The Charta 77 Foundation [Charter 77] was founded in Stockholm in 1978 by František Janouch who leads it to this day. Janouch officially announced the founding of it at the award ceremony for the Monismanien Prize for Freedom of Speech, which was awarded to the Charter 77 movement, and called upon the general public to support persecuted Charter signatories. Until 1989, the Foundation supported dissident activities of Charter 77 and was exclusively funded by foreign donors. The Foundation, among other things, enabled the creation of the Original Videojournal in 1987 when its contacts smuggled expensive technical equipment for producing videos and other material support into Czechoslovakia. The institution also awarded a number of prestigious awards each year:

The Tom Stoppard Prize – awarded to authors of Czech origin for important essay work that, above all, is inspiration for its intellectual contribution
The Jaroslav Seifert Prize – awarded for outstanding poetry or works of fiction published in the past three years
The František Kriegel Prize – awarded for outstanding merits in the fight for human and civil rights, national independence, sovereignty and democracy
The Josef Vavroušek Prize – awarded for a significant work in the field of ecology and the environment

Shortly after the Velvet Revolution in 1989, the Foundation's activities were transferred to Prague, while its regional committees were also established in Prague, Brno and Bratislava. After Czechoslovakia was divided, the Foundation also split into the Czech Charta 77 Foundation and the Slovak Charta 77 Foundation. Today, the first half operates as a non-profit organization in the Czech Republic and provides grant contributions to applicants from all over the Czech Republic.