WONDER Foundation

Building a better future for women and girls

WONDER Foundation logo

1st Formations charity partnership

Since 2012, the WONDER Foundation has been striving to provide underprivileged women and girls in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa with quality education and training. Their mission is to give them opportunities, life choices, and personal development to help them thrive and exit poverty for good.

Over the years, WONDER has worked with 30 partners in 23 countries to equip more than 100,000 women and girls with wisdom, confidence, and livelihood skills.

20

fundraising
events

360

hours spent
volunteering

845

children and
families supported

£54,456

donated by direct donations
and fundraising events

Why we work with WONDER

At 1st Formations, we wanted to partner with a charity that could help us focus our efforts on one area with a global reach and allow us to make the biggest impact possible.

As champions of gender and employment equality, we partnered with WONDER to help empower women and girls all over the world, improve their quality of life, and inspire them with exciting life prospects.

Also, with one of WONDER’s key pillars being sustainable employment, this seemed a natural fit for us as a sustainable company. Our aligned values mean we can help WONDER find safe and suitable work for women and girls.

The Importance of the WONDER Foundation’s Work

  • In low-income countries, 90% of women work in unregulated and unstable conditions.
  • When women earn, they reinvest 90% of their income back into their families and communities, driving better education, health and economic outcomes for all.
  • A 1% rise in women's literacy is 3 times more likely to reduce deaths in children than a 1% rise in the number of doctors.
  • 55% of primary school-age children who are not in school are girls.
  • A woman wearing a bright orange top, blue jeans, and pink gloves is organising books and papers in a classroom. She stands at a table stacked with Oxford dictionaries and other educational materials. The background features a yellow bulletin board with various notices, posters, and classroom rules, as well as a whiteboard and a radiator. The room has brick walls and a wooden floor.
  • A group of six people stands together in a classroom at a corporate volunteering day. They are smiling at the camera. They are wearing name tags and dressed in casual and smart-casual attire. The background features a vibrant yellow wall with a colorful tree mural made of multicolored leaves, and a black silhouette of a bridge. The setting has a wooden floor and a mix of modern and traditional classroom elements.
  • A woman wearing glasses, a black and beige tie-dye T-shirt, and a name tag reading 'Laura' is painting a white brick wall with a paintbrush. She is smiling while applying fresh white paint to a pipe. The electrical socket nearby is covered with tape to protect it from paint. The setting is a community project area.
  • Three people painting a mural on a white wall in a narrow room. The mural features a large tree with dark brown branches and a yellow background resembling a light bulb. The individuals are wearing striped aprons and holding small containers of yellow paint with brushes. The person in the foreground, wearing a gray hijab and black clothing, is sitting on a chair and smiling at the camera. Another person with long brown hair is crouching beside her, also smiling. A third person, standing in the background, has a beard and is wearing a light-colored shirt under the apron while holding a paint container. The floor is covered with plastic sheeting.
  • A group of thirteen people posing together in a well-lit room with wooden flooring. They are standing and kneeling in front of a hand-made sign that reads REFUGEE WEEK' with decorative elements. The group consists of individuals with diverse appearances, wearing a mix of casual and semi-formal outfits. They are smiling. Behind them, grey curtains cover parts of the wall, with some yellow and black decorations partially visible on the sides. The room has large windows with horizontal blinds on the left, allowing natural light to enter.
  • A person with blonde hair tied up in a bun, wearing a black hoodie, is painting a mural on a white wall. They are smiling at the camera while holding a paintbrush. The mural features a stylised figure of a woman in a blue dress with brown hair, as well as a large tree with dark brown branches on a yellow background. The setting appears to be an indoor space with a door integrated into the mural.

Our objectives

We became an official corporate partner of WONDER in 2022. Together, we set the following objectives:

  • To further the aims of the WONDER Foundation. To focus on one partnership and maximise the efficiency of our charitable donations and activities to the most deserving causes.
  • To engage and educate all staff on WONDER's work, the challenges faced, and the opportunities to help.
  • To develop an altruistic understanding without our staff, which they can continue to develop throughout their career.
  • To promote the work of the WONDER Foundation to our customers through social media and our website, encouraging education, engagement, and donations.
Portrait of 3 schoolgirls from the Colegio Junkabal in Guatemala City, wearing white t-shirts, and red and black tracksuit jackets.

Donations

1st Formations has donated over £50,000 to WONDER since December 2022. These contributions are being used to directly fund the scholarship of girls at the Colegio Junkabal on the margins of Guatemala City's huge rubbish dump, providing formal education. It is also helping provide vocational training for mothers, offering them better and safer employment.

Portrait of Dominic Bird standing with a pool cue in 1st Formations' Games Room after winning a fundraising pool tournament.

Fundraising

We host regular charity events in our offices, encouraging staff to get involved and raise money for WONDER. Some of our recent activities include pool tournaments and Christmas Jumper Day. We also launched a fundraising tool on our internal staff portal, which allows team members to make personal donations through their profiles.

Three people painting a mural on a white wall in a narrow room. The mural features a large tree with dark brown branches and a yellow background resembling a light bulb. The individuals are wearing striped aprons and holding small containers of yellow paint with brushes. The person in the foreground, wearing a gray hijab and black clothing, is sitting on a chair and smiling at the camera. Another person with long brown hair is crouching beside her, also smiling. A third person, standing in the background, has a beard and is wearing a light-colored shirt under the apron while holding a paint container. The floor is covered with plastic sheeting.

Volunteering

1st Formations staff have participated in several volunteering days at The Baytree Centre in Brixton. Most recently, to celebrate International Women's Day 2025, our team came together to paint a beautiful mural and reorganise the classrooms, making it more functional and enjoyable for the women and children who rely on the centre.

We are proud to be a corporate partner of the WONDER Foundation. Through our partnership, it has been excellent to educate and engage our team on their amazing work.

Graeme Donnelly, CEO & Founder of 1st Formations
Graeme Donnelly, CEO & Founder of 1st Formations.