Kathy Magrobi, founder and director of the non-profit, says that the donations has helped the organisation reach almost 60% of its fundraising target in the first seven days of the campaign.

The campaign, which was launched on Thursday, 29 October, aims to raise R55 000 in 30 days. By midday on Thursday, 5 November, the kitty had stood at R 29 744.91. According to the organisation, this proves just how much South Africans are keen to rally behind its cause.

The organisation's key focus in 2020 has been building its database of women+ experts as a resource for media organisations to diversify whose voices get quoted in the news.

QW+ volunteers have grown the database exponentially since the onset of Covid-19, says the organisation, and it now hosts over 370 women+ experts, including leading public health figures and specialists in fields from agriculture to zoology.

The + in the name means that the database encompasses all marginalised voices.

Magrobi says that the money donated so far translated to a year of hosting for the QW+ database, adding ten new women+ experts, answering five media queries and fuelling volunteers with coffee and data for a week.

"Every donation, large and small, makes a difference. Every donation is a stitch in our safety net for 2021, a year that will need women's voices more urgently than at any time in our history," she adds.

"The organisation was founded in 2019, aiming to redress the imbalance of voices in the South African media. Less than 20% of sources quoted in the news are women," Magrobi concludes.

The fundraising campaign ends on Friday, 27 November. The next event will be the organisation's first-ever storytelling evening.

Individuals who would like to contribute to the organisation are encouraged to do so here. 

For more information, visit www.quotethiswoman.org.za. You can also follow QW+ on Facebook or on Twitter.