Future Generation announces major new fund for disadvantaged women 

Future Generation Women hopes to support five to 10 organisations that work with the fund’s priority cohorts to improve access to employment. Those cohorts include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women; refugee and migrant women; older women living in poverty; women with disability; single mothers and carers; rural, regional and remote women; and women building a life after incarceration.

Speaking to the Advocate, Future Generation’s social impact director, Emily Fuller, said the fund expected that the grant round would reveal a new group of not-for-profits already dedicated to the advancement of these cohorts of women.

“We’re really focused with this grant round on economic factors,” she said. “We’re hoping that will mean a whole new group of specialist organisations who are really championing the women who face the greatest barriers to employment or enterprise.”

Organisations looking to apply will need to move fast, because the funding round – which opened on Friday last week (October 3) – closes on Monday, October 20.

However, Fuller said the tight timeframe wasn’t as challenging as it sounded, because the funding is untied, meaning applicant organisations are not being asked to create entirely new streams of intended work, just to explain their existing strategies and activities.

“If you pick up any giving guide, it will say best practice is untied funding, and we’re trying to do the best philanthropy that we can do,” she said. “Our experience working with so many non-profits is that we’ll never know as much as they know about what needs to be done now, to be able to increase their effectiveness or reach those with the highest needs. We just think it's an efficient way of doing it, to be honest. We focus our due diligence on the organisational level: we’re looking at strategic plans, we’re looking at leadership, we’re looking at governance, we’re looking at how the work aligns with our goals, and once we’re comfortable with the organisation, we would always say, what do you need it for?”

This first round of funding, aimed at helping disadvantaged women to find paths to employment, will be followed by two more rounds over the next couple of years, as the fund builds and grows.

The second round will be aimed at building financial literacy for girls and young women, while the third will be aimed at breaking through the systemic gender norms that hold women back.

“That’s obviously a very big topic, but the evidence says that it’s harmful gender norms that keep all existing inequalities in place, so if we’re not having a go at that, we’re not going for the jugular, if that makes sense,” Fuller said.

At the launch, she explained, “Future Generation Women wants to see Australia unlock its full potential through increased participation by women – and become the fair, productive and competitive economy it can be. Removing the barriers to women’s full and equal participation in economic activity is worth $128 billion to the Australian economy.” The activity figure came from Deloitte Access Economics, she said.

The new fund joins existing work by Future Generation to tackle mental health difficulties at the source and to empower children and young people under 14 years of age facing early life adversity.

Future Generation Women follows the organisation’s proven model, which brings together top-tier financial investment managers with a commitment to social impact. It is backed by the Minderoo Foundation, which seeded the fund with a $100 million investment.

Speaking at the launch, the founder and chair of Minderoo Foundation, Nicola Forrest, said, “Future Generation Women is an important and welcomed spotlight on women and their potential in Australia – particularly those in the funds management industry. To truly shift the dial and overcome the outdated norms that hold our entire country back, we need changemakers ready to speak up, act, and embrace collaboration. This is why we’re proud to stand alongside Future Generation as it champions investment in women.”

As part of that commitment, Future Generation Women’s fund will be managed exclusively by 12 leading female fund managers, who will waive all their usual performance and management fees so that one per cent of the fund’s assets can be donated each year to not-for-profits, without affecting shareholder returns.

“I guess our model of having all women fund managers is in itself an action on gender norms,” Fuller said. “Those women are a minority in their field, and so we are trying to channel that money to them to be able to give them a bigger platform and be able to promote them as role models to younger women and other people out there, and to be able to showcase their results.”

More information

For more information or to submit an application, click here.