At the end of July, the Rebecca Swift Foundation (RSF) launched a 30-day fundraising campaign seeking £10,000 to protect our support for women poets and provide a vital three-month window in which the charity can build a new strategy and fundraising plan, with a £15,000 stretch goal to enable additional staffing and fundraising support.
RSF launched in 2018, and is the only charity dedicated exclusively to supporting women poets at every stage of their careers. More than 4000 women poets have engaged with our programmes, finding creative community, building skills, discovering new readerships and developing platforms for women poets in their community and beyond. All our offerings are low-cost or free to ensure that all women poets, no matter what stage of career they’re at, get the chance to advance their creativity and wellbeing.
Our Women Poets’ Network has more than 500 poets in its paid national membership directory, while over 1,100 women poets connect through RSF’s free private online community. The only national directory of its kind, the Network supports the professional and holistic development of women poets through an evergreen series of events, workshops and in person interventions to help members thrive and to build lasting relationships with each other and with organisations, producers and commissioners.
Published on 7 July, Woman, Mapped is our new anthology produced in collaboration with Fly on the Wall Press and edited by acclaimed poet Jennifer Wong. The anthology brings women poets into print and connects their work with new readers, offering tangible evidence of the creative community and routes to publication that RSF exists to build.
This crowdfunding campaign comes as we look to strengthen our long-term sustainability and increase our impact, enabling us to respond to growing demand while raising the profile of women poets across the UK literary landscape.
Funds raised will help cover our essential operating costs and provide a vital three-month runway. During this period, we plan to continue core programming while developing a new organisational strategy, strengthening our fundraising pipeline and securing the capacity needed to pursue longer-term income.
We are inviting readers, writers, publishers and poetry supporters to back the campaign and play a part in shaping the charity’s future.
Degna Stone, Project Manager, Rebecca Swift Foundation said: “We’re so proud of all the incredible milestones The Rebecca Swift Foundation has achieved over the last eight years and we know that that is so much more we can do. In order to continue to serve the needs of our growing community, we need the kind of support that gives us staying power and puts women poets on the map, more boldly than ever before. We hope readers, writers and the wider literary community will stand with women poets and help us create that possibility.”
The crowdfunder runs for 30 days from Monday 27 July. To find out more or make a donation, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/womenpoetsonthemap