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.