Sophie Hayes Foundation: developing a fundraising strategy fit for the long-term

The cause

There are an estimated 122,000 people in the UK living in situations of slavery and exploitation. The Sophie Hayes Foundation (SHF) supports women who have survived modern slavery and human trafficking, helping them achieve long-term independence and freedom from re-exploitation.

Founded in 2011 by Sophie Hayes, a British woman trafficked into sexual exploitation overseas, SHF focuses on creating opportunities for sustainable freedom. At the heart of the charity’s work is the belief that freedom from modern slavery and human trafficking must be achieved through creating a community of survivors whose voices are amplified to challenge assumptions about slavery and trafficking. This includes working with policymakers and businesses to address the root causes of the exploitation of vulnerabilities. 

As a result, lived experience is central to SHF’s approach, with the charity’s Lived Experience Advisory Group consulting on, and co-designing, all aspects of the organisation’s work.

SHF supports hundreds of survivors through its Employability Programme, empowering women to rebuild their self-belief, renew their skills and rediscover a sense of purpose. The programme provides opportunities for employment, education, and volunteering. 

SHF also runs Creative Resilient Empowered Women, a peer support community that offers continuous professional development and social networking, and delivers training to Local Authorities and businesses to help them understand modern slavery and develop policies and processes to respond to it. 

Our support

SHF is a grant holder of the CAF Resilience Fund Phase 1, the Keystone Fund, and also a recipient of a Lloyds Bank Foundation Grant through the Enhance programme. 

CAF is a long-standing and trusted partner of the Lloyds Bank Foundation. As a result of this partnership, our Charity Advisory team worked with SHF to strengthen its capacity for resilience, helping them to create a viable strategy for income diversification, as well as sharing expert insights in areas, such as governance, fundraising, marketing, impact assessment and resourcing. 

The impact

Building on this, our guidance and assistance through the CAF Resilience Fund and the Keystone Fund, which is now closed for applications, has helped SHF strengthen its digital infrastructure, expand funding opportunities, and reinforce its long-term sustainability.

CAF Resilience Fund 

As a result of the grant from the CAF Resilience Fund Phase 1,  SHF were able to  focus on developing their remote programme, knowing that the core costs for the small employee team were covered. The support included providing team-wide training and significant development of the charity’s systems and online processes, to streamline work and enhance the experience for programme participants.

SHF is particularly proud of its employee training and skills development, which has resulted in improved employee retention and satisfaction. In addition, the introduction of digital tools has empowered the team to manage projects more confidently, work more effectively and broaden their communication.

Keystone Fund 

To further support SHF’s objective to diversify and strengthen their funding streams, and expand major and mid-level donor and corporate partnerships, CAF’s Advisory team led fundraising workshops with SHF employees and Board members. These workshops covered network mapping, relationship building, monitoring, and exploring diversification options.

Out of these workshops, the team created a new, structured plan to identify and qualify potential supporters, develop products and methods of support, as well as produce a strategy for cultivating and engaging new funders. 

In addition, the CAF team provided tools to help improve the team’s skills and increase trustee engagement, enabling better governance in the fundraising process. 

“As a small charity with a lean operation and staff team, we are constantly on the lookout for support to enable us to increase our funding [..]

We are delighted to have been provided support by the Charities Aid Foundation and Lloyd’s Bank Foundation. We have had a brilliant workshop which helped the staff and Board teams to work together to open up networks. The facilitators were brilliant, encouraging, understanding of the challenges, and expert in our sector and the work we do.

I am excited about what this work will bring – not only will we generate vital funds for our work, but we will also offer supporters the opportunity to be part of the Sophie Hayes family, supporting women survivors to live independent lives on their own terms for the long-term”

CEO, Sophie Hayes Foundation