West Country Women Awards: celebrating women in the community

• Raised £45,420 from 26 supporters
• +£10,000 Extra funding from Sovereign Thriving Communities
• To recognise and celebrate women all across the region – in all walks of life.

It’s been a tough two years but the West Country Women Awards are back, and ready to celebrate women! Since 2014, Venus Awards have offered fun, glitter, gloss, glitz, sequins, celebration, fizz, recognition and red carpets … but the West Country Women Awards wanted to be bigger and better than ever!

This time, the awards were not just about business, but are awards with purpose, and the new award categories encapsulate and reflect more of women’s lives:

• The Women in Sport Award
• The Combatting Violence Against Women and Girls Award
• The Campaigner of the Year Award 
• The Women in Health Award 
• The Diversity and Equality Award
• The post-pandemic Phoenix Award for the woman who has risen from the ashes.

Why are these awards so important? We still need to talk about diversity and inclusion, and the West Country is an absolute hotbed of talent but it is so often unrecognised – and these awards are setting out to change that. 

One of the main reasons women are held back is because they don’t put themselves forward. Through running networking groups in the South West, Alexis Bowater OBE and Tess Stuber (the team behind the West Country Women Awards) found that peer-to-peer support, informal mentoring and inspirational speakers and events rocket-fuel their confidence.

Through this, the West Country Women Award was born!

They needed to raise £30,000 to help prepare and launch the event, run the semi-finalists and finalists networking events, and of course the glittering awards finals on December 1st, 2022 at the Crowne Plaza in Plymouth. 

Tess Stuber, one of the founders of the West Country Women’s Award, told us; “We chose to Crowdfund so that we could be as visible to as many people as possible and get the West Country Community recognised! We also wanted to involve other businesses who are champions of West Country Women – in business and life, to help to raise awareness of this inaugural year of the West Country Women Awards. We wanted to set an example that these awards are not just women in business awards – they’re about everybody’s business and we want everybody to support West Country Women!”

The crowd rallied around their project, with one supporter commenting, “What a fantastic opportunity for the West Country Women to get the recognition they deserve. If we all shout a little louder then maybe our voices will be heard.”

Another said, “We’re excited and looking forward to supporting the inaugural West Country Women Awards. There are so many inspiring women in the region and we’re sure the awards will become an important fixture in the SW awards calendar.”

In the end, the West Country Women Awards team smashed their initial target and went on to raise £45,420 from 26 members of the community. This included £10,000 in funding from the Sovereign Thriving Communities fund.

Tess said, “Unlocking the extra funding from Thriving Communities has meant that we are able to go above and beyond our expectations for this and next year. Effectively securing events and another huge celebration for the West Country Women community again next year.”

“The impact so far on West Country Women has been incredible. We have seen thousands of women nominated for awards across 15 categories. We have seen our community interest company open on May 4th 2022 and now have 15 categories and more than 400 entries. We have impacted thousands of women and their families and friends by lifting them up and giving others the opportunity to tell them (in their nomination) how wonderful they are. An astonishing response across the West Country in just 4 months!” 

“Crowdfunding for West Country Women Awards meant that we are able to secure the awards events and be in a good position to run these awards for this year and have a good footing for next year as well. It means that we are able to celebrate women in the community, who don’t normally get celebrated and just get on with it! It’s really important to recognise, and reward achievements in business and life especially in overcoming challenges – that’s why we run these awards: to recognise West Country Women!”

After such a successful first experience of crowdfunding, and receiving the +Extra funding from Sovereign Housing, we asked Tess and the West Country Women team for their top crowdfunding tips.

“Get a professional at Crowdfunder to help you. Advice and guidance is really important! ”

Feeling inspired? Find out if you could receive up to £10,000 from the Sovereign Thriving Communities fund!