About us
ActionAid is an international charity working with women and girls to create a more just, equitable and sustainable future.
Learn about our vision, our mission, our approach, and our impact.
About ActionAid
Our vision
We believe in the individual and collective power of women and girls to create a just and fair world.
It is a world imagined by social movements, particularly feminist and indigenous movements, centred around the care and wellbeing of people and the planet; and a world in which women and girls, in all their diversity, can achieve their goals, fulfil their rights and define their future.
Our mission
To achieve social justice, gender equality and eradication of poverty by working alongside communities, women’s rights organisations, activists, social movements, funding partners and supporters.
Our approach
We aim to address the challenges faced by women, girls and their communities by sharing power with women's rights organisations and feminist movements.
We do this by fostering equal partnerships and creating spaces where these movements can succeed.
Together, with women-led organisations and feminist movements, we work to draw attention to global injustices and advocate for meaningful, transformative change.
How we spend your £1
72p on humanitarian and development programmes and strengthening our global federation
15p on fundraising
10p on support costs (running the organisation)
3p on campaigning for change
Read our supporter promise and how we are funded.
We’re transparent and accountable
With over 40 years experience in international development, we have a long history of building effective partnerships with local organisations and running our programmes in the most responsible and financially-secure way.
We are committed to being transparent and accountable to the local communities we work with as well as to our partner organisations, local governments and, of course, to our supporters.
For ActionAid, transparency not only means being open about our financial affairs and how we spend the money we raise, but also working in a way that clearly shows how we put our values into action.
From using transparency boards to share information about our projects, to publishing financial information every year, we are committed to being transparent and open about our work.
5,500
new regular supporters joined ActionAid in 2023
£ 25.9 m
was donated by committed givers to support our work on women's and girls' rights
£ 532 k
was donated by supporters to our Gaza Crisis appeal
Our history
ActionAid was founded in 1972 when we started working with local communities in India and Kenya. Our programmes focused on meeting local needs in areas including education, health and livelihoods.
We were one of the first UK charities to offer child sponsorship, and we have been transforming the lives of children and their families ever since.
In the 1980s, we shifted the focus of our work to tackling the root causes of poverty because we believed this was essential to creating lasting change.
Then, in the early 2000s, ActionAid UK started focusing on women and girls, and this leads our work today.
We realised no community could tackle poverty and create change when half its population was denied equal rights. In short, when women and girls thrive, we all thrive.
We now work with more than 15 million people across the world to make this possible.
Contact us
If you have any questions or comments, our supporter care team would love to hear from you.
- Email: supportercontact@actionaid.org
- Phone: call us on 01460 238 000.
- Post: Supporter Care Team, ActionAid UK, Chard Business Centre, Jarman Way, Chard, Somerset, TA20 1FB.
Page updated 16 January 2025