by and for communities facing racial inequality, disabled communities, or LGBTQ+ communities and have annual incomes of between £75,000 and £10m.
The fund is part of £40m of funding from the Ministry of Justice, announced earlier this year, for specialist support services to help the survivors of rape and domestic abuse.
The announcement comes after charities reported double the number of people experiencing or at risk of rape and domestic abuse calling helplines and accessing webchat services since the first lockdown last March.
Aleema Shivji, executive director of impact and investment at Comic Relief, said: “It’s fantastic that we are going to be able to support the digital development of organisations that are providing hugely important services to survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
“Not only that, by offering practical support and advice at every stage of the process, they will also be able to work out exactly where digital can really make a difference for both service users and staff.”
Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, said: “We are delighted to provide this additional funding, which will help specialist organisations ensure no one is left to suffer alone.”
Applications can be made online until midday on 19 July.