January 2024

Our Voices From The Frontline Fund Invested Over £250k For Women & Girls

31st January 2024

Rosa is thrilled to announce that 40 organisations led by and for women and girls have received grants of up to £7,000 through Rosa’s Voices from the Frontline fund, which supports campaigning and influencing work that enables women and girls to use their voice to achieve change.

There is a critical need for funding for women’s and girls’ organisations to deliver activism and campaigning and to raise awareness of the issues women and girls face among power holders, particularly as we face the possibility of a new government. Without the continued efforts of campaigners and activists in the women and girls sector, discrimination, exclusion, cultural and societal barriers will remain.

The fund received considerable interest from applicants this year, with 146 grant requests totalling almost £1 million. This high demand has meant that we were unable to offer funding to everyone, but the organisations that were successful will be campaigning on a broad range of issues, including honour-based violence, gambling addiction, improving the care economy, addressing stereotypes of young black women, period dignity in schools, support for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, improving maternal health care, and better representation of women in politics.

Among the organisations receiving grants are: Cardiff Women’s Aid, a domestic and sexual abuse charity in Wales; Amma Birth Companions, an organisation that improves the birthing experiences of parents facing multiple disadvantages in Glasgow; Surviving Economic Abuse, a charity dedicated to raising awareness and transforming responses to economic abuse in the UK; Mooville Theatre, a CIC that raises awareness of societal challenges in the West Midlands and S.A.S. Rights, a company that empowers marginalised groups.

Saima Afzal MBE, S.A.S Rights Founding Director

“Getting this funding is a dream come true. We’re a women-led organisation and we know the value of our work – but to be supported by Rosa is a genuine privilege, not just because of the funding but because of what Rosa stands for.

“I could write a novel on the difference this money will make to us! There’s a huge power imbalance that means while small organisations like ours have expertise, we rarely get direct funding. We’re often called upon by others to share our experience and knowledge but our input is reduced to a photo or a footnote at the end of someone else’s project. The Voices from the Frontline funding will mean that we can own our expertise and use it to get more Muslim and South Asian women into local politics.”

Alphonsine Kabagabo, Director, Women for Refugee Women

“We’re delighted to receive a Rosa Voices from the Frontline grant. At Women for Refugee Women (WRW) we believe that centring women with experience of the asylum process is key to making meaningful change.

“This grant will support our wide range of lived experience groups to share their experiences and calls for change, to develop and execute creative campaigning actions, to meet with parliamentarians and to take part in public events, and much more. The grant will enable refugee and asylum-seeking women to be at the forefront of WRW’s campaigns and to make the changes they want to see.

“At a time where there is increasing hostility against people seeking safety, we are extremely grateful for this grant which will help us counter the toxic predominant narrative and show that the UK is a place of compassion and welcome.”

The fund supports a wide range of organisations across the UK. Of the 40 funded organisations, 9 are from Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Rosa prioritises organisations where the funding need is greatest. Half of funded organisations are in the top 20% most deprived areas of the UK and 14 are organisations led by and for Black and minoritised women and girls. 21 are receiving funding for national campaigns and 19 for local campaigns.

Rosa will be delivering training and peer learning for all funded organisations.

Rosa would like to thank everyone on the Voices from the Frontline Grants Panel for their guidance and support in selecting the successful grantees. Thank you also to donors, Trustees, staff, and supporters, without whom this fund would not be possible.

The full list of successful Voices from the Frontline grantees can be found HERE.

Cath Dovey, Rosas Chair On Being Awarded A CBE

8th January 2024

I am honoured to have been awarded a CBE in the Kings New Year Honours List for services to philanthropy, women and girls, the arts and the economy. Throughout my life I have been motivated by issues of equality, knowing how fortunate I was in my own early years and believing the pathway to progress comes from harnessing the talents and resources of all in service of the common good.

For more than 20 years, I co-founded and built an international strategy consultancy focused on the issues of responsible wealth management, ensuring the voices and values of individuals were heard by the financial and professional services community. As thought leaders with a global reach, our work highlighted that stewarding wealth with purpose, not privilege, was the principal goal for those who had made or inherited fortunes that exceeded societal norms.

Moving from entrepreneurship to social entrepreneurship, since 2016 I have been working to grow philanthropy and impact-led activity among the UK’s wealthy population by ensuring donors and social investors are fully supported on their impact journeys. As a former chair and serving trustee of Philanthropy Impact, and as co-founder of the Beacon Collaborative, much of my works focuses on building the UK’s capacity to connect individual wealth with communities, and with social and environmental need.

Philanthropy is a unique form of capital that can work alongside the public and private sector to support and enable civil society. Community groups, arts and culture venues, charities, educational establishments, health and welfare organisations: this is civil society, the beating heart of our communities. It supports those who are unwell or overlooked and creates common ground where we can live, learn and laugh together. With purpose and humility, those with financial means have a special opportunity to support this common good.

I have been honoured to serve as the chair of Rosa for the last six years. The UK’s fund for women and girls works to ensure women and girls can live lives that are safe, healthy and equal. All steps toward gender equality over the last two hundred years have been achieved by women who have fought for, won and sustained progress through collective effort.

The UK needs specialist women’s organisations, yet there remains a persistent lack of funding for women’s and girls’ rights – particularly for those from black and minoritised communities. Rosa works to redress these imbalances by drawing in and distributing funds to women’s and girls’ organisations, and supporting them to raise their voices in pursuit of equality.

It is also my privilege to serve as a trustee of First Star UK, which seeks to improve the lives of looked-after young people by ensuring they have the academic, life skills and adult support to transition successfully to higher education and adulthood.

As a trustee of frontline charities and of those working to build the capacity to drive change, I have witnessed the extraordinary challenges faced by the charity sector in the current economic climate. I am humbled by the skill, care and resilience of the professionals in each of these organisations. I would like to express my gratitude to them for their commitment to the individuals and communities they serve.