Aims/priorities: The fund aims to support the sustainability of women's groups in local communities and to help women get to an empowered position. Eligible projects and activities include those that:
- Improve women's understanding of the law, their rights and access to legal advice.
- Improve women's mental health and wellbeing, increasing confidence, motivation, tools, skills, and support to sustain those improvements and increase independence.
- Decrease social isolation and increase women's ability to participate in community activities.
- Improve women's financial resilience and employability, increasing their routes out of poverty, gaining confidence, tools, skills, and support to secure a stable financial future.
Who can apply? Applications will be accepted from women's groups, centres and organisations based in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. The following criteria apply:
Seed Funding grants - the organisation must:
- Have a safeguarding policy.
- Be able to provide two references.
Women's Sector grants - the organisation must:
- Be a not-for-profit and led by and for women. Solace defines 'led by' as where more than 75% of an organisation's Trustees, and more than 50% of staff members (including senior) are women.
- Be charitable in nature, legal, and operating for the benefit of women.
- Have a written governing document, eg a constitution or set of rules.
- Have a governing body with at least two unrelated members. The majority of these should be women.
- Have been active for at least one year and able to produce annual accounts for a whole year.
- Have a UK-based bank or building society account in the name of the organisation, with at least two unrelated signatories.
Grant amount: The following levels of funding are available:
- Seed Funding grants - Grants of £500 to £1,000 are available to small women's groups to establish and run micro women's empowerment projects in their local area that support women to build skills and confidence, and decrease social isolation.
- Women's Sector grants - Small grants from £1,000 to £5,000 and large grants from £5,000 to £25,000 are available for women's groups and organisations to develop capacity to respond to changing needs in their communities and run projects over a fixed duration of at least six months.
All grants must be spent within 12 months of award.
Application process: We will be holding ‘How to Apply’ webinars on the following dates:
- Session one – Seed Funding – Wednesday 28 April 2021
- Session two – Women’s Sector Grants – Thursday 29 April 2021
Application and guidance notes are available on the funders website.
Deadline: The deadline for round one applications is Friday 28 May 2021 at 5pm.
Contact Information: email: labyrinth@solacewomensaid.org
Website address: www.solacewomensaid.org/empowering-women-fund