About IWC - Inspiring Women Changemakers

Community and Consultancy for the Women’s Sector

A note from Anj Handa, Founder of IWC

Women are still not safe. They are still not equal. Not at home, not at work, not in the institutions that are meant to serve them. Inspiring Women Changemakers exists because that is not acceptable, and because changing it requires more than goodwill. It requires redesigning the structures that keep it in place.
IWC is both a consultancy for civil society organisations and a community for changemakers. We work on two fronts: with organisations whose governance and leadership must better reflect and protect women and other marginalised people, and with a community of changemakers who are doing the longer, harder work of making the world safer and fairer for women every day. We’re based in the UK but our clients and community members are international. This work is needed globally.

Who We Are

IWC was founded in 2017 by Anj Handa, Forbes-recognised Diversity and Inclusion Trailblazer, governance specialist and professional lobbyist of nearly 20 years. Everything IWC does is grounded in a single conviction: that women’s inequality is not a cultural inconvenience or a pipeline problem. It is a structural and political failure, reproduced through governance systems, funding decisions, leadership cultures and institutional design that consistently centre the wrong people.

Addressing it requires precision, courage and a willingness to examine what most organisations would rather leave unquestioned.

The Founding Story

In 2014, Anj led a high-profile legal and media campaign on behalf of a woman seeking asylum in the UK for herself and her two daughters, at risk of female genital mutilation. She assembled a top legal team, coordinated a Change.org petition that gathered 126,500 signatures, and engaged global media, MPs and international influencers.

That campaign was not just about one woman and her daughters, though it was absolutely about them. It demonstrated how power moves: through networks, through narrative, through the governance decisions of institutions with the authority to include or exclude. It also demonstrated what becomes possible when people bring their skills, connections and courage together in service of a clear purpose.

That understanding became the foundation of everything IWC does.

Learn more about Anj’s campaign.

The world is not yet fair or safe for women. Inspriring Women Changemakers exists to change that.

What We Do: For Organisations

Women experience disproportionate inequality at every level of working life: in pay, progression, access to leadership, and protection from harm. When race, disability, age, neurodivergence or other factors are added, the barriers compound. IWC works with values-led organisations, boards and funders to address this structurally, not symptomatically.

That means examining governance architecture: who sets the agenda, how authority is distributed, whose expertise is recognised as strategic, and whether the people most affected by decisions have genuine influence over them. We specialise in the design choices that most diversity programmes never reach.

Anj brings deep expertise in Shifting Power principles, applying them to governance design and funding practice. She is one of fewer than 1% of Black and brown women in the UK holding governance roles at senior level, and has served as Chair of arts organisation Freedom Studios and Independent Governor and Committee Chair at Leeds Arts University.

We work with charities, social enterprises, public sector bodies and purpose-led funders across the UK and internationally.

Bring in our Expertise

What We Do: For Changemakers

Our community is for changemakers of all genders who want the world to become a safer, fairer place for women and other marginalised people. It is a space for the intersectional, sometimes uncomfortable conversations that more cautious spaces rarely hold well, and a practical resource for those building the skills, networks and strategies that sustained social change requires.

Too many changemakers are doing vital work in isolation, stretched thin and at risk of burnout. This community exists to change that: to ensure that the people working hardest for women’s rights and safety do not have to do it alone.

IWC is a place that’s safe for the messy, intersectional conversations that can be shied away from in other communities.” IWC member and behavioural specialist Cllr Adele Bates.

Your membership contributes directly to our Changemaker Bursary Fund, which helps changemakers access the high-level support they need to make an impact, independent of their financial status.

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Our Values

We are changemakers of all bodies, beliefs and backgrounds, united by a commitment to a world that is fair and safe for women and all marginalised people.

Integrity: we act with honesty and transparency, including about the limits of our own expertise.

Fairness: we promote justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in every relationship and decision.

Generosity: we share time, resources and connection to uplift others.

Positivity: we hold hope and resilience as active practices, not passive attitudes.

As a social business, we commit a minimum of 10% of our time to developing changemakers of the future through mentoring, pro bono sessions, and subsidised places for those experiencing hardship or harm.

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