Rosa, the UK Fund for Women and Girls

We are recruiting a new Chair to lead the Board of Trustees at Rosa. After nearly seven years as Chair, Cath Dovey CBE is stepping down and we have embarked on a search for her successor. We are looking for a Chair with strong personal qualities and attributes that align with our organisational values and goals. It is an exciting time to join us and help lead our growth, working with a passionate and committed Board and executive team. The Chair will work closely with the our Chief Executive to achieve our vision of a society in which women and girls are safe, healthy, and equal. They will drive governance, and guide strategic planning and stakeholder engagement. This pivotal role is crucial in advancing our mission and ensuring organisational sustainability. For more information about Rosa and the Chair role, please click through to our Work With Us page and read our Role Description. To apply please send a CV and covering letter to Bunmi Onile-Ere at rosachair@sapphirepartners.co.uk. Applications will be accepted until 3rd October 2024: https://lnkd.in/erkwDVfS

After a busy 2024 here at Rosa we'll be taking a break from today until 6 January 2025. Thank you to everyone who donated their time, expertise and money to make our work possible in this year. The whole team wishes you a restorative festive period and a very happy New Year.

Are you signed up to our newsletter? Here's three great support and funding opportunities we shared this month. Sign up to get all the latest from us direct to your inbox in 2025: bit.ly/3ADsJCS Media Trust: Women's Voices 2025 Apply for Women’s Voices 2025, being held on Wednesday 5 March, and work on your campaign or comms goal with creative experts from BBC, Google, and Meta. Get tailored strategies and practical campaign ideas for the year ahead: https://lnkd.in/eQH8-nvH Deadline: 5pm on Monday 13 January 2025. Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales is currently offering funding for specialist charities working with people facing complex social issues, offering unrestricted grants of up to £75,000 for three years. This is a great opportunity for small specialist charities looking for flexible funding and strategic development support: https://lnkd.in/eRJ3aMyA Deadline: 5pm on Thursday 23rd January 2025. The Baobab Foundation announces the return of The Baobab Community Fund, a £3m fund dedicated to Black African/Caribbean and Global Majority collectives, organisations and individuals dismantling systems of oppression for our communities in their work: https://lnkd.in/eTxyAETn Deadline: 11.59pm on Monday 3rd February 2025.

We're recruiting! We’re looking for a Partnerships Manager who’s ready to build meaningful relationships and inspire a network of new donors and partners. The Partnerships Manager is a new role that will be pivotal in broadening Rosa’s supporter base and driving long term income growth. This role will use high value relationship management skills to engage and attract new donors with a focus on Trusts and Corporates. If you’re driven, innovative, and passionate about creating lasting change, we want to hear from you! https://lnkd.in/eHJmaieJ

Rosa's #StandWithUs Fund and its formation is a powerful story of how, when women mobilise, it has a great impact on the lives of other women and girls. This week, and across the global #16DaysOfActivism Against Gender-based Violence, the lives of the millions of women lost to male violence are honoured by those taking part in local activism on walks or vigils in their area. People come together to remember loved ones and oppose the extent of male violence against women in our societies. In March 2021, Jamie Klingler and other local women were compelled 'out of absolute rage' to take action following the appalling murder of Sarah Everard. They held a vigil honouring Sarah and all women whose lives had been impacted by male violence, and Reclaim These Streets was born. Over one weekend, £525,000 was raised. Reclaim These Streets needed help and expertise to ensure the funds raised went where they would have the most impact on ending male violence: to frontline women's and girls' organisations. Rosa was suggested as an ideal steward and the Stand With Us Fund was created. The Stand With Us Fund was designed in close consultation with violence against women and girls sector experts through an advisory group which also included representatives from Reclaim These Streets and Rosa. Because our approach centres on transparency, participation and partnership, the Stand With Us grants were informed by the needs and experiences of women and girls, particularly those most at risk of harm. You can read more about our approach and our partnership with Recalim These Streets here: https://bit.ly/3CIIcWm and you can read Jamie Klingler's story in her own words here: https://bit.ly/40SQiWk #16Days #MVAWG #VAWG #WalkWithUs #TheSWUStory

We're thrilled to announce the launch of the Voices from the Frontline fund, now in its seventh year. The fund offers grants of up to £10,000 over an 18-month period to women’s and girls’ organisations to support campaigning and influencing work that enables women and girls to use their voice to achieve change. Women’s and girls’ organisations are at the forefront of addressing social issues, but there remains a critical need for funding for these organisations to deliver activism and campaigning to raise awareness of the issues women and girls face. Find out if you’re eligible for funding here ➡ https://bit.ly/3sNVOdP Deadline: 4pm on Monday 9th December 2024

BLOG: We're part of the Institute For Voluntary Action Research Open and Trusting Grant-making learning community. Here our Trustee Sheila Jane Malley writes about what trusting your grantees *really* means: "It is an absolutely mutual relationship between us and those we fund, and we need to recognise the scale of that interdependence."

So important to raise voices like Ghadah Alnasseri's in the discussion on tackling #VAWG; the type of funding that is desperately needed and the Black and minoritised women who are otherwise being let down:

This timely article by Alexandra Topping in The Guardian highlights that one of the key factors to ensuring Labour deliver on their pledge to halve violence against women and girls is, you guessed it, funding. The article references our mapping research and highlights the dire funding situation in the women and girls sector: the sector received just 1.8% of a total £4.1bn-worth of grants awarded to charities in 2021. Compare that with the estimated £40bn that #VAWG costs society each year, and it's no wonder we feel as though we're fighting a losing battle: we are. The sector is desperate, and those women most in need, who often require specialist services, are being severely let down: “We need money ringfenced for organisations like ours to continue to provide vital support,” Ghadah Alnasseri, co-director at Imkaan. Read more here: https://bit.ly/3NqNhod

A report released this week based on the data from the Women's and Girls Index (WGI) reveals that giving to women’s and girls’ organisations in the US represents just 1.9% of charitable giving - a strikingly similar figure to the paltry 1.8% that goes to the sector in the UK, as we uncovered in our sector mapping report: https://bit.ly/3UHP0IH The US report provides a comprehensive look by The Women's Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy into a full decade of charitable giving to women’s and girls’ organisations. The index captures data from 54,588 organisations and provides a thorough analysis of giving to the sector in the decade 2012 to 2021: https://bit.ly/4eB18Ej This similarity in the statistics highlights the continued need for greater philanthropic investment and support across the full spectrum of causes that improve the lives of women and girls in both regions.