International Women’s Day 2024: A philanthropy view

Please note: This article does not constitute advice. Barclays Private Bank does not endorse any of the companies or individuals referenced in this article.

To mark International Women’s Day 2024, Isabelle Hayhoe, Senior Philanthropy Adviser, Barclays Private Bank, spoke to three female charity leaders about the fundraising challenges in the women and girls' sector, and how philanthropy can support female empowerment.

All over the world, countless charities are striving to improve the lives of women and girls. Often, they do so on a fraction of the funding that other causes receive. According to research, the women and girls sector receives just 1.8% of grant funding in the UK, despite making up 3.5% of registered charities¹.

Despite this lack of funding, they help provide better access to education, campaign against male violence, fight for reproductive rights, and much more.

Raakhi Shah, CEO, The Circle 

“If we invest in women, they’ll do so much to make a difference.” 

The Circle is a global network that supports women-led organisations through funding, networking, and advocacy for long-term change.

Based on the principles of global feminism, we were founded in 2008 as a way for women in developed countries to empower their sisters around the world. During our 15-year history, we’ve supported 1.4 million people on women’s rights and 130,000 women directly through our programmatic work². 

While we have historically worked on causes such as maternal health, female genital mutilation (FGM) and child marriage, we recently shifted our focus to ending violence towards women and girls, as well as issues of economic justice.

We tell the stories of survivors of sexual violence and those on the frontline of conflict because if these voices aren’t heard, the suffering will continue without any real justice. 

However, The Circle isn’t about women from developed nations saving those in other countries. We are a global network in which our partners, frontline activists and inspiring female CEOs are in it together.

People often ask why the women and girls' sector doesn’t receive more funding. We wish we had an answer, especially when we’re talking about roughly 50% of the world’s population³.  

Although philanthropists invest a huge amount into education, they may not realise how closely education is tied to the economic empowerment of women. In many cases, a woman supports her entire family, and if that woman can’t earn a decent wage, education for her children will fall by the wayside. By putting more funding into women-led organisations, the education piece will only benefit.

There are, of course, many worthwhile causes all over the world. However, we know that if we invest in women and put funding in the hands of grassroots organisations, they will do so much to make a difference. 

Wherever you are in the world, women are at the forefront of suffering. However, there’s always this beautiful moment of solidarity, where you find women sitting together and having these amazing conversations. Whether you speak the language or not, they very much feel like your fellow sisters, which is why the term ‘global feminism’ is so powerful.

Rebecca Gill, Executive Director, Rosa

“The women and girls' sector suffers from an invisibility.” 

Rosa is the only UK funder solely dedicated to funding the women and girls’ sector across the whole country. The sector is made up of thousands of organisations run by, for and with women and girls. The organisations we fund are governed and led by women, have a Board of Trustees (or similar) where the Chair is a woman, and the majority of members, as well as the employee leadership team, are women. 

As part of our research, we have found that more than 50% of grants awarded to our sector are for £10,000 or less, with eight large organisations receiving 3.9% of all funding¹. 

I truly believe that the sector suffers from something women and girls experience across society, and that is invisibility – of labour and the critical role they perform in communities and families.

At Rosa, we focus our funding across three core areas where we know it is most needed: addressing male violence against women and girls; funding organisations led by Black and minoritised women and girls; and investing in campaigning and influencing. 

Our ‘Stand With Us’ fund was set up in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard and supports organisations delivering frontline services to address male violence against women and girls, and our ‘Rise’ fund invests in Black- and minoritised-led organisations.  Both of these funds focus on strengthening organisations to ensure their longer-term sustainability.

We also run the ‘Voices from the Frontline’ fund. This is a unique fund as it is the only one which specifically funds women's and girls' organisations to do campaigning and influencing work.  Offering grants of up to £7,000, 'Voices’ funding has helped change abortion law in Northern Ireland, contributed to the outlawing of vaginoplasty and hymenoplasty across the UK, and supported organisations such as Pregnant Then Screwed⁴ to flourish and grow.  However, we always stress that we haven’t done these things ourselves; rather we’ve helped create an environment in which positive change could happen. 

Rosa relies on funding from a range of sources – trusts and foundations, corporate funders and major donors. We're experts on our sector and our funders appreciate that we can reach organisations many of them would struggle to find, let alone fund. The fact that we fund across all four nations of the UK, that we fund organisations working with women and with girls, and that we prioritise funding to Black and minoritised women and girls, disabled women and organisations working in areas of highest deprivation, means our funding goes where it is most needed.

Our priority is to centre the expertise of women’s and girls’ organisations in our work. This means we invite our funders to observe grant panels rather than make decisions about where funding should go. The Rise fund was designed and led by Rosa Trustees working with sector experts who were all Black and minoritised women from the women and girls’ sector; Stand With Us was designed and led by women with expertise in the violence against women and girls’ sector, working alongside Rosa Trustees. This approach ensures that funding is determined by sector experts and those with lived experience of a problem. 

If you look at history, every positive change in women’s and girls’ lives in the UK has been fought for, and won, by women working together - women are change makers. Despite there being a chronic lack of funding, when you meet those leading and working in the women and girls’ sector, you can’t help but feel inspired and full of hope. It’s the most wonderful thing. If they didn’t exist, our country would be in a really bad place.

Dani Coombe, Founder and CEO, Fowler’s Syndrome UK 

“I get tremendous joy from being able to change things for other women.”

Founded in 2021, Fowler’s Syndrome UK has a mission to help improve diagnosis times and treatment for women with Fowler’s Syndrome. 

Often affecting women in their 20s and 30s, the condition causes full or partial urinary retention, which means patients experience problems in passing urine due to difficulties in relaxing the urinary sphincter.  

As a result, they can experience frequent bladder or kidney infections, which can cause extreme discomfort. Often sufferers go to hospital in severe pain after having been unable to urinate for many hours, where they’ll often be treated with a catheter⁵. 

Having been diagnosed with Fowler’s myself, I know first-hand how painful it can be. Three years ago, I was so unwell that I couldn’t walk or even hold a glass of water without supporting my elbow.  

From my own diagnosis, I also know how few resources there are for women with Fowler’s, and that it can feel like there isn’t anyone to talk to about the condition.  

In 2022, the charity conducted the world’s largest cross-sectional study of Fowler’s⁶ alongside the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and University College London.

Of the women surveyed, 53% described the condition as having a ‘severe’ effect on their life, while 33% said it had a ‘devastating’ impact. Seventy five percent had also been told the condition was ‘all in their head’. 

The stigma around urinary issues is, in my opinion, a major barrier to securing funding. When we held a stigma workshop, several of the women we met had been told by a medical professional the condition was imaginary or psychological⁷.

Although I now feel well, there was a time when I didn’t think I’d survive Fowler’s, and it’s sometimes hard to believe I’m now running a charity. Setting up a helpline for patients is a core focus during the year ahead, and we also aim to raise £10,000 to fund a seminar for healthcare professionals. 

Every day, it brings me tremendous joy to make a difference for people on their Fowler’s journey, and I feel I can finally be the person I wanted to be five years ago.

As ever, we suggest donors fully inform themselves on the issue and learn how they can best support women and girls.

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