Centre for Women's Economic Safety

What Centre for Women's Economic Safety does

Centre for Women's Economic Safety Ltd (CWES) is an Australian public company limited by guarantee and a registered ACNC charity (ABN 88 658 889 920) founded in 2018 by Rebecca Glenn and headquartered in Sydney, NSW. It is a public benevolent institution with DGR-1 status and receives no government funding, operating entirely on individual, corporate and philanthropic donations. The organisation's mission is to address economic abuse as a form of domestic and family violence and to advocate for structural and systems change.

CWES's core product is 'Money Clinics' — free, one-on-one, trauma-informed financial counselling delivered by qualified female financial counsellors via phone, video (Microsoft Teams) and in-person in Sydney, Illawarra and Melbourne — which serves women, non-binary and gender-diverse people experiencing economic abuse. Supporting products include the Financial Safety website (financialsafety.org.au), a national service directory and information resource; a workplace Training Program; the annual Economic Abuse Awareness Day on 26 November (which CWES coordinates nationally); the Lived Experience Advisory Panel; multilingual Financial Safety Checklists in eight languages; policy submissions and publications. There is no proprietary technology platform; delivery depends on mainstream tooling — Calendly for booking, Stripe for donations, Microsoft Teams/Zoom for sessions, and TIS National for interpreting.

The business model is a philanthropic donation revenue stream with free end-user services. Major institutional funders include Ecstra Foundation (since inception), QBE Foundation, Judith Neilson Foundation, Financial Counselling Industry Fund, Greater Charitable Foundation and Netwealth; pro-bono support comes from MinterEllison, Unifii, Hall & Wilcox, Fiftyfive5 and Ovation TEG. CWES operates with a small team of approximately 9 employees and is governed by a board chaired by Joanne Yates.

Name

Centre for Women's Economic Safety

Legal name

Centre for Women's Economic Safety Ltd

Website

https://cwes.org.au

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CWES is an Australian ACNC-registered charity providing free, trauma-informed financial counselling (Money Clinics), an information website, workplace training, and a national awareness day to women and gender-diverse people experiencing economic abuse. Funded entirely by philanthropic donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Social services - economic abuse and domestic violence support

NAICS

Individual and Family Services (6241), Other Individual and Family Services (624190)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Domestic Violence & Abuse Support Services (BPAGAEAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Mental Health & Crisis Support Services (BPAGAEAH), Protection, Child Protection & Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Response (BPAGAAAG)

Keywords

• Economic abuse counselling
• Financial counselling services
• Domestic violence support
• Financial safety planning
• Nonprofit welfare services

Headquarters

HQ city

Sydney, NSW

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Donations and Philanthropic Funding: CWES is a public benevolent institution and registered charity that receives no government funding. The organization operates entirely on individual, corporate, and philanthropic donations. All donations over $2.00 are tax deductible as CWES has DGR-1 status.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CWES provides free, specialist, violence- and trauma-informed financial counselling (Money Clinics) to women, non-binary and gender diverse people experiencing economic abuse in the context of domestic and family violence. Services are delivered one-on-one by qualified female financial counsellors via phone, Microsoft Teams video, or in-person in Sydney, Illawarra, and Melbourne, with no income, asset, geographic, or visa eligibility criteria. The organization also delivers workplace training, the Financial Safety website and directory, and coordinates Economic Abuse Awareness Day in Australia.

Product overview

Centre for Women's Economic Safety operates as a service organization offering a coordinated suite of products and services to support women experiencing economic abuse. The core offerings include Money Clinics (free one-on-one financial counselling), the Financial Safety Website (information and service directory), Training Programs (workplace education), and Economic Abuse Awareness Day. These are supported by publications, videos, lived experience advisory panel, financial safety checklists (available in 8 languages), and policy submissions. The Money Clinics serve as the primary direct service intervention, while the Financial Safety Website and publications provide information resources, and the Lived Experience Advisory Panel informs all organizational work through lived expertise.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Money Clinics: Free individual appointments with a qualified, female, financial counsellor who is violence- and trauma-informed. Provides independent financial safety planning and information for women experiencing economic abuse.

Quantifiable outcome

• 4 in 5 women don't know where to go for help for economic abuse (2025 media release)

Named customers3 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered supportive and major.

• MinterEllisonsupportiveOthersProvides pro bono legal support to CWES as part of their community partnership program.
• UnifiisupportiveOthersPro bono partner providing professional services to support CWES operations.
• Fiftyfive5supportiveOthersPro bono partner providing expertise in support of CWES work.
• Ovation TEGsupportiveOthersPro bono partner providing services to CWES.
• Hall & WilcoxsupportiveOthersProvides pro bono legal support to CWES.
• Sax InstitutemajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerConducted independent evaluation of CWES Money Clinics, providing research validation of program effectiveness.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Lifeline Australia: National crisis support and suicide prevention NFP; comparable as a major free helpline-style charity serving people in crisis, though with a much larger scale and broader crisis mandate.
• Salvation Army Australia: Large faith-based NFP delivering crisis, family violence and financial counselling services nationally; overlaps with CWES on financial counselling and DV response but operates at materially greater scale and scope.
• Relationships Australia: Federation of community-based relationship support services across Australia with counselling, family dispute resolution and DV-related programs; comparable in non-medical psychosocial support, but with a broader family-services remit.
• 1800RESPECT: National 24/7 counselling helpline for domestic, family and sexual violence; overlaps with CWES on DV awareness and referral pathways but operates at much larger scale and broader scope as a federally funded service.

Direct peers

• Domestic Violence NSW: State peak body for domestic violence services in NSW; comparable as a DV-focused NFP operating in the same geography and beneficiary population as CWES, although with a broader sector-coordination remit rather than specialist financial counselling.
• Financial Counselling Australia: National peak body for the financial counselling profession, with explicit specialist financial abuse streams; directly comparable on the financial counselling core of CWES's Money Clinics and the only NFP of comparable scale addressing financial abuse nationally.
• Women's Safety NSW: Advocacy and policy NFP focused on women experiencing domestic and family violence in NSW; comparable in advocacy posture and DV specialisation, with overlapping policy submissions around coercive control.
• Women's Legal Service NSW: Specialist legal service for women experiencing domestic and family violence; directly comparable in beneficiary population and DV focus, complementary to CWES Money Clinics where Family Law preparation is a common use case.
• WIRE Women's Information: Victoria-based NFP providing information, support and referral to women including on family violence and financial hardship; comparable as a free, barrier-free women's NFP service in a different state.

Emerging players

• Redfern Legal Centre: Community legal centre in inner Sydney providing free legal help including on family violence and financial hardship; comparable as a free, pro-bono-supported service for vulnerable clients with overlapping DV use cases.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/womenseconomicsafety
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cwes
• Instagraminstagram.com/CWESaustralia

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Centre for Women's Economic Safety