Women for Refugee Women

Advocacy and campaigning for a fair asylum system for women

In 2023, over 3,000 hours of trauma informed support transformed the lives of more than 400 refugee women. WRW sought expertise to align their Funding Strategy with this level of demand and to deliver a refreshed Strategic Plan focused on driving systemic change.

Over the period 2020/21, and throughout the pandemic, WRW was providing 100s of hours of virtual, trauma-informed support to over 300 refugee and asylum-seeking women. WRW sought expertise to align their Funding Strategy to the increasing level of demand and against a refreshed Strategic Plan focused on driving systemic change.

We worked closely with WRW to establish a forward-looking Fundraising Strategy and implement a two-year action plan, ensuring growth and sustainability across the team. This included aligning funding priorities to the newly revised five-year Strategic Plan and building organisational capacity to meet increasing demand for support and advocacy.

Our support enabled WRW to expand digital learning, launch two critical lived-experience groups, the Campaigns Forum and the Spokesperson Network, and strengthen participatory research. We provided hands-on guidance in monitoring, evaluation, and planning, helping WRW centre lived experience in decision-making, reporting, and leadership. We also coordinated annual reporting, developed operating plans and budgets, and managed complex multi-year funded projects.

The success of the partnership ensured:

✅£900,000 income targets from Trusts, Foundations, and grants for the 2-year period

✅Growth of the network to around 760 women from over 44 countries

✅Effective configuration of the CRM to support fundraising

✅Expanded and stewarded portfolio of 37 Trusts and Foundations
✅Monitoring Evaluation Learning and Planning frameworks to evidence impact

✅Lived experience embedded in evaluation and decision-making
✅Multi-year project management with robust reporting and operational oversight
✅Full cost-recovery participatory research, legal challenges, and campaigning initiatives

Through this collaboration, WRW was able to continue providing creative and educational programmes to over 760 refugee and asylum-seeking women. Our work helped WRW build organisational resilience, strengthen advocacy, and amplify women’s voices, —ensuring they could challenge systemic injustices, share their stories publicly, and influence policy and public opinion in the UK asylum system.

https://www.refugeewomen.co.uk/

🙂 Women for Refugee Women seeks to challenge the systemic injustices experienced by refugee and asylum-seeking women. Their work is built on an understanding that when women tell their stories and speak out, they can change hearts and minds. Women are supported to speak to the media, to parliamentarians, at events and through the arts. Robust research on the experiences of refugee women, co-created by them, helps the fight for a fairer UK asylum system.

Funding partners over the period:

🫱🏽Choose Love

🫱🏽Comic Relief

🫱🏽Joseph Rowtree Charitable Trust

🫱🏽Impact 100 London

🫱🏽Mercers

🫱🏽Naccom

🫱🏽Paul Hamyln Foundation

🫱🏽Rosa

🫱🏽Trust for London

🫱🏽Justice Collaborations

🫱🏽National Lottery Community Fund

🫱🏽Mayor of London Migrant Advice and Support Fund

🫱🏽Postcode Society Trust

🫱🏽Lloyds Bank Foundation

🫱🏽Barrow Cadbury Trust

🫱🏽City Bridge Trust

🫱🏽Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA)

🫱🏽Tides Foundation

🫱🏽The Charity Service

🫱🏽Smallwood Trust

🫱🏽Help Refugees and JCRT

🫱🏽Migration Exchange

🫱🏽Blue Thread Foundation

🫱🏽AB Charitable Trust

🫱🏽Young Women’s Trust

🫱🏽Ben and Jerry

🫱🏽Blue Moon Trust

🫱🏽Good Things Foundation

🫱🏽Justice Together Initiative

🫱🏽Old Street and District Partnership

🫱🏽Roddick Foundation

🫱🏽Big Give Women and Girls Match Fund

🫱🏽Bromley Trust