Bird monitoring activities in Europe are clearly biased geographically, and gaps in monitoring data still exist. The EBCC Board has identified the development of monitoring schemes in these countries and regions as a key activity for the coming years. However, such activities are likely to fail without the possibility of providing small amounts of funding. Therefore, in 2023 we have set up the EBCC Small Grant Fund (SGF) to support national bird monitoring activities by EBCC partner organisations.