Spirit of 2012 has awarded £20,000 to The WOW Foundation to fund its new ‘WOW: What Now?’ programme.
The award comes from Spirit’s incubation fund, which makes small grants to organisations to try out new ideas that align with Spirit’s vision and mission. The funding can also target projects that further our understanding of how to deliver genuinely inclusive practice and which help develop new partnerships between Spirit partners.
”From 2016 to 2018 we saw the impact of WOW – Women of the World festivals on five UK cities, bringing women and girls together to share, learn, laugh and create,” says Ruth Hollis, Chief Executive, Spirit of 2012. “We are delighted to be supporting The WOW Foundation as they explore the next steps for WOW, extending the impact of the festivals into a lasting movement for change.”
The funding will help WOW create a strategic framework for measuring, capturing and documenting its impact, and explore the ways in which its programme has turned the ‘moments’ of its festival events into a movement for change.
“It is an enormous privilege to be the beneficiary of this award. With the support from Spirit of 2012, WOW can continue its vital work gathering a survey of what people are thinking about gender equality right now in different parts of the country. Working with local partners across the WOW community we can expand our regional network, enabling open conversation by sharing personal experiences and providing the tools to sustain change.” – Jude Kelly CBE, Founder, WOW – Women of the World
Throughout 2019 and 2020, WOW will deliver at least 10 one-day regional events as well as its 10th anniversary festival in London.
In 2015, Spirit awarded WOW £670,000 to deliver nine festivals in five new locations across the UK. The first of these took place in Bradford in autumn 2016 and further festivals followed in Norwich, Exeter, Cardiff and Perth.
Futher information
To read more about the original project, click here.
To read the report from the original project, click here.