Girl dad charities in the UK and Europe, and how to give

If you are raising a daughter and you want to put some money, or some time, behind girls who do not have someone in their corner, this is the list we would hand you. It covers charities in the UK and across Europe that put girls first, what each one actually does with a donation, and how to give in a way that goes further than a one-off tap of the card.

We keep it to organisations that are registered, that publish their accounts, and that a dad can help beyond writing a cheque. Nothing here is sponsored. Where girl.dad gives its own money, we say so, and you can read how our giving works any time.

What makes a charity a girl dad charity?

A girl dad charity is one that puts girls first in its purpose rather than as a line in a wider mission, is registered with a charity regulator and files accounts on time, and offers a way for a father to take part that goes beyond money. That last test matters more than it sounds. Plenty of good causes will take your donation. Far fewer will let you turn up, mentor, fundraise with your daughter, or sit on a board. The ones that do tend to be the ones that change how you see the whole thing.

We used four tests when building this list:

• Girls are the point. The remit is girls or young women, not children or families in general. Two of the European entries are broader, and we say so.
• It is registered. A charity number you can check on the Charity Commission register, OSCR in Scotland, or the national equivalent in Europe.
• The money is visible. Published accounts, and a clear line from a donation to a thing that happens.
• There is a door for dads. Volunteering, mentoring, skills, fundraising, or a way to bring your daughter along.

Which UK charities help girls?

The UK has a strong set of girls-first charities, from small local groups doing weekly sessions in a church hall to global organisations run out of London and Cambridge. These are the ones that pass our four tests, roughly in order from close to home to far away.

The Girls' Network

Registered charity 1156517. The Girls' Network pairs girls aged 14 to 19 from the least advantaged communities with a mentor, one to one, over the course of a school year. Behind each pairing sits a wider network of professional women the girls can meet and learn from. It runs in six English regions, including London, Merseyside, Hampshire, Sussex, the North East and the West Midlands, and supports around a thousand girls a year. Mentors are women, so the direct route in is through the women in your life, but the charity also takes corporate partners, fundraisers and skills volunteers. This is one of the two UK charities girl.dad gives to. Website: thegirlsnetwork.org.uk.

Girls Friendly Society

Registered charity 1054310. Founded in 1875, which makes it one of the oldest registered charities working with girls anywhere. Girls Friendly Society runs weekly groups for girls and young women across England and Wales, concentrated in areas of high deprivation, with a focus on confidence and resilience rather than badges. It also works in schools, runs a Period Peers programme, and convenes the Girls' Rights Collective UK. Volunteers help at groups and can give professional skills. This is the other UK charity girl.dad supports. Website: girlsfriendlysociety.org.uk.

Girlguiding

Registered charity 306016 in England and Wales, with Girlguiding Scotland registered separately as SC005548. You know the shape of it: Rainbows from four, Brownies from seven, Guides from ten, Rangers from fourteen. What is easy to miss is that it is a charity, run almost entirely by volunteers, and that units in poorer areas are often the ones with the longest waiting lists and the fewest adults. Unit leaders are women. Dads help in other ways: fundraising, treasurer and trustee roles, the endless lifts to camp. If your daughter is already a Brownie, the unit leader will know exactly what is needed. Website: girlguiding.org.uk.

Freedom4Girls

Registered charity 1177566. Started in Leeds after a school there found girls missing lessons because they could not afford period products. Freedom4Girls gets products into schools, food banks and community groups, and runs education sessions that tackle the shame around periods as much as the cost. A small charity where a modest monthly gift is noticed. Product drives are the obvious way to bring a daughter in. Website: freedom4girls.co.uk.

Bloody Good Period

Registered charity 1185849. London based, and does what it says: period products for people who cannot get them, with a particular focus on refugees and asylum seekers, plus menstrual education. It also makes a lot of noise about the subject, which is half the job. If you have read our guide on talking to your daughter about periods, you already know why this one is on the list. Its own site was unreachable when we checked, so start with its entry on the Charity Commission register.

Plan International UK

Registered charity 276035. The UK arm of one of the largest children's charities in the world, and the one that has spent the past decade putting girls at the centre of its work through the Because I am a Girl campaign. Plan works in around 75 countries on girls' education, early marriage and safety, and also researches the experience of girls here in the UK. It is a big organisation, so your money is one drop in a large bucket, but the bucket is well audited. Website: plan-uk.org.

CAMFED

Registered charity 1029161. Based in Cambridge, CAMFED supports girls through secondary school in Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and then keeps them in the fold through an alumnae network of young women who go on to support the next intake. The model is unusually well evidenced, and the cost of keeping one girl in school for a year is the kind of number a family can decide to cover together. Website: camfed.org.

Girls Not Brides

Registered charity 1154230. A London based partnership of more than a thousand member organisations in over a hundred countries, all working to end child marriage. It is a secretariat rather than a frontline service, so it is the right choice if you want to back policy and law change rather than a specific project. Website: girlsnotbrides.org.

Malala Fund UK

Registered charity 1178655. The UK entity of the fund Malala Yousafzai set up to get girls twelve years of free, safe, quality education. It funds local educators and campaigners in the countries where girls are most likely to be out of school. If your daughter knows Malala's story, and many do from school, this is an easy one to explain at the kitchen table. Website: malala.org.

Which charities support girls across Europe?

Europe does not have one register or one word for charity, so the check is different in each country, but the same organisations come up again and again. These five are the ones we would trust a donation with, with a note where the remit is women as well as girls.

Plan International, national offices

Plan has national organisations across Europe, including Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. Each raises money locally and files accounts under its own national rules, and each runs the same girls-first programmes. If you live in Europe and want the UK charity above in your own language and tax system, this is it. Website: plan-international.org.

Terre des Femmes, Germany

Germany's largest women's rights organisation, based in Berlin and founded in 1981. The work that matters for girls is its long campaign against female genital mutilation, forced marriage and so-called honour violence, together with education in schools. Broader than girls only, but girls are where most of its frontline effort lands. Website: frauenrechte.de.

Women Win, Netherlands

Amsterdam based, and built around one idea: that sport is one of the fastest ways to give a girl confidence, a team and a voice. Women Win funds and supports girls' and women's organisations worldwide that use sport and play, and it is a good fit for a dad who has spent every Saturday morning on a touchline. Website: womenwin.org.

Fondation des Femmes, France

The reference foundation in France for women's rights, set up in 2016. It funds hundreds of grassroots associations, most of them working with women and girls who have experienced violence, and it publishes where the money goes. Women first, girls within that. Website: fondationdesfemmes.org.

WAGGGS Europe Region

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts is headquartered in London, and its Europe Region supports 64 national guiding organisations across 41 countries, reaching more than a million girls and young women. If your daughter is a Guide in Spain or a Pfadfinderin in Austria, her unit belongs to this family. Website: wagggs.org.

How do I check a charity is legitimate?

Look the charity up on the official register before you give: the Charity Commission for England and Wales, OSCR for Scotland, and the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, each of which is free to search and shows the trustees, the income, and whether accounts have been filed on time. Every UK entry above includes its registered number so you can do that in under a minute.

A few things to look for once you are on the register:

• Accounts filed on time. A charity that is more than a few months late is either very small or badly run.
• Where the money goes. The register shows how much is spent on charitable activity against raising funds. There is no magic ratio, but you should be able to understand it.
• The Fundraising Regulator. Charities that have signed up to it appear in its public directory. It is a good sign, not a guarantee.
• In Europe, look for the national equivalent: the DZI donation seal in Germany, the Don en Confiance label in France, or the ANBI status of a Dutch organisation on the Belastingdienst site.

If a charity is not on any register, that does not always mean it is dishonest. Some brilliant local groups are community interest companies or run under a bigger charity's umbrella. It does mean you are relying on trust rather than paperwork, so give to those through someone you know.

How can a dad give in a way that goes further?

The single most useful thing a UK taxpayer can do is tick the Gift Aid box, because it lets the charity reclaim the basic rate tax on your gift and turns every pound you give into one pound twenty five at no cost to you. If you pay higher rate tax, you can claim the difference back yourself through self assessment, which most people never do.

Beyond Gift Aid:

• Give monthly, not once. A small standing order lets a charity plan. Ten pounds a month is worth more to a small organisation than a hundred and twenty pounds every December.
• Ask about payroll giving. Many employers run a scheme that takes your donation before tax, and some match what you give.
• Give skills, not just money. Finance, marketing, legal, tech and HR volunteers are in short supply at every charity on this list. A few hours a month of what you already do for a living is often worth more than a cheque.
• Say yes to being asked. Trustee boards are short of men with children, and charities working with girls want fathers in the room. If you have never been asked, it is because nobody knew you were willing.

Can I volunteer with my daughter?

Yes, and for most families it is the best way to do this, provided you match the activity to her age: a product drive for a period charity works from about seven, a sponsored walk or run works at any age she can manage the distance, and from fourteen she can take on a Young Leader role in Girlguiding or a peer role with Girls Friendly Society in her own right. The rule is that she does something real, not that she watches you do it.

A few ideas that have worked for dads we know:

• Let her choose the charity from a shortlist, and explain her reasons. She will remember the decision longer than the amount.
• Run a period product drive through her school or your workplace for Freedom4Girls or Bloody Good Period. It is practical, visible, and it normalises the subject.
• Do a sponsored something together and put her name on the page. The training is the bit you will both remember.
• If she is a Brownie or a Guide, ask her leader what the unit is short of. It is usually adults and lifts, and both are things a dad can provide.

If any of this feels like a lot, start with the kind of small, steady presence that runs through everything else on this site. Giving is a habit before it is an amount.

Where does girl.dad's own giving go?

A share of the profit from everything sold in the girl.dad store goes to four organisations: The Girls' Network and Girls Friendly Society in the UK, and Aarti for Girls and Tara in India, the last two being homes that raise and educate girls who have nobody else. We are not affiliated with any of them, we do not use their logos, and we keep a running ledger of what has gone where on the giving back page.

We chose these four because they sit at both ends of the same idea. In the UK, a girl who has a father but needs another adult in her corner. In India, a girl who may have nobody at all. Being a girl dad, in the sense we mean it when we talk about the term, is about turning up for your own daughter first. This is the next step out from that: turning up, a little, for someone else's.