Women’s Voices 2024 – International Women’s Day

Charity applications for Women’s Voices have finished.

Rosa, the UK fund for women and girls, revealed in its new research that charities run by and for women and girls received just 1.8% of the total income of grants awarded to the charity sector. There is a real danger that women and girls’ organisations are being undervalued, underfunded, and almost invisible to policymakers, funders and politicians. Facing rising levels of inequality, the cost-of-living crisis and the upcoming general election, the urgency to advocate for the rights and representation of women and girls is more pressing than ever.

Pro bono comms advice from the UK’s top creatives 

For the eighth year running, we will celebrate International Women’s Day with Women’s Voices and bring together 30 organisations that support, campaign and advocate for women and girls, with 150 media and creative volunteers to work with you on a communications goal you want to achieve in 2024. You will get to spend a day with your own dedicated team of volunteers from the UK’s leading media and creative organisations such as Amazon, BBC, Bloomberg, Channel 4, Dentsu, Google, ITV, Mediabrands, Meta and Sky.

How it works 

• If selected, you will develop a detailed brief outlining a specific communications goal for your organisation in 2024. This could be building your brand, reaching new audiences, a campaign, raising awareness of specific issues affecting women/girls, advocacy, a news story you want to get coverage for, or recruitment of volunteers or supporters. 
• We will match you with a dedicated team of media and creative volunteers who have the right expertise and skillset to work with you on your communications brief. 
• You will spend International Women’s Day working collaboratively with your team to creatively produce ideas. The end goal is to design a communications action plan for your organisation to take away and implement.

Who should apply? 

To be eligible to apply for Women’s Voices your organisation must meet the following criteria: 

• Support, campaign or advocate for women and girls; 
• Be a small to medium-sized non-profit organisation with a turnover of £5 million or under;
• Two members of staff must be available to attend the event on Friday 8 March 2024 from 09:30 – 16:30. This should be one person who deals with the organisation’s communications and one who is a senior leader/decision-maker;
• Be willing to take part in one case study post-event.

Priority will be given to organisations that meet one or more of the desirable criteria below:    

• Organisations that can demonstrate commitment and understanding of intersectionality and inclusion within their work for women and girls, including organisations supporting lesbian and bisexual women, trans women, neurodiverse and disabled women and black and minoritised women.
• Organisations supporting women and girls in the UK most affected by inequality and structural unfairness built within society and institutions, for example, housing, immigration and health outcomes.
• Organisations that can demonstrate they are user-led.

We particularly encourage regional organisations to apply and will cover travel costs for organisations located outside of Greater London. 

With only 30 places available, we are looking for strong applications that clearly outline a specific communication goal that you would like help to achieve, along with how this support will impact your organisation and the women and girls that you work with. 

If you have any questions about Women’s Voices or the application process,  including any adjustments to help you apply, please contact Niamh Mawhinney on niamhm@mediatrust.org 

Our commitment to equalities and inclusion 

At Media Trust, we proudly work to ensure our programme and event environments feel safe, supportive, and inclusive for all of those taking part. And we ask that partners and participants help us to do the same.  

The event is taking place at Google Academy London, situated on a floor easily accessible via lifts. We will make every effort to ensure the event space is accommodating to all attendees, including a sensory quiet space, a prayer room and wheelchair-accessible seating for maximum comfort. Media Trust staff will be available throughout the event to address any specific requirements. 

Meet our keynote speaker – Liz Ward

Liz is an equity, diversity and inclusion consultant across the charity and sports sectors.

She is an educator, collaborator and activist at heart, who first found her feet in Climate Justice after graduating in Zoology. Her journey into the charity sector began with radical youth work, working in all kinds of educational environments to support young people in harnessing the power of social justice.

Passionate about safeguarding, she spent time managing a youth project in London, working with survivors of exploitation, whilst also supporting policy makers and community leaders to operate with a trauma informed praxis.

As a charity leader, Liz was previous Director of Programmes at The Advocacy Academy, the UK’s only Social Justice Leadership programme, where she supported young activists to launch campaigns focussing on decolonising the curriculum, police brutality, anti-racism and air pollution, to name just a few. Most recently she held the role of Director of Programmes at Stonewall, Europe’s biggest LGBTQ+ Human Rights Organisation.

She can be found on all social media at @lizmaryward usually talking about her first love, football.

Women’s Voices Partners

Women’s Voices 2024 is supported by People’s Postcode Lottery whose players have raised more than £1.2 billion for thousands of charities and local good causes. The Postcode Lottery Group also operates charity lotteries in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Norway.

We are delighted that Google is our event partner for the 6th year and will be hosting Women’s Voices at Google Academy London.