Gender-based violence — primarily violence by men against women, including domestic and family violence, sexual assault, stalking, and coercive control — is one of Australia's most serious public health and human rights issues. On average, one woman is killed by a current or former partner in Australia approximately every week. Many more experience serious violence, coercive control, and lasting harm. Philanthropic grants for gender-based violence prevention and response are critical investments in safety, health, and justice.
Family and domestic violence: Approximately 1 in 4 women has experienced violence by an intimate partner. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey documents the scale: millions of Australian women have experienced physical or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner.
Sexual assault: 1 in 5 women has experienced sexual assault since the age of 15. Most sexual assault is perpetrated by known men — partners, family members, acquaintances — not strangers.
Economic and coercive control: Financial abuse — controlling access to money, creating economic dependency, accumulating debt in a partner's name — affects many victims without violence or alongside it. Coercive control — patterns of behaviour that intimidate, dominate, and control — is now criminalised in some Australian jurisdictions.
Children: Witnessing or experiencing family violence has severe developmental consequences for children. Australian research documents the long-term mental health, developmental, and social impacts of childhood exposure to family violence.
Indigenous women: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience family violence at significantly higher rates than non-Indigenous women. The intersecting factors of historical trauma, socioeconomic disadvantage, and institutional failure create specific vulnerabilities.
National programmes
Crisis and refuge services
Women's refuges — providing emergency accommodation and support to women fleeing violence — are the frontline response. Many are operated by specialist family violence organisations; government funding is chronically insufficient relative to demand.
Perpetrator programmes
Men's Behaviour Change Programmes (MBCPs) — group programmes for men who use violence — are a key component of the response system. Evidence suggests they can reduce violence for some men; quality and evidence-base vary significantly.
Sexual assault services
Sexual Assault Service (SAS) organisations provide crisis response, counselling, forensic examination, and court support for victims of sexual assault; most are state-funded.
Legal services
Family violence legal advocacy, intervention orders, safety planning, and court support services are provided by community legal centres, women's legal services, and legal aid.
Key organisations
Primary prevention
Preventing violence before it occurs — by changing the social norms, structures, and practices that enable it — is both the most important and most underinvested area. Our Watch's Change the Story framework identifies what works: challenging gender inequality, promoting gender equality and respectful relationships, and engaging men and boys. Grants for primary prevention — school programmes, workplace gender equality, community engagement — address the root causes.
Perpetrator accountability
Men who use violence need to be held accountable and offered pathways to change. Men's behaviour change programmes, accountability-focused case management, and innovative approaches to perpetrator engagement require sustained funding. The evidence base is developing; philanthropic investment in programme innovation and evaluation is valuable.
Economic safety and financial independence
Economic abuse — often overlooked — is pervasive. Women's financial independence is a critical safety factor. Grants for financial literacy programmes, economic empowerment, banking products designed for women experiencing economic abuse, and workforce re-entry support address economic dimensions of safety.
Support for children exposed to family violence
Children who witness or experience family violence need specific support — trauma counselling, developmental support, safe environments, and opportunities to process what they have experienced. Grants for children's family violence services recognise that children are direct victims, not merely bystanders.
Indigenous family violence response
Community-controlled, culturally appropriate responses to family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are more effective than mainstream services. Grants for Indigenous-led organisations, community-based responses, and Indigenous women's leadership in the sector respect both cultural authority and the evidence of effectiveness.
Technology and innovation
Technology is both a tool for perpetrators (coercive control through monitoring, harassing communications) and a resource for victims (safety apps, help-seeking online). Grants for technology-based safety tools and organisations addressing technology-facilitated abuse respond to emerging dimensions of gender-based violence.
Legal advocacy and justice
Many victims are poorly served by the justice system — cases are dismissed, intervention orders are not enforced, and perpetrators face inadequate consequences. Grants for legal advocacy, court support, and justice system reform improve victim outcomes.
Primary prevention is underinvested: The vast majority of gender-based violence funding goes to crisis response — which is essential but doesn't reduce the incidence of violence. Funders willing to invest in prevention, where returns are slower and harder to measure, have the greatest long-term leverage.
Fund the ecosystem, not just services: Individual service grants help individual women; systemic change requires investment across the ecosystem — services, research, advocacy, prevention, workforce development, and system coordination.
Centring victim/survivor voices: Women who have experienced violence have critical knowledge about what helps and what doesn't. Programmes and funding decisions that involve victim/survivor voices are more effective and more legitimate.
Long-term commitment: Changing the social conditions that enable gender-based violence takes generations. Funders who commit over the long term, rather than responding to high-profile incidents, build the sustained investment this work requires.
Tahua's grants management platform supports gender-based violence funders and family safety organisations in Australia — with the grant tracking, outcome measurement, and portfolio reporting tools that help funders invest effectively in safer communities for women and children.