Rosa: Voices from the Front Line

Overview

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.

The programme aims

Rosa’s Voices from the Frontline fund supports campaigning and activism, bringing together women and girls who are passionate about a cause and harnessing their collective strength to push for change.

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.

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. The work funded should strengthen your organisation's skills and experience in campaigning, activism and/or advocacy and influence power holders in the UK such as local communities, government, service providers and corporates.

How much can I apply for?

You can apply for an 18-month grant of up to £10,000. Rosa expects to award between 30 and 35 grants with this fund.

Who can apply?

To be eligible for the Voices from the Frontline programme, your organisation must:

1. 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.
2. Be a not-for-profit organisation.
3. Have a written governing document e.g., a constitution or set of rules.
4. Have a governing body with at least 3 unrelated members.
5. Have a UK-based bank or building society account in the name of your organisation with at least 2 unrelated signatories.
6. Have been active for one year and be able to produce annual accounts for a whole year.
7. Have an appropriate safeguarding policy in place.
8. Not have received a grant through Voices from the Frontline round 6 (which end in February 2025).

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;

These are all priority groups for this programme and are not listed in priority order.

They are especially interested in funding organisations which are led by and for the women they work with because they recognise the value of organisations being user-led. By this they mean that organisations are created from and connected to the communities they serve.

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.

Here are some examples of Voices from the Frontline grants they have supported in the past:

• A campaign targeted at national policy makers, commissioners, service providers and funders about the barriers faced by women with complex needs when accessing public services.
• A video to raise awareness of honour-based violence to improve the understanding of the issue and influence professionals to encourage reporting and appropriate responses in public services.
• Influencing decision makers in government about migrant and refugee girls' access to schools
• A campaign for period dignity in UK schools
• A campaign highlighting victim blaming on university campuses
• A project to address the barriers that prevent Muslim and South Asian women from entering into local politics in Blackburn, to increase representation
• A campaign to reopen the midwife unit in a local hospital and to contribute to a new maternity strategy in Northern Ireland

Further Support

Take a look at their application guidance and FAQs for examples of the type of campaigning and advocacy work they will fund, or visit their IMPACT PAGE to see how past grantees used Rosa’s funding.