Stand with Us Fund

On behalf of all the Staff and Trustees at Rosa, I wanted to thank you once again for supporting our Stand with Us Fund. Thanks to your support, over £700,000 was raised in funding, including over half a million pounds raised and donated by Reclaim These Streets following the murder of Sarah Everard.

The 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) and aims to empower and strengthen frontline VAWG organisations to build safer futures for women and girls.

Designed in close consultation with sector experts, the fund’s goal is to help frontline organisations addressing violence against women and girls in the to survive, thrive and grow into the future.   Grants of up to £25,000 were available to organisations with an average income of between £100,000 and £500,000 K for areas such as strategy, governance, leadership, voice in the women’s movement, alliances and partnerships, funding, demonstrating impact and systems and processes.

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

Sophie Hayes Foundation successfully applied for £15,692 and CEO Red Godfrey Sagoo told us:

“Sophie Hayes Foundation has undergone a significant period of growth over the past 3 years. Growth driven by the rising need to support more women survivors of human trafficking by offering independence through employability skills and access to education. However, this dramatic growth has led to a critical need for new staff training, namely, leadership and management training, with additional support for the first two survivors employed to manage CREW Survivor Network (Creative Resilient Empowered Women). Rosa’s Stand With Us funding enables the Foundation to develop its leadership and CREW staff, empowering each to lead with confidence.”

Khudeja Amer-Sharif, CEO of Shama Women’s Centre in Leicester who successfully applied for £24,600 said:

“We are delighted to have received funding from Rosa for a Fundraising Manager. At the moment, most of our funding is through grants which are short-term and are not sustainable. We know we need to build up our unrestricted funds but don't have the resources in place to do so. We do currently undertake some ad hoc fundraising activities through volunteers which have generated some funds, but are confident that through a dedicated Fundraising Manager, it will give us a more co-ordinated, sustainable approach to raising funds, and the opportunity to work with other women's organisations so that we can continue supporting some of the most vulnerable women and girls in Leicester for years to come.”

We’ll 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