2025 EOFY Fundraising

Image: WCC Victorian Congress, Castlemaine Town Hall, March 2025 (photo by Pia Cameron)

Support the WCC 2025-26 Rural and regional women in climate action program:
Their communities, our future

Our March 2025 Congress in the beautiful town of Castlemaine in regional Victoria, showed us the power of women’s voices to challenge the status quo. Over 100 women shared stories of fierce determination and a clear message: 'Give us the tools, to lift our voices, and lead our community.' And we listened.

Now we’re building a number of new initiatives over the coming year, including the WCC Rural and regional women in climate action program: Their communities, our future, a 12-month online and in person initiative that will:

  • Engage, connect and empower rural and regional women, in all our diversity, as climate leaders across Australia.

  • Promote First Nations women’s knowledge and leadership.

  • Run virtual and live workshops for groups of rural and regional women.

  • Launch local WCC Hubs, to drive identified community projects to support women-led multistakeholder collaboration and support, future focused climate action and solutions towards caring for people and planet.

  • Provide participants with project planning toolkits, mentoring, and access to shared knowledge across the WCC networks.

A message from Janet Salisbury, WCC Founder and progranm Lead

Screeen image of Janet Salisbury presenting a video message about the fundraising campaign. There is a background inage with Women's Climate Congress logo and text saying 'A Call to climate action: Charter for Change'

Why we need your help today

Please support our initiative by giving a tax deductible gift before the end of this financial year. Some examples of how your gift can help us achieve our aims are below.

However, please note that any gift, however small or large, is greatly appreciated.

Monthly donations, however small, are also incredibly valuable as they help to create a financially stable platform for building our movement.

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Women often tell us : "I hadn’t realised how under-represented women’s and gender-diverse voices were in climate policy, despite our growing presence in government".

Imagine if more towns and rural areas had a WCC advisory group to support women in the local council to drive real solutions.

See what women at our WCC Victorian Congress said about women's representation in climate change decision making ....

What your gift can provide

  • Will help development and supply rural and regional women with project planning toolkits and other resources for development of a local planning circle to support engagement and drive sustainable solutions in their community.

  • Will support the development of virtual online workshops over the next 12 months for WCC planning circles in rural areas across Australia

  • Allow WCC to engage in live Roadshow events in regional hubs over the next 12 months, and support our ongoing work to build educational tools, drive awareness and further build-up our grassroots community engagements.

Every contribution moves us closer to turning the tide on ‘business and usual’ economic and environmentally destructive development by promoting women’s voices and leadership to secure the climate and build human and planetary wellbeing – proof that when women lead, change happens.

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Why focus on rural women’s engagement and leadership?

The presence of women in political decision-making translates into more ambitious climate goals and policies. Studies in Europe and the US have shown that women are significantly more likely to support environmental legislation, even after controlling for political ideology and nationality. Similarly, more women in public governance can help bring women’s experiences with the environment to the fore, as evidence shows that women in political power are more likely to uphold gender-sensitive issues. (OECD 2022)

Women around the world are creating powerful networks to combat environmental degradation and tackle climate-related inequalities. In Australia, rural and regional women are key for these networks. Relevant data is shown here:

  • Rural women are more likely to handle childcare, aged care and volunteer recovery work, so every extra flood multiplies their unpaid workload and mental health strain.

  • When cashflow collapses, households lean on off-farm wages — 84 % of which are earned by women (see below).

  • As droughts and heatwaves make farm revenue more volatile, women’s paid work is the buffer keeping many family farms afloat

The numbers tell a story

Please support our 2025-26 Women’s Climate Congress donation drive today

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