Late last year, we were thrilled to announce the next stage of our partnership with Stella Insurance who will be generously donating $5 from every new car insurance policy they sell to support WAGEC’s Donation Program. We are so excited about continuing to work together throughout 2022 to drive social for women and children. Read below for a supporter spotlight interview with Stella’s General Manager, Renee Cosgrave.
Introduce yourself and the team from Stella.
I’m Renee Cosgrave the General Manager at Stella insurance. I’m a change-maker, mother and a leader in the insurance industry, that’s focused on driving change in the financial services industry and the wider community to create a world with endless opportunity for every woman. As a proud mother of two little girls, I want my daughters and all women to have the right to equal opportunities, equal pay and fundamental rights as a whole. My girls are the reason I get out of bed every morning and do what I do. I want to show my girls that the world is their oyster and that you don’t have to choose between a family and a career and that you have both.
We have a small team of amazing women who work at Stella! Each team member has so much passion and drive to not only make Stella a success but really make a huge difference for women in Australia.
Stella was founded by Sam White. Sam is no stranger to building rule-breaking brands. In fact, she’s been doing it for 20 years in the UK and even started her own insurance company when she was just 24, acutely aware that it was traditionally considered a male-dominated, almost-sterile industry. Sam believes in building businesses that work for everyone; the people they employ, the communities they operate in and the customers they serve. Even more so, she passionately believes that we need more women in this environment, in the financial services sector, and in politics.
Our other key team member is Anita Manchester. She’s a dynamic leader, seasoned marketer and resolute optimist with a vision to put women back in the driver’s seat. She’s bringing the Stella story to life through purpose-driven values, building a community of like-minded women, developing trusted partnerships (including WAGEC!) and ultimately helping to educate, support and empower the lives of Australian women.
What are you doing to support WAGEC?
At Stella Insurance, we’re always looking for ways to partner with like-minded people and organisations to drive actionable and progressive change for the women of Australia. That’s why in February 2021 we were thrilled to announce our partnership with the Women’s and Girls’ Emergency Centre (WAGEC) to support women, amplify their voices and help put an end to gender-based violence.
Since then, we’ve been looking for a range of tangible ways to further support the WAGEC Community. Along with elevating the incredible work this grassroots organisation does to support women in crisis, we wanted to provide material aid to the hundreds of women and families WAGEC supports every year.
We’re thrilled to share the next stage of our partnership with WAGEC and drive real change, support and empowerment for women and children who have experienced homelessness and domestic violence.
This year, we will be donating $5 from every new car insurance policy we sell to support WAGEC’s Donations Program.
What inspired you to support WAGEC?
When we looked to partner with WAGEC, we knew that we wanted to partner with an organisation that we could see and be part of the change. It’s easy to partner charities where simply donating money feels good, but we wanted to really be involved and utilise our time, audience, and voice to help make a difference.
As a conscious business, Stella has a vision to change the game for women by striving for equality and empowering women. We felt that the only way we can help drive change beyond insurance was to use our profits for good to be able to help change the lives of other women.
There was a natural alignment of values between both organisations to support, empower and educate women to drive impact change. WAGEC is a business created by women, to support women, which is not dissimilar to Stella.
With gender-based violence being such a huge issue in Australia we found WAGEC an inspiring organisation that not only created safe spaces for women and children impacted by homelessness, domestic violence and social disadvantage. Equally they create and build programs for women to gain financial independence through training and education opportunities and targeted support for children and young people to break the cycle of violence, intergenerational trauma and social disadvantage. They are also extremely active in the prevention movement focused on ending gender-based violence in the next generation.
For the Stella team, it is also a social cause that is close to our hearts with some of our team growing up in homes where violence was prevalent, we are still dealing with the scars of that today. That is why we are so passionate about working with WAGEC. We need to use our voices, our power and our reach to educate and help WAGEC to change the story for Australian women.
What does community mean to you?
Community is about bringing people together through sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. Stella’s ethos of community has always been an important part of how we collaborate with people and organisations. We believe in the power of the group and creating a community to help bring likeminded people together with aligned values and shared purpose to help realise our vision.
Strong communities are critical because they're often an important source of social connection and a sense of belonging. Participating in a community bonded by attitudes, values, and goals is an essential ingredient to driving change and making a difference in life.
