IWC – FAQs
Questions we’re asked about governance, systems change and how we work
What kind of organisations does IWC work with?
IWC works primarily with civil society organisations, charities, social enterprises and funders whose mission includes advancing fairness and safety for women and other marginalised people, or who recognise that their own governance and leadership needs to better reflect the communities they exist to serve. Most clients are in the women’s sector or work at the intersection of gender, race, disability and socioeconomic inequality. We also work with grantmaking bodies and funders looking to embed equity and Shifting Power principles into how they allocate resources and make decisions.
What does governance development actually involve?
Governance development with IWC starts from a different place than most board training. Rather than focusing on individual trustee knowledge or compliance frameworks, we examine the structural design choices that determine how power operates inside your organisation: who sets the agenda at board meetings, how decisions are actually made between formal votes, whose expertise is treated as strategic and whose is treated as operational, and whether the people most affected by your work have genuine influence over it rather than being consulted after decisions are already shaped.
This might involve a board away day, an observation and evaluation of how your board currently functions, a review of your governance documents and practices, or an ongoing strategic partnership. The starting point is always a conversation about where your organisation actually is, not where your governing document says it should be.
How is your work different from standard DEI training?
Most diversity, equity and inclusion training and consultancy focuses on individual awareness: helping staff and trustees understand bias, understand difference, understand their legal obligations. That work has its place. What IWC does is different. We work on the structural and organisational conditions that determine whether inclusion is possible in the first place, regardless of individual intent.
A board can be full of people who have completed unconscious bias training and still consistently make decisions that marginalise the communities it serves, if the way decisions are structured, who is invited into which conversations, and whose lived experience is treated as relevant expertise has not been examined. That examination is what IWC specialises in.
What does it mean to centre lived experience in governance?
Centring lived experience means designing your governance and decision-making so that the knowledge, perspective and expertise of people directly affected by your work has genuine weight in shaping it, not as a gesture of inclusion but as a structural reality.
It means thinking carefully about who is in the room when strategy is set, how your board recruitment and induction processes either widen or narrow who can meaningfully participate, what counts as credible expertise in your organisation, and how feedback from the communities you serve actually travels to the level where decisions are made.
In practice this looks different for every organisation. For some it means reviewing board composition and recruitment. For others it means redesigning how staff with lived experience of the issues are involved in strategic conversations. For funders it often means examining how grant-making criteria and application processes either reproduce or challenge existing power dynamics.
What is Shifting Power and why does it matter for funders?
Shifting Power is a framework and practice that challenges grant-makers and commissioners to redistribute decision-making authority toward the communities and organisations closest to the issues being funded, rather than retaining it at the funder level. In practice it means examining who decides funding priorities, who assesses applications, what counts as evidence of impact, and whether the organisations you fund have genuine agency over how resources are used.
For funders in the women’s sector, Shifting Power has particular urgency because many of the organisations best placed to address the issues you care about are led by and accountable to the women most directly affected by inequality and harm. The governance decisions funders make about how they allocate authority and resource directly shape whether those organisations can do their most effective work, or whether they spend their capacity managing funder relationships and reporting requirements instead.
What is the difference between working with IWC on a project basis and an ongoing retainer?
Project-based work with IWC suits organisations with a specific, defined need: a board development session, an evaluation of governance effectiveness, a facilitated away day, or support designing an inclusive recruitment process for trustees or senior leadership. These are time-bounded engagements with clear outputs.
Ongoing strategic partnership suits organisations that recognise inclusion and governance development as continuous work rather than a one-off intervention. As a longer-term partner, IWC works alongside your leadership team and board as your context evolves: supporting you to think through emerging challenges, reviewing how commitments made in strategy are being implemented in practice, and helping you build the internal capacity to lead this work yourselves over time. This is the model that tends to produce the most durable change.
Does IWC work with organisations outside the UK?
IWC is based in the UK and works with organisations and changemakers based anywhere in the world. Anj Handa has worked with organisations and at events in Europe and the United States, and is experienced in bringing an international perspective to governance and equity practice, drawing on her multilingual background and work with global teams and on diplomatic assignments.
Is Anj open to speaking at our event?
Yes. Anj is available for keynotes, conference facilitation and panel moderation across civil society, women’s sector and corporate events. Her talks address governance and structural inequality, women’s representation and leadership, collective action and changemaking, and sustaining progressive work in a challenging political climate. All talks are tailored to your audience and objectives.
Anj is represented by Matthew Fisher at Scamp Speakers, who handles all keynote enquiries and bookings. Take a look at her speaker bio and contact Matthew at matthew@scampsolutions.co.uk.
For conference facilitation and moderation enquiries, or to discuss whether a bespoke workshop or board session would better serve your event’s needs, contact anj@inspiringwomenchangemakers.co.uk directly.
How do we start a conversation about working together?
The first step is always a conversation. Email anj@inspiringwomenchangemakers.co.uk to introduce your organisation, describe what you are working on and what feels unresolved, and we will arrange a call to explore whether and how IWC can help. There is no obligation and no sales process. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and, where we can, suggest who might be.
