Client Corner – Rachel Taylor

Castlefield adviser Olivia Bowen was recently in conversation with one of our clients, Rachel Taylor, about her work as Executive Director at the charity Every Casualty Counts.

Olivia Bowen (OB): What does Every Casualty Counts do?

Rachel Taylor (RT): Every Casualty Counts strives to ensure that every death from armed conflict is recognised as an individual human tragedy, not just a statistic. We provide technical and practical support to people and organisations around the world who undertake the painstaking task of documenting the dead. We also work with diplomats and international policy makers to increase support for this vital work.

As Executive Director Rachel describes herself as a Jack of all trades - like most small charities, it means Rachel does everything that others aren’t directly responsible for. This includes the strategic direction, compliance, fundraising, website content, translations, marketing, research, paying bills, even the photocopying!

She joined the organisation in 2018, having previously been Director of Programmes for Child Soldiers International. Her first role at ECC was as Advocacy Director as she had a background working alongside the UN in Geneva. In 2024, Rachel was asked to step up to the Executive Director position and subsequently flourished in the lead role.

OB: What attracted you to Every Casualty Counts?

RT: Like many people I’d never really thought about what happens when people die in wars, when there is large scale loss of life, and ordinary record-keeping is not able to function properly. I thought there was nothing to be done, surely?

Then I discovered this strange little organisation and read about the work they had done, and learnt that it IS possible to see through the mess and fog; and it’s really important that it’s done, but it’s rarely done consistently and effectively.

It can sound crass to talk about using casualty records to get compensation but if no one takes responsibility for a death families can be left destitute.

This is because it’s not a priority for most funders, but also because it serves some people’s interests really well if they can spread the message that it’s too complicated to provide accountability for lives lost in war. Then they can hide their actions behind the ‘fog of war’ excuse and avoid people looking behind the veil.

Without naming names, if someone accidentally bombed a girls’ school, it’s very helpful for them to be able to say “it’s impossible to know how or why that happened, or who is responsible”. In fact, it’s pretty straightforward to compile the evidence. There are missile fragments, there are flight logs, and nowadays there is satellite footage and mobile phone footage as well.

It can sound crass to talk about using casualty records to get compensation but if no one takes responsibility for a death families can be left destitute. For example, in many countries, if a widow doesn’t have proof that her husband has died, she can’t claim ownership of the house they live in, or any war widow pension, or even remarry.

This can leave her and her children destitute. It can also benefit the state because they can keep the dead person’s assets – this is especially egregious when it’s the state itself who was responsible for the death.”

Rachel gave an example of how it can work within an authoritarian government - the Syrian Assad regime was renowned for not issuing death certificates; and there was usually no body returned to the family either. So, families knew their loved one was dead but couldn’t prove it. In some cases, the state would only issue a death certificate if the family agreed to say that their relative was killed by opposition forces – although the family knew they’d actually been killed by the regime. This creates a trail of false evidence, and makes it harder to successfully prosecute regime officials for war crimes.

OB: How do you find those you need to work with on the ground?

RT: Increasingly organisations find us through word of mouth, but we also actively go out and try to find organisations working in areas where we know there is a lack of transparent information on casualties, for example in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Humanitarian aid agencies and UN field offices also send people to us. But with last year’s USAID cuts, lots of those organisations are much smaller now, so there are far fewer people monitoring events on the ground. This has made the whole sector darker and it’s harder to know what’s going on.

OB: What’s been your biggest challenge and biggest success?

RT: Our biggest challenges are to diversify and grow our funds to keep up with the never-ending proliferation of wars. Over the past decade, the annual death toll has more than doubled compared to the average rate of the previous twenty years. Civilians, especially children, are dying in unprecedented numbers. Drones, AI, and other military technologies have made it quicker, easier and cheaper than ever to kill large numbers of people.

I’m still inspired every day by the work of casualty recorders in our network who have dedicated years to documenting every single person killed in a particular conflict. In Kosovo and Bosnia, for example, there are so-called ‘Books of the Dead’ which identify tens of thousands of individual victims. The Kosovo Memory Book is believed to include details of every single person killed in the war – on all sides - and the Book of Lost Lives names every person killed in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

These projects are deeply human, deeply personal and have been crucial for reconciliation programmes, peace building, international tribunals, and so much more.

These projects are deeply human, deeply personal and have been crucial for reconciliation programmes, peace building, international tribunals, and so much more. They are so valuable as they provide irrefutable proof of what happened, and both sides are forced to acknowledge the suffering of the other. Recognising this shared human pain is fundamental for reconciliation and building a better collective future.

 

 Funding the organisation

ECC is mostly funded by trusts and foundations. One of ECC’s current main funders is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an independent, non-partisan US foundation that receives a large amount of its resources from the US Congress. NED’s access to funds was frozen by the Trump regime in early 2025, at the same time that USAID was shut down, but they successfully took legal action against the Trump administration and regained access to their funds. So, the money stopped temporarily, but has now resumed and funds most of ECC’s work in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan at the moment. ECC’s work in Ukraine is mostly funded by the Government of Luxembourg.

OB: Does the organisation receive donations?

RT: I am very aware how reliant charities like ECC are on the whims of a small number of Governments and foundations, especially in these volatile political times, and so I am determined to diversify our income. Modest, regular donations from a large number of people are so much better from a risk and sustainability perspective than a couple of large grants.

I also feel passionately that as our work is about recognising the value of every individual it makes sense for us to reach out to private donors. It feels right that our funding should come from ordinary people who want to provide solidarity to others, recognising our shared humanity, and refusing to condone the violence being inflicted on them.

For me, this work is a way of taking action against the ‘normalisation’ of war and genocide – and I want everyone to have the opportunity to join us in this. In doing so, we are saying to families bereaved by war, ‘I see your pain. I believe your loved one’s life mattered, and I care about what is happening’. People often feel helpless in the face of these big political events, but we don’t have to be passive. We can act.

Supporting EEC If you’d like to find out more, or donate, please visit Every Casualty Counts - Record. Recognise. Remember. It’s a small, nimble organisation that punches above its weight – every £ donated has a real world impact. Given the rising conflict around the world, if you are motivated to do something but aren’t sure what – in supporting this charity you can take a stand against warmongering politicians who view human lives as little more than ‘collateral damage’. Rachel has calculated that 1000 people giving £13 per month would cover all their core costs!

OB: How did you become a Castlefield client?

RT: I’ve always felt pretty clueless when it comes to finances personally and totally lost whenever people started talking about it. All we knew was that we didn’t want any of our money invested in things we are ethically opposed to. I did some searching and found Castlefield and it just seemed to match exactly what we needed – financial advice that totally aligned with our principles. Olivia has always been so easy to talk to, explains it all clearly, and gives us confidence that we are putting our money away in a safe and ethical manner.

We didn’t want any of our money invested in things we are ethically opposed to. I did some searching and found Castlefield and it just seemed to match exactly what we needed – financial advice that totally aligned with our principles.

OB: As a Castlefield client, why is investing ethically important to you?

RT: I honestly think it’s a non brainer – why wouldn’t you? Unless you like pollution and war why would you want your money to support them?

Since I opened my first bank account with The Co-op, I spend all of my waking (and some subconscious!) hours thinking about how we can make world better, so why would I then stick my money in something that’s actively making it worse?

I believe in the power of individuals – for example if everyone personally divested from fossil fuels, it would have a huge impact. I want to get on and do things rather than wait for Governments to do right thing.

OB: How do you like to spend your time when not working?

RT: I’ll let you know when it happens!!

Get involved

You can follow Every Casualty Counts on LinkedIn: Here

If you would like to support ECC’s work – either in a specific conflict context or in general – please do get in touch with Rachel at Rachel.taylor@everycasualty.org to find out more. There are many ways to get involved and everybody’s contribution is valued.