In the fall of 2025, Piper Fund was thrilled to welcome Neetha Tangirala as manager of the Protect Dissent Network. Neetha brings over 15 years of experience as a grantmaker and program officer, supporting the design, launch, and growth of networks of activists and civil society organizations around the world. Her work has focused on advancing human rights, good governance, and democratic reform through networked approaches. Neetha shares her reflections on what drew her to the Protect Dissent Network and how she hopes to strengthen coordination, learning, and solidarity across the field.
As the granddaughter of a child bride, I came to understand early in my life the important role that activists, communities, and acts of dissent and collective action play in advancing reform, rights, and dignity for all. After graduate school, where I studied Sudan’s peace process, I traveled to the region to teach at a local university, where I connected with activists and movement leaders and gained firsthand insight into the movement landscape and efforts to advance democratic reform in an authoritarian, post-conflict context. That experience shaped my commitment to strengthening civic space and movement resilience and has guided my career supporting activists and civil society organizations advancing rights and reform.
I have spent my career supporting activists, movements, and organizers at home and around the world, partnering with civil society organizations across climate, education, and human rights through roles with Amnesty International, IREX, the National Endowment for Democracy, and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Across these roles, I helped design, launch, and deepen network-based efforts such as Generation Democracy, the European Youth Democracy Network, and the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, with a focus on empowering emerging leaders, fostering collaboration across movements, and strengthening civic space and organizational resilience. At USAID, I supported the launch of the U.S. government’s first global award dedicated to resourcing social movements and activists across more than 50 countries. I was therefore drawn to Piper Fund because of its focus on protecting dissent and its belief in the power of relationship-driven networks to build an inclusive, just democracy amid growing repression.
This is a critical moment for civic space and democratic culture in the United States. We are witnessing the closing of civic space, the erosion of democratic norms, and increasing attacks on protest, dissent, and the civil society actors and organizations who are working tirelessly to defend democracy and hold power accountable. What excites me most about this role is the opportunity to help connect activists, organizers, and movement leaders with one another, and to intentionally create space for learning, solidarity, and coordination across local, state, and national efforts.
Throughout my career, I have seen the power of networks not just as “programming” but as living ecosystems grounded in relationships. Social movements across history remind us that when activists can connect across issues and geographies, share lessons, and adapt together, they can together, explore the repertoire of collective action available to them and build real power. Relationship-based work, paired with shared learning, is what allows movements to stay nimble and respond to the evolving tactics of repressive state actors.
Having spent years supporting and learning from activists operating in highly authoritarian contexts, I have seen how networks help people remain creative, resilient, and strategic even under extreme pressure. Being part of a network matters intrinsically by reducing isolation and sustaining hope, and instrumentally by enabling coordination, collective response, and progress toward shared goals of rights, accountability, and dignity.
In this moment, it feels deeply humbling to support and steward a nationwide network of organizations defending the right to protest and dissent. Through cross-network collaboration, shared analysis, and the exchange of research and tactics, the Protect Dissent Network can help build public understanding of why dissent and protest are fundamental to an inclusive, just democracy, and strengthen the democratic culture needed to sustain them.
