Women’s Healing Sanctuary – A Place to Deeply Rest

Fundraising & Business Partnership Policy

Purpose

1.1. Women’s Healing Sanctuary (WHS) may enter into engagements with business entities in ways that support our strategic and charitable objectives. The purpose of this document is to describe the policy for such engagements and to provide clear guidance in accordance with the fundraising regulations.

1.2. Our Invitation: WHS actively invites business entities to do as much radical good as they can on behalf of women in need of a safe place to deeply rest.

1.3. Our mission: Our core mission is to make it as normal for women to be recognised as needing time out to rest, as it currently is to assume women have a greater capacity to “manage it all” despite their personal circumstances. We provide safety, nurture, respite and support to women experiencing exhaustion, trauma, grief and loss. This paradigm shift requires a scale of reach and educational momentum that we cannot achieve alone. We look to build an alliance of like minded individual and business partnerships in support of this mission.

Applicability

2.1. This policy covers Women’s Healing Sanctuary accepting and raising charitable donations from and through individual and business entities.

2.2. This policy applies to all individuals and business entities including (but not exclusively) for profit, not-for-profit, all forms of social enterprise and self-employed  or self-funded individuals.

2.3. For the purposes of this policy, as prescribed by generally accepted definitions of financial control, if a company is owned 51% or more by another company, the Alignment and Direct Involvement due diligence process should include the activities of the parent company (see below for Alignment pledge and criteria)

2.4. For the purposes of doubt this policy also applies to all charitable funds raised from business entities whether as passive donations, Commercial Participators, Commercial Partners or Professional Fundraisers.

2.5.  In addition to the “Excluded List” business activities – those that are outlined in detail in this policy – Women’s Healing Sanctuary reserves the right to refuse to enter into partnership and to decline passive and/or direct donations from any business entities deemed a risk to its reputation. Such risky business sectors or activities will be deemed to be “Grey List” and will be subject to a Grey List Funding Consideration Process before Women’s Healing Sanctuary is able to accept a donation. Examples of Grey list sectors include any organisation or individual found to be promoting gender inequity or lack of respect or fairness towards women.

Alignment

Our preference is to work with those who value and thus amplify the holistic approach and invitation of Women’s Healing Sanctuary. Partnerships with business entities will be evaluated for alignment with our mission and vision in three key areas:

1.    Appreciation of Women’s Healing Sanctuary’s Mission and Values
2.    Demonstrated interest in Health & Wellbeing for women
3.     Women’s Healing Sanctuary Business Partnership Policy implementation at the business partner level.

The Alignment Pledge and Evaluation

It is our intent to use our relationships as a mechanism to provide business partners with inspiration and education to increase awareness of women’s needs across their business activities.

We have selected our alignment criteria based on the issues most directly tied to our mission, vision, strategies and charitable objectives. We believe that having safe space to feel heard and supported is a critical issue intricately tied to the current upward trends in Mental Illness, Domestic Violence, Workplace Gender Inequity, and Women’s homelessness and which is why we highlight this issue and choose to partner with those who support genderequity. By clearly stating our alignment criteria we invite an open conversation with business entities to encourage and support sustainable and restorative awareness practices.

Women’s Healing Sanctuary Values. Partners agree to respect the WHS values as follows:

1.     Compassion – we choose to bring compassion to everything we do – in our own lives, our business lives and in the greater world.

2.     Nurture – we choose to make decisions based on whether we and the women we accommodate will feel held and supported as a result.

3.     Safety – we choose safety over fear and trauma.

4.     Support – we choose to listen and walk alongside the women who reach out to us – in community.

5.     Self-Care/ Self Heal – we choose to foster self-care and healing in our own daily lives and in the lives of the women we support.

6.     Humility – we choose to be of service, recognising we and the women we support are learning every day.

7.     Kindness – we choose to bring kindness to all our interactions.

8.     Integrity – we choose to lead, take action and build relationship with integrity.

Direct Involvement is defined by Women’s Healing Sanctuary as when a business entity is:

1.  Undertaking a damaging activity towards women itself; or
2.  Directly ordering the damaging practice towards women to happen by commissioning it
3. Investing in the damaging practice of a third party company, is set to receive a return and could therefore potentially profit from it;  or
4. A business that advises that a company should undertake, or how to undertake, damaging activities towards women.
5. NB: Directly Involved does not include: Service providers such as accountants, marketing companies, auditing companies or others that are not set to receive a return directly from the damaging activities (i.e. receives only a set payment for a set standard service that is not advice on the need to or how to undertake damaging activities towards women) and that do not directly carry out the damaging activities.
6.  NB: Directly Involved does include: When a company is owned 51% or more by another company, the Direct Involvement due diligence shall include the activities of the parent company.

Alignment Pledge

1.  We ask our business partners to sign the Alignment Pledge confirming:

1a. That they respect Women’s Healing Sanctuary values (see above).
1b. That they are not directly involved in destructive gender inequity activities that threaten women in any way.
2. At the end of Year 1 of partnership, we hope to see that as well as those companies and organisations knowing that they are not directly involved in gender inequity practices or principles, that they also:
2a. Have an understanding of why Women’s Healing Sanctuary benefits women and their business.
2b. Practice due diligence around  supporting gender equity and allowing for the elimination        of high-risk gender inequity.
3.  Women’s Healing Sanctuary reserves the right to withdraw from partnership with any company whose values do not align with ours.