Stand with Us Fund

The Stand with Us Fund was developed by Rosa to address Violence Against Women and Girls in the UK.

Originally set up using funding raised by Reclaim These Streets in the wake of the appalling murder of Sarah Everard in 2021, the fund attracted support from a range of charitable funders and individuals to ultimately raise over £700k.

Rosa designed, developed and delivered the Stand with Us fund in partnership with experts in the women and girls’ sector. The fund offered organisational development grants of up to £25k to empower and strengthen specialist, women-led organisations so they may build safer futures for women and girls. Applications were invited from frontline, violence against women’s and girls’ organisations with an average annual income of between £100,000 to £500,000.
Rosa’s goal, through the fund, is to enable organisations to be in a stronger position to survive, thrive and grow by investing in organisational development work, including:

• Developing strategy,
• Strengthening governance and leadership,
• Creating alliances and partnerships,
• Increasing fundraising, volunteering and activism,
• Demonstrating impact and
• Improving systems and processes.

Alongside funding, Rosa also offered to deliver tailored non-financial support to funded organisations. Due to take place in 2023, this will focus on a range of areas where organisations have requested support. We will also provide training and support with developing safeguarding policies, which is an area where many smaller organisations require support. Rosa’s annual conference will offer grantees the opportunity to network and learn alongside other organisations form the women and girls sector.

The fund opened for applications in June 2022 and applications were first checked by the Rosa grants team for eligibility, then assessed by a team of freelance assessors, each of whom is experienced in the women and girls sector. Final decisions on grants awarded were made at a decision-making panel in October 2022, which comprised Advisory Group members, Rosa Grants Team and Rosa Trustees.

In total, 25 projects were approved, totalling £588,931.54 in grant funding.

Regional Breakdown of Awards

London £164,829.00
North West £49,996.00
North East £25,000.00
South West £73,478.00
South East £25,000.00
West Midlands £25,000.00
East Midlands £43,116.50
East of England £58,176.00
Yorkshire & the Humber £24,959.09
Scotland £99,376.95

On behalf of all the Staff and Trustees at Rosa, I wanted to thank you once again for supporting our Stand with Us Fund.
In the coming months, we will send you an update on the successful groups and their progress since receiving their grants. Until then, you can read some wonderful case studies that were included in Stylist Magazine in November 2022:

Stylist Magazine

We’ll also soon be letting you know how you can support our next Stand with Us funding round as we’ll be launching our fundraising campaign for this very soon! Rosa is entirely dependent on charitable donations because, unlike many grant-makers, we do not have an endowment. Our work is made possible thanks to investment from our generous donors, including charitable trusts and foundations, corporates, and individuals.

Thank you for supporting Rosa's Stand With Us Fund and helping us to make the UK a fairer and safer place for women and girls.

We would like to extend a warm thank you for to all of our donors for their generous support and interest in Rosa’s work over the past year.

This brief report summarises the key focus of Rosa’s work in 2022. You can also learn in more detail about our achievements for the year ending 31st March 2022 in our latest annual report and accounts: Rosa's Annual Report and Accounts

Our work is divided into three strategic areas: Investing in organisations, Strengthening organisations and Using our Voice to achieve change:

Investing
Against a backdrop of the continuing impact of the pandemic and the growing cost-of-living-crisis, we are proud to have invested in the women and girls sector through three funds in 2022 – Rise, Stand With Us and Voices from the Frontline.

The Rise Fund invests in the future of organisations led by and for Black and minoritised women and girls across the UK. The fund addresses longer term strategic planning and sustainability to ensure organisations are able to survive, thrive and grow in the future. Rosa raised over £1.5 million and the fund opened for applications between November 2021 and January 2022, with a decision-making panel held in May 2022. In total, we awarded £949,989.12 to 35 projects across the UK and the remaining funding will be distributed in 2023.

The Stand with Us Fund launched in 2022 and was set up to support the many organisations run by and for women who stand up and take action every day to address violence against women and girls (VAWG). The fund aims to empower and strengthen frontline VAWG organisations to build safer futures for women and girls. Rosa opened the fund in June 2022 with over £700,000 raised, including over half a million pounds raised and donated by Reclaim These Streets following the murder of Sarah Everard. The panel was held in October and 25 organisations were awarded grants of up to £25,000. 

Voices from the Frontline supports campaigning and activism, bringing together women and girls who are passionate about a cause and harnessing their collective strength to push for change.
The funding panel was held on 15th December and over £210,000 was awarded to 32 organisations.

Strengthening
Rosa continued to deliver a rich programme of webinars, networking sessions and learning opportunities for women’s and girls’ organisations and Rosa freelance assessors this year. Our aim with these activities is to strengthen women’s and girls’ organisations, enabling them to survive and thrive into the future.
The various activities enabled skills development, knowledge sharing, peer support, support with organisational development and networking opportunities. The programme will continue into 2023 and respond to the needs and priorities that grantees identify.

Rosa’s summer conference took place on 29th and 30th June within school hours, to maximise accessibility to women. This year, we welcomed 240 attendees to 11 sessions with 27 speakers from across the women and girls sector. Should you wish to view the conference webpage, along with videos of all the sessions, it is on Rosa’s website, here.
The aims of the conference were to provide space for women’s organisations to learn from, connect and network with one other; to explore the themes and topics most relevant to specialist women’s organisations and to celebrate the incredible breadth of work across the women and girls sector - lifting sights, expectations and energy levels of grantees. The two most well attended sessions this year focussed, separately, on funding and race, reflecting wider conversations in the sector. Our 2023 conference will take place at the end of June next year.

Using our Voice
In partnership with Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and The National Lottery, Rosa commissioned Sheffield Hallam University to complete a research project that will map funding made to the UK women and girls sector. We know, anecdotally, that our grantees face a funding crisis, so the purpose of the research is to understand where funding goes and identify gaps to evidence the need for further investment into the sector. We anticipate publishing the findings in Spring 2023.

As we look forward to a new year, we would like to thank you for your generous support of our work in 2022.

In Solidarity,

Rosa.