Andrew and Nicola Forrest, two of Australia’s richest people, have donated more than $150 million through their philanthropic foundation to a gender equality charity.
Over the next nine years, the Minderoo Foundation, founded by the Forrests in 2001, will give USD $100 million (AUD $153.4 million) to Co-Impact’s Gender Fund, a fund aimed to achieve fairness and equality for women and girls around the world.
It is the biggest grant to date donated by the Minderoo Foundation, according to the Foundation’s annual report for 2023, as the Gender Fund aims to raise USD $1 billion in the next decade.
As we publish our 2023 Annual Report we're filled with gratitude for our team’s relentless and our partners’ efforts and support. From Ukraine missions to “My Home” success, ocean conservation to advancing equality, we celebrate our collective achievements https://t.co/ViJ73acAxg pic.twitter.com/6wRySM82e0
— Minderoo Foundation (@minderoo) February 14, 2024
Nicola Forrest was appointed on Co-Impact’s board last year and said the grant will help foster the progress needed to achieve a better world for women and girls.
“We cannot achieve meaningful progress in any area if we leave half of the world’s population behind,” the philanthropist said in Minderoo’s annual report.
The Forrests join several other high-profile philanthropists who have also donated to Co-Impact’s Gender Fund, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, Tsitsi Masiyiwa, and MacKenzie Scott, billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeffery Bezos.
Co-Impact’s Gender Fund will narrow its focus to helping women and girls in Asia, Latin America and Africa. The money donated will help fund women-led groups such as local not-for-profits, civil society groups, think tanks, academic institutions and more.
According to the Minderoo Foundation’s annual report, just nine per cent of global philanthropic funds are dedicated to gender equality, while just one per cent is for women’s rights organisations. In Australia, only 12 per cent of philanthropy goes towards causes for women and girls.
The Minderoo Foundation was founded more than 20 years ago by Andrew and Nicola Forrest and is now led by acting chief executive officer John Hartman.
Hartman is the only male executive on the nine-person leadership team.
The Forrest wealth
Andrew Forrest is an Australian businessman and former CEO of Fortescue Metals. While the pair have separated as of last year, Andrew and Nicola Forrest have committed to donating a large portion of the family’s wealth, to the tune of more than $30 billion.
As a billionaire, Andrew Forrest is one of the three richest Australians, alongside Gina Rinehart and Harry Triguboff.
Earlier this year, a report from Oxfam found the combined wealth of Rinehart, Forrest and Triguboff has more than doubled since 2020, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the billionaires have made, on average, $1.5 million per hour since 2020. Billionaires around the world are almost $5 trillion wealthier than in 2020.
CNN once made the comparison that “if you start spending a million dollars every single day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn’t have spent a trillion dollars”.