Muslim Women’s Network UK
Winner – Transforming With Digital
About the Charity
Muslim Women’s Network UK (MWNUK) is a small national charity focused on advancing equality and social justice for Muslim women and girls across the UK. The charity works on a range of issues including domestic abuse, forced marriage, mental health matters and discrimination. Its MWN Helpline is the only national faith and culturally aware helpline through which Muslim women and girls – and all others in need – can seek specialist support and advice. The charity’s activities also include providing a faith and culturally aware counselling service, providing support through the MWN hardship fund, conducting research, producing reports, campaigning, engaging with government bodies to effect policy change, holding face to face and online workshops and events to raise awareness of issues affecting its service users, running the only national membership platform for Muslim women (the MWN Hub), and – as of October 2020 – acting as Secretariat for the APPG on Muslim women.
MWNUK previously earned first place in the Embracing Opportunity and Harnessing Risk category in 2020 and first place in the Improving Impact (4-25 paid staff) category in 2019.
Charity number: 1155092 | www.mwnuk.co.uk
Women’s charity focused on advocacy and education | England – West Midlands | 11-25 paid staff | 4-10 volunteers
What the Board Achieved
The board at Muslim Women’s Network UK has been developing its digital strategy since its last external organisational evaluation in 2017, which reviewed its digital activities from the previous three-year period. Trustees identified opportunities to transform and grow with digital, and developed a strategy to fund and explore those opportunities internally and externally.
Internally, digital projects focused on increasing efficiency, sharing expertise, and providing better communication and support to staff and volunteers. For example, the charity invested in the ‘back office’ administration of the MWN Helpline and its case management system to eradicate the need for physical paperwork and improve data security and accuracy of records, which increased the efficiency of the team and allowed them to focus more on delivering quality support services to helpline callers. Externally, the helpline was enhanced further by the addition to the website of an online chat function.
With these digital-first service delivery tools in place, the charity was better prepared to transition to homeworking or remote working operations when the first national lockdown prevented other charities from delivering critical front-line support to beneficiaries. Whilst other charities had to use critical time and other crucial resources to plan an unexpected digital transformation, MWNUK was able to focus on improving and enhancing its digital services rather than reinventing its delivery model. This enabled them to expand the charity’s digital service offer, expediting the launch of projects that it had already spent time developing, piloting and improving like the MWN Hub (an online platform to connect community members, combat feelings of isolation through the pandemic, promote education and raise awareness of key issues important to the community). The charity was also able to replace face-to-face workshops with virtual ones (which increased attendance, improved accessibility and promoted inclusivity), and expand its use of social media and video posts to disseminate critical information to vulnerable groups.
Beyond service delivery, MWNUK created an online dashboard to share important data insights collected from its helpline to inform and support other organisations working in similar areas, and launched the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Muslim women, taking on the role of Secretariat. The national shift towards digital-first delivery – and dependence on virtual meetings – made the APPG possible because it removed many barriers such as the investment of time and the financial cost of travel to attend and host meetings.
The board developed a robust process of research and investment, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of each project to inform decision making at every level of the organisation, contributing towards a culture where ongoing learning and improvement is valued. Although the COVID-19 crisis impacted which projects MWNUK prioritised this past year, the board adhered to this successful strategy throughout the process, which enabled it to both respond to the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis and to embrace opportunities the new digital landscape of the pandemic had created.
What Inspired Our Judges
MWNUK demonstrated a level of ambition in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic that impressed and inspired our Judges with its resilience, grit and determination. The charity articulated its process of examining the risks of digital, assessing its strategy, and ultimately investing in digital. The response drove incredible improvements to impact for the charity. There was clear evidence of active board leadership and participation in the process, as trustees adapted to the new digital world they found themselves in and seized opportunities to learn and evolve.
