FAQ

Womankind Worldwide is a global women’s rights organisation working in solidarity and equal partnership with women’s rights organisations and movements to transform the lives of women. We aim to end violence against women, promote women’s economic rights and ensure women have a voice in decision making.

Womankind works in solidarity and equal partnership with women’s rights organisations and movements, from the local to the global level, to improve the lives and status of women across the world. With our network of partners, we provide long-term sustainable change for women and girls by ensuring solutions are firmly rooted in local communities and contexts. Together, we enable women to change attitudes in their families and communities and hold leaders to account. We use our collective expertise to call for change across the world, challenging governments and international agencies to protect and promote women’s rights.

The majority of our team is based in London and consists of around 25 staff. While we do not run Womankind offices in other countries, we have some staff based overseas where their local expertise enhances our approach. Our partner women’s rights organisations and networks implement projects, and our Programmes, Policy and Learning team provides ongoing support via telephone, online meetings and email communication. The team makes regular visits to monitor the work, provide the support partners need, and meet project staff and participants. Not only does this reduce overseas administration costs, it supports our contribution to strengthening women’s movements in their own countries. Women’s rights organisations and movements understand the contexts they are working in and so are best placed to support their own communities.

Womankind works in co-operation with other organisations and international agencies to ensure our presence is as broad as possible. In the UK, we are a central part of several key networks including the Gender and Development Network, the Gender Action for Peace and Security Network and Bond. Internationally, we are a member of the Association of Women in Development (AWID),and CIVICUS, Women’s Rights Caucus, Women Major Group, Global Alliance for Tax Justice, Civil Society Group on Financing for Development and Women Working Group on Financing for Development the Women’s Working Group on Financing for Development. We are also an NGO in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council at the United Nations. All of these alliances allow us to ensure we are well informed of key trends and issues facing women worldwide and are in the best possible position to amplify the voices of the women we work with as well as carry out joint advocacy at the international level to achieve effective change.

Like most organisations, a proportion of our funds must be allocated to running costs. Currently for every £1 we receive, we spend 6p on governance and invest 16p in fundraising. Such investment is crucial in diversifying our income and giving us the independence and flexibility to fund our most needed projects. For every £1 invested in fundraising, we raise £6.39. You can find a summarised version of our accounts in our latest Impact Report. All charities must make their Annual Report and Accounts available to the Charity Commission.

Currently, 78p of every pound spent goes directly to our programmes, campaigning and policy work. Our projects are supported by experienced staff members from our Programmes, Policy and Learning team, who are responsible for providing the tailored support to our partners and monitoring a project’s activities, spending and progress. Although we are predominantly based in London, we have regular contact with each of our partners and have an excellent understanding of the contexts in which our partners work. They also visit the projects to monitor the work, assess ways of strengthening our partners’ work, and evaluate setbacks and achievements. Our partners provide annual accounts reports that detail how funds they have spent.

Womankind’s income is a mixture of private donations and legacies, as well as grants from the UK government and international governments, grant-giving trusts and foundations and statutory organisations. We also receive some donations from community groups and companies. In any given year, almost half of our total income will come from individuals. Find out how you can make a difference.

Womankind works with carefully selected partner organisations with a shared focus on our strategic goals. Unfortunately, due to limited resources we are unable to accept applications for funding. However, we are always interested in hearing from other women’s rights organisations (in particular those in the countries where we work) so we can put them in contact with our partners, facilitate links and share learning, and strengthen the women’s movement.

We regularly take on volunteers in our London office to support our programmes, fundraising, policy and communications work. Check our careers page for details of current opportunities. We do not arrange volunteering opportunities overseas or with our partner organisations. Our partners are independent organisations which make their own choices and decisions. Because we provide funding to these organisations, we want to ensure that partners do not feel obliged to take on volunteers, if their capacity and resources don’t permit them to. Supporters and members of the public can find the website links for our partners on the Womankind website. If you are a skilled professional and would like to volunteer overseas for up to two years, visit Voluntary Service Overseas.

Visit the jobs page of our website regularly – details of new vacancies will be advertised there as they arise. Unfortunately, we cannot accept applications or CVs when we do not have any current job vacancies, but you can register your interest and receive updates when vacancies arise.

Womankind works to support and strengthen women’s organisations and movements, tackling the day-to-day issues that affect women’s lives and creating a lasting difference. Visit our What we do section for more information.

We are very proud of our partnership model. Womankind partners are women’s rights organisations and movements in our focus countries. We carefully select partners who have a shared focus on our strategic objectives and goals, share our values, work in collaboration to create change, and are willing to share and reflect on lessons learned. We aim to work with a wide range of actors across the women’s movement in our focus countries, from well established women’s rights organisations tackling violence against women and girls, to smaller activist organisations run by marginalised women, including young women, indigenous women, women with disabilities, and lesbian and bisexual women.

Womankind establishes long-term relationships with our partners and aims to work with them over a number of years to strengthen women’s movements in our focus countries. We know that change in women’s rights does not happen overnight. We carefully assess the need in a country and an understanding of the local communities, conditions and context. All the projects we support seek to achieve our three key aims for women and girls: An end to all forms of violence against women and girls; women’s economic rights and control over resources; women’s equal influence in decision making and ability to exercise political power.

We are a global women’s rights organisation, working to support feminist action at all levels, from the local to the global. Recognising that change is complex, and that working to support women’s movements requires depth and long-term collaboration, since 2016 we have started working in greater depth in 5 main focus countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Uganda. We we have collaborated with over the years. Furthermore, as a globally connected women’s rights organisation ourselves, we advocate at the international level alongside and in solidarity with partners across our networks.

There is no country in the world where women enjoy the same rights as men. However Womankind has limited resources and unfortunately cannot meet all needs in all countries. Since 2016, we have been refining our approach to ensure we have the biggest impact possible. For us this means working in greater depth with women’s movements in our focus countries to ensure women’s voices are heard and their rights are realised. These focus countries are Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Our long-term partnerships with women’s rights organisations, based on shared values, mean that we aren’t forced to rely on untested relationships with contractors. On a practical level, the finances of all our projects are monitored closely and are subject to regular financial evaluations

See Where we work for the countries we work in and information on our projects in each country.

Through Womankind you can support women to come together to challenge discrimination and violence. We provide tailored support and expertise in women’s rights to help women’s rights organisations and movements thrive. We have over three decades of experience supporting women to know and claim their rights, based on the local understanding of our women’s rights partners. You can be confident that your support will be contributing to work that is genuinely making a difference and enabling women to achieve real change in their lives.

Thank you! There are many ways you can get involved: Donate: set up a regular donation, make an alternative gift (in lieu of a birthday or other occasions). Fundraise for us: hold an event, run a marathon, or ask your local community or social group to support us. Spread the word: tell people about our work, show them our website or forward them our enews. We can provide leaflets and information on Womankind. Corporate support: if your company might be interested in setting up a corporate partnership with us, encourage them to get in touch. For lots of ideas, see our Take action section.

All our work aims to achieve key outcomes for women and girls: an end to all forms of violence against women and girls; women’s economic rights and control over resources; women’s equal influence in decision making and ability to exercise political power. With your support, we are securing women’s rights through our programmes, campaigning and policy work. We do this by partnering with women’s rights organisations and movements in Africa and Asia. Through Womankind, you are supporting women to come together in movements to challenge discrimination and violence and achieve real change in their lives.

Please email supportercare@womankind.org.uk or call +44 (0) 2037 355558 with your name, and your old and new address details. We will then update our records. If you already give to Womankind and would like us to be able to reclaim the tax on your donations through Gift Aid, you can do this by downloading and completing our gift aid form – this will enable us to reclaim the tax on any of your donations made in the last six years and any you make in the future. We reclaim this from the Inland Revenue – at no extra cost to you.

At Womankind Worldwide, we work hard to ensure your donation journey is as smooth and straightforward as possible.  However we realise that in rare circumstances errors can happen.

Should you believe that an error has occurred, please get in touch with our team to discuss your donation.  Please email us at supportercare@womankind.org.uk or give us a call on 020 37 355558 and we will help in any way we can. You can find out more about our Gift Return Policy here.

If you would like to make a regular gift to Womankind through Direct Debit you can set one up online or download a regular giving form. Visit our Donate page for more information or call us on +44 (0) 2037 355558.

Thank you for your support in the past. You can cancel your donation by emailing supportercare@womankind.org.uk with your name and address. If you would like to discuss your reasons for cancelling with us, please call us on +44 (0) 2037 355558. Even if you can’t maintain your current level of giving, a smaller amount would still be very much appreciated.

Thank you – leaving a legacy is one of the best ways to support a cause that you care about, and Womankind has benefited greatly from the kindness of supporters who have remembered our work in their wills. Find out more about how to leave a gift in your will.

If you have any question about the methods Womankind uses to raise funds please email us at supportercare@womankind.org.uk or call +44 (0) 2037 355558. Like most UK charities, Womankind raises funds from individuals in many different ways. These include telephone fundraising, mailings and legacies.

If you have any question about the methods Womankind uses to raise funds please email us at supportercare@womankind.org.uk or call +44 (0) 2037 355558. Like most UK charities, Womankind raises funds from individuals in many different ways. These include telephone fundraising, mailings and legacies.

On average our mailings to supporters cost 35p each to produce and send. Last year, we raised £10 for every 70p spent on appeals. These appeals were responsible for 12% of our unrestricted income, so they are very important.

Womankind is registered with a number of websites which offer quick and easy ways to sponsor friends, give money, and join with others to fund something together. There is usually a small charge for this service. Womankind carefully considers whether a website offers good value before signing up. You can find Womankind on the following websites: CAF (Charities Aid Foundation), JustGiving, The Big Give, Pay Pal Giving Fund on ebay (formerly Mission Fish), Stewardship, Virgin Money Giving. You can also make a gift directly through our donate page. When sharing card details online, check the address bar on the page requesting payment details has a URL beginning with “https.” The “s” stands for secure. If you have any questions or concerns about giving to us through an online giving site, or through our own website please email Florence Chester, Florence@womankind.org.uk or call +44 (0) 2037 355558.

General, or unrestricted donations, are very valuable to Womankind. They enable us to use your gifts where the money is needed most – ensuring that all our projects receive enough funding and that no project is over-funded. However, we also have a list of priority projects for which we currently need funds so please contact us if you want to discuss earmarking your donation to one of these projects.