The Queen's Fund
Emergency Financial Aid
The Collier Charitable Foundation has helped The Queen’s Fund to help single disadvantaged women in Victoria for over 50 years, contributing a total of $355,650.
Operating since 1887, The Queen’s Fund supports single women in Victoria who need emergency financial relief due to family violence, mental illness, or medical issues by providing grants of up to $350.
We work with social workers from 160 welfare agencies across Victoria who are in the best position to determine how to help the woman in need. They continue to support her after our emergency relief has been provided.
We are different because we can provide flexible financial support that considers the personal and unique circumstances of each applicant to create the most impact, paying for things like rent, household bills, transport or refurbished computers for education often within 24 hours if needed.
Our committee is unpaid and we have very low overheads. Any overheads we do have are covered by a historical bequest. This means 100% of the money donated goes to the women and children who need it most.
Single women, particularly those with children, remain one of the groups in our society who are most in need of support. And the need is growing.
Women continue to be more likely be living below the poverty line. This outcome is due to women tending to have lower employment rates and lower wages than men, paired with a greater caring role for both children and family members.
“The support The Queen’s Fund provides to vulnerable women is invaluable. Once again, The Queen’s Fund has prevented someone from becoming homeless through the assistance with rental arrears to sustain a tenancy. This has also meant that my client can now focus on employment and maintaining her on-going rental payments.”
August 2018. Referring Agency: Uniting Wyndham
Social workers with whom we work tell us very few organisations in the Victorian community are able to offer the assistance we provide within the timeframe we provide it. Our assistance is flexible, non-judgmental, and accessible by social welfare organisations from across the whole of Victoria. The Queen’s Fund provides accessible, straightforward emergency financial aid, which can make all the difference to families in times of crisis.
We do not receive government funding so are entirely dependent on receiving grants from philanthropic foundations/trusts and individuals. We find that due to our low overheads and the valuable service we provide, we have long standing relationships with foundations and trusts such as The Collier Charitable Fund.
In 2018, the Queen's Fund saw a 30% increase in demand for our services from the previous year helping almost 1,500 women in need. We could not have met this demand without the ongoing generous support from the Collier Charitable Fund.