Luma, a not-for-profit organisation with a focus on women's health and wellbeing, has launched a new sponsorship-based fundraising initiative aims to support women experiencing domestic violence in Australia.

Titled 'HER Board', the initiative was developed in partnership with VML. It individuals and corporate members to donate $99 per month over a 12-month 'board' term. The funds raised will be directed towards essential services such as relocation, counselling, transport, legal aid, security, healthcare, employment assistance, and childcare.

The initiative is designed to empower women by giving them the power to decide which services they want to utilise with the donations received. The launch of HER Board coincides with Domestic Violence Prevention Month and has already garnered support from influential female leaders in Australia.

CEO at Luma, Felicite Black, said: “HER Board was created for women to start to give them power back, and break the victim-and-saviour approach to family and domestic violence funding that only operates in crisis. With decades of experience working with women, Luma are well placed to provide the wrap-around services required to avoid tragedy and trauma.”

“A woman experiencing domestic violence loses her connections, voice, confidence and strength. Bit by bit, she loses her power. To move on, she needs to find that power again and HER Board is an essential service that will help in giving her power back," said Black.

In Australia, one woman loses her life to domestic violence every week, and one in four faces abuse from their intimate partner.

Luma Deputy Chair, Melanie Wiese, said: “We styled this effort up as a Board to generate attention and support from the professional sector, focusing on LinkedIn as a fundraising channel. We’re appealing to executives in Australia to sponsor a woman through fixed-term tenure funding, with all an individual board members’ funds flowing to one woman. We hope our members proudly share our progress and nominate their network to join.”

The promotional materials for the launch were created by a predominantly female team led by Perth director Melle Branson. The website, online video, and other media touchpoints for HER Board were launched during Domestic Violence Prevention Month.

Branson, who is also a survivor of abuse, shared her personal connection with the project, “When I read these harrowing and uncomfortably real scripts, they resonated in ways that were confronting to face as a survivor of abuse. Yet, I know that mine is not an uncommon experience, so I was all in in supporting the HER Board initiative. My priority was to build a predominantly female identifying crew for this project, because I firmly believe that women should be telling women’s stories. Everyone involved in this project brought their absolute best in executing this poignant idea from the highly nuanced sets, meticulous sound design, restrained music composition and the compelling voice performance.”