The first UK-wide fund devoted exclusively to championing and investing in charities working with women and girls will be launched today (Tuesday June 10) at a reception in central London attended by Barbara Follett MP, Deputy Minister for Women and Equality.

The new organisation – Rosa – has been created to:

• Promote philanthropy by and for women – galvanise more support for organisations working with women and girls
• Raise funds and invest in change – identify new funding sources and fund initiatives that are tackling old problems in fresh ways
• Act as a champion – promote awareness of women’s organisations and spread understanding of the issues

Rosa will be the only fund of its kind, devoted to investing solely in women and women’s initiatives across the UK. Rosa will tackle key issues – safety, economic justice, health and well being, and equal representation – by giving small grants to enable positive change at the grassroots and strategic level and tackle women’s inequality at its source.

Deputy minister Barbara Follett says: “Supporting and empowering women are very important to me indeed and that is why I am so pleased to be hosting the launch of Rosa.

“I am pleased that we are beginning to make a real difference, but we must continue to build on what we have achieved and keep striving for a fairer and more equal society."

Rosa has been launched after 10 years of research and consultation with eminent women’s organisations, government, the corporate sector, the media and trusts and foundations, which identified the need for more funding for women’s organisations and a strong champion for women.

“Despite there being dozens of funds exclusively devoted to women’s issues in the USA, the UK does not have even one similar funding body that champions and supports just women’s causes throughout the whole country,” says Maggie Baxter, Rosa’s development director and one of its three trustees.

“As a society we have made great strides in tackling women’s issues but in certain areas we still have a long way to go, especially in helping those women who experience violence and so-called ‘honour killings’, and giving women a stronger voice in public life.

“We have established this trailblazing new fund to raise these concerns and try to address these issues by being the only exclusive advocate and funder of organisations working with women and girls throughout the UK.”

Rosa launches with £750,000 funding already secured and a further £750,000 in the pipeline. It will begin making grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 in 2009 and will be developing its funding criteria and grant application procedure over the next few months.

There will also be a public fundraising campaign. Developed by creative agencies Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe Y&R and Burnett Works, the online campaign will ask donors to make a gift to the new organisation in the name of an inspirational woman in their lives.

Baxter says: “If people join us now, they will be at the start of something revolutionary. When you the see the difference that actually quite small amounts of money can make in well-run and well-led projects, then you do feel optimistic about how funds like this can change lives.”

ENDS

For further information or to arrange an interview with Maggie Baxter, contact Ian MacQuillin at TurnerPR on: 020 8659 1158, 07977 422278, ian@turnerpr.co.uk.


Notes for editors

Rosa’s objectives

Rosa’s four priority areas and key objectives are:

• Safety – to eradicate the widespread culture of violence against women
• Economic Justice – to achieve economic justice for women
• Health & Well being – to promote health and well-being for all women
• Equal Representation – to ensure women have an equal voice in society.

Rosa’s mission

• Promote philanthropy by and for women – galvanise more support for organisations working with women and girls
• Raise funds and invest in change – identify new funding sources and fund initiatives that are tackling old problems in fresh ways
• Act as a champion – promote awareness of women’s organisations and spread understanding of the issues

Rosa’s team and governance
The fund will start with a small core staff team of Dinah Cox as executive director and Ann- Sophie Morrissette is the co-ordinator. Rosa is a registered company and is in the process of registering as a charity.  The first three trustees are Marilyn List, Vivienne Hayes and Maggie Baxter, who will also act as development director. Rosa will initially be based in an office at the Women’s Resource Centre, London.

Why it is called Rosa
The name Rosa has been chosen for the fund to allow it to develop a ‘personality’ of its own as it grows into its role as a champion and advocate, letting Rosa comment in ‘her’ own voice. The name Rosa was selected because it is recognisable not just as an English language name but has international recognition as well. Rosa is also the first name of three outstanding historical female activists: Rosa Luxemburg, the German socialist leader; Rosa May Billingshurst, the British suffragette; and Rosa Parks, the African-American civil rights activist.

Maggie Baxter
Maggie Baxter left her post of executive director at WOMANKIND Worldwide in January 2007 to help found and establish Rosa. She had been in post at WOMANKIND Worldwide since 1999 and had previously been deputy chief executive and grants director at Comic Relief since 1991, from where she was seconded to the Princess of Wales Memorial Fund from 1997 to 1998 as acting chief executive.

She is a trustee of City Parochial Foundation, Trust for London, Hilden Charitable Fund, and Women for Refugee Women, Dance United and Green Belt Movement International.

Alongside the development of Rosa she has been co-producing a film around the trafficking of women from eastern Europe for sexual exploitation along with delivering gender training and other pieces of freelance work.


A few facts about women in the UK   

• Nearly half of all women in the UK will experience domestic violence, sexual harassment or stalking at some time in their lives. There are currently around 4,000 women trafficked for sex in the UK.
• During adolescence, girls are more likely to experience depression and suffer from eating disorder than boys. One in three girls in the UK have attempted self harm.
• Women are under-represented in politics and public life with only one in five MPs in Westminster being female.
• Two out of three workers on the National Minimum Wage are women, with the five lowest-paying sectors for apprenticeships dominated by women.