Applications are now open for the Rosa’s Voices from the Frontline fund to support campaigning and influencing work that enables women and girls to use their voice to achieve change.
Rosa is proud to champion the campaigning and influencing work that women’s and girls’ organisations do, as they recognise that every progress in culture, law and practice in women’s and girls’ lives over the last two hundred years has been pioneered by women and girls, organising and mobilising.
Women’s and girls’ organisations are at the forefront of addressing social issues and they believe change comes about when women and girls who have lived experience of injustice and inequality get heard.
However, there remains a critical need for funding for women’s and girls’ organisations to deliver activism and campaigning to raise awareness of the issues women and girls face. This is why Voices from the Frontline exists.
Voices from the Frontline campaigns could be targeted at local communities, the general public, local or national government, media, service providers or businesses. They will fund organisations which:
have identified the issue they want to campaign on;
have an understanding of their intended audience;
are ready to start, or have started, their campaign;
need resources to support their campaigning and influencing work.
Funding Information
You can apply for a one-year grant of between £500 and £7,000. Rosa expects to award between 30 and 35 grants with this fund.
What will they fund?
They will fund organisations that will raise women’s voices and challenge inequality, including:
Campaigning for changes in policy and laws including activities such as petitions, social media campaigns and lobbying.
National campaigns that address issues that affect women and girls.
Influencing community leaders and power holders about issues that affect women in a particular place or community.
Gathering evidence or producing tools and reports which enable women and women’s organisations to campaign for change.
Mentoring or training for women on how to participate in public life and influence social policy.
Video and media campaigns about specific issues facing women.
Training activists in campaigning, advocacy, lobbying or public speaking.
What they want to achieve with this Funding
With this funding, they want to enable organisations to amplify the voices of women and girls in the UK at a local, community or national level and to use their campaigning expertise to influence change. At the end of your grant, they want you to be able to report one or more of these changes:
Your organisation will:
have developed skills and experience in campaigning, activism and/or advocacy
have influenced (or feel more able to influence) power holders in the UK such as local communities, government, media, service providers and corporates.
What cannot be funded?
Responsibilities of statutory agencies
Profit-making work
Party political activity
Activities promoting religious beliefs
Work that will take place outside the UK
Applications from individuals
Overseas travel
Interest payments on loans
Building purchase
Costs that your organisation has already incurred (‘retrospective costs’)
Eligibility Criteria
Meet Rosa’s definition of a women’s and girls’ organisation. Rosa defines women’s and girls’ organisations as those which are run by, for and with women and girls. This means that your organisation will be governed and led by women. It will have a Board of Trustees (or similar) where the Chair is a woman, and the majority of members are women. The majority of your organisation’s employee leadership team will be women. Your organisation will have the principal objective of working with women and/or girls and the majority of your organisation’s beneficiaries are, and will always be, women and/or girls.
Be a not-for-profit organisation
Have a written governing document e.g., a constitution or set of rules
Have a governing body with at least 3 unrelated members
Have a UK-based bank or building society account in the name of your organisation with at least 2 unrelated signatories
Have been active for one year and be able to produce annual accounts for a whole year
Have an appropriate safeguarding policy in place
Not have received a Voices from the Frontline grant from Rosa in 2022.
They will prioritise applicants that are:
operating in the top 20% of the most disadvantaged areas in the UK – based on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD);
based in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
led by and for Black and minoritised women and girls;
led by and for disabled women and girls;
led by and for LGBTQ+ women and girls;
They are especially interested in funding organisations which are led by and for the women they work with because we recognise the value of organisations being user-led. By this they mean that organisations are created from and connected to the communities they serve.
Rosa does not fund international work. If your organisation works with women and girls outside the UK, as well as in the UK, please note that Rosa can only fund projects which focus on women and girls in the UK and which are focused on influencing change in the UK.
