internationalwomensday.com website is run by marketing company Aurora Ventures and is not approved by or connected to the United Nations or UN Women which organises international observances of International Women’s Day on 8 March every year. Aurora Ventures claims the website is provided “as a not-for-profit philanthropic service by Aurora Ventures (Europe) Limited”.

However the Guardian reported in 2025 that the website sells International Women’s Day merchandise packs that include purple tablecloths, purple “gratitude cards” and purple wristbands for £184 each, and hosts directories for speakers and charities. By selling merchandise, promoting a £160 lunch to awaken attenders’ “inner goddess” and creating a series of corporate partnerships, internationalwomensday.com has linked its annual themes with British brands and institutions that appear to have mistaken the site for the UN.

And it has to be admitted that the site is more attractive and has more information and suggestions than the UN Women’s Day official page. For example, it allows anyone to register their forthcoming events and lets anyone search for local events.

Every year it has its own theme which is different from the UN’s theme, but it is often this theme that is mentioned in the media and on websites. Indeed, UNA Coventry’s website has done so in the past.

A spokesperson for UN Women confirmed that these themes had nothing to do with UN-selected themes, saying “Each year, a group of global experts determines the official theme for International Women’s Day, which is subsequently communicated through our official channels at the beginning of the year. We encourage all partners to adopt the United Nations theme.”

The UN Women spokesperson also said the colours on internationalwomensday.com were not UN-selected colours for the campaign. In 2025 the BBC, the Evening Standard and other publications and websites, including this one, cited the website as if it operated in an official capacity.

The University of Warwick removed a blog post referencing internationalwomensday.com’s theme. A spokesperson for the university said: “We were not aware of this PR firm or the unofficial capacity of its website. We have inadvertently used its theme Accelerate Action for one of our MBA blogs. This is unfortunate and we have taken down the blog to avoid any further confusion.”

More than 900 people have so far signed an Open Letter to the owners of the website internationalwomensday.com demanding that it “contribute meaningfully” or step aside. You can read and sign the Open Letter here.

We recommend that UN Women and Aurora Ventures talk to each other and find a way of working together. In the meantime, we suggest that those interested in running Women’s Day events consult both websites and decide which one they will make use of.

The two sites are: https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day and https://internationalwomensday.com/.