What do women's organisations need?

“Since we became a member of the Women’s Resource Centre, we have gained a lot in line of information, guidelines and networking with other women’s organisations. Women’s Resource Centre is really doing a good job and we are proud to be a part of such an organisation making an impact in the community both locally and on national level. Please keep up the good work.”

The Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) conducted an online survey of our members in February 2009. The purpose of the survey was to understand our members’ needs and to provide direction for WRC’s future focus in terms of programs, services and campaigns.

• Read the survey results (PDF, 59.09KB)
  

Some key results

• WRC members want resource materials (guides and fact sheets) on:
  - Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Area Agreements (70%)
  - International women’s rights instruments (e.g. CEDAW) (69%)
  - Campaigning (62%)
  - Gender impact assessments (62%) and
  - Partnership working (60%).
• WRC members want training on strategic and business planning (48%) and
  advanced media training (48%)
• Over half had had problems finding premises in the past five years
• Almost 70% thought that co-locating with other women's organisations would be a "great idea"
• Over 25% had no website for their organisation
• Three-quarters wanted to find out more about how WRC uses online tools like Facebook and Twitter
• Almost a third considered the support they received from their local infrastructure organisation (e.g. local Council for Voluntary Service) to be ‘poor’ and close to 40% felt that their LIO was not able to effectively represent their issues and concerns as women’s organisations
• 98% read our Source magazine and 96% use our website
  

The Future...

Funding was identified as the biggest challenge facing respondent organisations over the next year.

The next most commonly identified challenges were:

• retention and training of staff;
• retention of membership and
  
• getting recognition from local decision makers.

With thanks to all our members for taking the time to share their experiences with us. To find out more about membership, go to www.wrc.org.uk/membership.