Family tree company Findmypast to sponsor Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction for initial term of three years

Family tree company Findmypast will sponsor the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction for an initial term of three years, beginning in 2024.  

Findmypast is the first sponsor announced for the new prize, announced in February by the Trust’s founder-director Kate Mosse.

Claire Shanahan, executive director of the Women’s Prize Trust, said: “Over the past 28 years, the Women’s Prize for Fiction has changed the landscape of women’s writing. Building on this track record and leveraging the power of the Women’s Prize brand to become the home of women’s voices, our new Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction will celebrate narrative non-fiction writing that informs, challenges, entertains, disrupts and comforts, while positioning women as experts, thought leaders and change-makers.” 

She said Findmypast “is a perfect launch partner for this endeavour because they too believe in the value and transformative power of storytelling and information; they show us that we all have a way into our rich histories, which, when unlocked, can reframe the present and inform the future”. 

As well as sponsoring the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction, Findmypast will support the Women’s Prize Trust’s outreach programme to find the next generation of female non-fiction writers, particularly those from under-represented backgrounds, and help to bring their books to market. 

Speaking about the partnership, Tamsin Todd, Findmypast c.e.o., said: “The Women’s Prize for Fiction has been a force for change, and we’re thrilled to play a part in launching the new non-fiction prize, which promises to be equally transformational. Illuminating under-represented stories is a passion for Findmypast, and as the exclusive publisher of some of the world’s largest historical data sets, such as the 1921 Census of England and Wales and the British Newspaper Archive, we are able to bring the experience of women through history into sight. Findmypast already supports writers, historians and researchers from a diverse range of fields by providing a reliable source of inspiration and information. We look forward to enabling more women to research and write non-fiction, and continuing our work to highlight and celebrate women’s perspectives.” 

The Women’s Prize Trust is continuing discussions with other corporates interested in joining the Women’s Prize’s growing family of sponsors. The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction is also being supported by the Charlotte Aitken Trust – which is funding the £30,000 prize money and a statuette named the ‘Charlotte’ over a three-year period – and an anonymous donor who has gifted a significant one-off contribution to help establish the prize. 

Companies interested in more information about how they can collaborate with the Women’s Prize Trust should contact Shanahan.