😮💨 Did You Notice We Went Quiet in Your Inbox?
We’ve been in the middle of restructuring our volunteer newsletter team. We’ve been recruiting, onboarding, answering questions, giving feedback, and building this space back up. It might sound straightforward, but every task has layers. There’s always something to explain, adjust, review — and that’s all part of the process, and that takes time, energy and mental health. Aka, it’s WORK — even writing this email.
The process takes even more time when we’re talking about a team of immigrant volunteers. Everyone has their own jobs, or searching for one, lives, visa issues, family issues, burnout, and everything else that comes with being an international woman in Berlin.
Still, they show up. But when life gets too much and they need to step away, we totally understand — and we’re always grateful for the help they’ve given to IWB!
💪 What we actually do
A lot of people don’t see what happens in the background of IWB.
Here’s a glimpse of what the volunteer team handle every week and every day, for the last years:
Approving and moderating posts
Responding to DMs (including crisis situations)
Writing and editing this newsletter
Creating events, content, partnerships
Fighting the Facebook and Instagram algorithm
Maintaining the website, channels, sister groups and community systems
Using our time, energy, and mental health to hold this space — voluntarily, without significant financial return
We do all of that — and more — to keep supporting women like you, and like us: immigrant women* who came here with hopes and dreams, and now find themselves feeling lost or lonely somewhere along the journey.
To know more about what we do, click here:
🧃 The truth is...
We just reached 40k members (wow! 🤩) and the more people in our community, more responsibilities, more work.
But the truth is — It’s just not sustainable anymore.
And let’s be honest: The world isn’t getting any easier. Far-right parties are rising — even here in Germany. DEI teams are being dismantled. Women’s rights and support programs are constantly under threat.
That’s exactly why spaces like IWB matter more than ever.
We want to keep going — because we know our newsletter, our community, and our events are essential for women like you, women like us.
But to do that, we need your help:
✊ Our Goal: to Pay Women
We talk a lot about sisterhood, feminism, supporting and building a better world for women.
But we can't build that world while replicating the same structures that underpay women — especially immigrant, non-white, non-EU women.
And those are exactly who's behind IWB:
Let’s not repeat what capitalism does to us. Let’s not exploit the unpaid labor of women who are holding this community together. We can do better, for each other.
And trust us: we try talking to brands, getting funds from the government… To pare you from the boring details: it seem often we just have each other in this world to support us 🫤
💸 How you can help
We know not everyone can support financially — and that’s okay, we understand the struggle.
But if even just 25% of our community donates ONLY 1€ a month, we can build a small, ✨paid team✨. That means more meetups, more helpful content, more support, better moderation and yes — a regular newsletter again 😍
💖 Why it matters
Supporting women must go beyond hashtags.
So if this space has ever helped you, inspired you, or made you feel less alone in Berlin, please subscribe to our membership. Even 1€/month makes a BIG difference. And you also get perks: anonymous posting, Telegram chat, discounts, and more!
Here’s Chiedza’s testimonial and a heartfelt reminder of why we should support women-led initiatives and labor, beyond words. Chiedza has been a longtime supporter, mentor, and just an amazing woman to follow and hang out with. 😊
We’re proud and grateful to have her walking this journey alongside us.
We also want to take a moment to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past few years.Your help truly makes a difference 💖
We’ll be back next week — hopefully with your support.
With love,
The IWB Team