The Funder Perspective: Investing in the Women and Girls’ Sector with Rosa

By Kalli Jayasuriya, Senior Researcher, DSC

As individual donations and government funding decrease, more and more charities are relying on grant-making charities. Charities run by, and for, women and girls are being left behind in this competitive landscape.

In 2025, Rosa released a report to shine a light on the lack of funding and resources available to the women and girls’ charity sub-sector. This lack of funding is a symptom of institutionalised misogyny.

The women and girls’ sector continues to be critically underfunded and under-resourced. Kalli, Senior Researcher at DSC, sat down with Rebecca Gill, CEO of Rosa, to get to the bottom of why this is the case.

For people that may not have heard of Rosa, could you tell us what your mission is and why you exist?

Rebecca explains, “Rosa exists to secure funding for, strengthen, and champion the women and girls’ sector.”

Underpinning this mission is what Rebecca identifies as the long-term and persistent lack of funding directed towards women’s and girls’ organisations. Rosa’s research shows that just 1.8% of all charitable grants go to women-led organisations—and even less reaches those run by and for Black and racially minoritised women.

“In this context, Rosa’s role as a funder is critical. To support women and girls, Rosa supports organisations which are led by women and where the primary purpose is to benefit women and girls. It is not enough to support women and girls’-focused activities via ‘gender-neutral’ charities.”

Rebecca continues to explain why specialist organisations like Rosa are needed: “Women and girls face entrenched sexism and misogyny, and many also experience racism, poverty and male violence. Specialist women-led organisations are vital to challenging and changing this, yet the sector is consistently undervalued and underfunded. This threatens its very survival and undermines its ability to challenge harmful systems, deliver services and build a safer, healthier and more equal society.”

To learn more about the dire situation the women and girls’ sector is facing, read Rosa’s 2025 report.

Could you please give us an overview of your funding programmes?

 “Rosa has three main funding programmes. First up, Voices from Frontline. This is the only fund of its kind in the UK. It offers small grants to women’s and girls’ organisations (many of which are small and community-focused) to develop campaigns to build the bridge to get their messages out there. We have had profound success with this programme and seen changes to laws and public policy that many would find surprising. I wish more funders offered campaign funding as it’s incredibly effective.”

“Secondly, the Rise Fund. This is the only UK-wide fund specifically for strengthening Black and racially minoritised women’s and girls’ organisations. It prioritises all four nations. In the most recent funding round, Rosa distributed nearly £800,000 to 22 organisations. Our research has shown that for every £1 that Rosa awarded through Rise, grantees have raised an additional £2!”

“The third, Stand With Us, began thanks to £500,000 raised by Reclaim These Streets in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021. Since the launch of the fund, Stand With Us has funded frontline organisations supporting women and girls whose lives have been devastated by male violence. For every £1 that Rosa awarded, women’s and girls’ organisations have raised an additional £4!”

 For further information about Rosa’s funding programmes, visit its website.

In your opinion, why are charities led by and for women and girls so under-resourced? 

Rebecca highlights two key issues: “It reflects a wider societal attitude to women’s work – a mix of invisibility and a lack of recognition of what women do means they are often working for very low pay or no pay at all. We see that same invisibility and lack of recognition around the work of women-led women’s and girls’ organisations, leading to a deep and systemic underfunding of the work.”

“Also, as awareness of gender-based issues (such as male violence against women and girls) grows, people assume that there are plenty of resources for it, but too many women and girls’ charities are at serious risk of closing. There is too little awareness of their financial hardships.”

Rebecca’s point here reminds us that these financial hardships have been aggravated by long-term austerity, which impacts women and girls disproportionately. It is also important to recognise that ‘women’ is a category intersected by various markers, including race and ethnicity.

“Organisations run by and for Black and minoritised women are incredibly effective and important because they have unique expertise, trust, and tailored approaches to address the specific needs of the women and girls they support. They do complex, specialist, and essential work. They also face specific and ongoing funding challenges, which makes it even harder for them to operate.”

Rosa relies on donations and fundraising to generate the funds that it distributes. Why are things so difficult right now? 

Rebecca explains that most UK grant-makers are endowed, i.e. they have an investment fund to generate income. As a fundraising grant-maker uniquely focusing on the UK’s women and girls’ sector, it’s a particularly harsh environment.

“The current situation is extremely difficult. The women and girls’ sector has never enjoyed huge funding, but the financial crash of 2008, followed by years of austerity measures and then Covid, and the cost-of-living crisis means that many women’s and girls’ organisations are really struggling. Every crisis leaves us worse off. It feels like women and girls’ organisations never win and are at the back of the queue.”

Do you have any advice for other fundraising grant-makers that support under-funded causes?

Rebecca’s biggest advice is to build networks with individual donors and/or philanthropists, as well as to identify more traditional trusts and foundations with similar interests that may be open to partnerships. Collaboration and agility help navigate this harsh funding environment.

“Rosa is an expert funder because we work alongside our sector; this means funders can trust us to ensure their money has the biggest impact. We bring in expertise to inform our grant-making strategies. We know that organisations in the women and girls sector are the specialists and we work in partnership with them to develop our funding programmes. For example, our Rise Fund was developed with an Advisory Group, which included Rosa Trustees and representatives from Black and racially minoritised-led women’s organisations and networks across the UK.”

What can be done to address the under-funding of the women and girls’ sector?

“We would like all funders to be transparent about how much of their funding is actually going to women-led women’s and girls’ organisations. Ultimately, we would like funders to ringfence a portion of their funding for this work. We’d also need to see more government money going to women-led organisations. The state is an important player, and proper investment would make a huge difference,” Rebecca replies.

“The important thing is to collaborate with one another and to listen to women who run these organisations, so that the money goes where it is needed. Rosa is the only UK-wide grant-maker for women and girls-led organisations.”

A sector worth investing in

I found it inspiring to have an in-depth conversation with Rebecca about Rosa’s important work in improving the lives of women and girls.

Rosa wants equality and justice for all women and girls and is a key funder and supporter of a sector that is disproportionately struggling to make ends meet. The charity sector must collaborate and listen to those with lived experience to ensure that resources are distributed effectively to make the most difference.

Besides funding, Rosa provides ongoing training, events, research and communication to build capacity across the wider charity sector. If you would like to donate to support Rosa’s work, you can do so online.

If you’re subscribed to Funds Online, you can also find out more information about Rosa’s grants here. Remember to log in first.