A new initiative has launched with the aim of using £50m of dormant assets to help create the UK’s first endowment fund for women’s charities. The Women’s Forever Fund launched in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 28th January and is being supported by the Women’s Resource Centre, which represents over 4,000 members and connects with approximately 20,000 women’s organisations nationwide.

The fund is currently seeking an initial contribution of £50m from the government, drawn from the Dormant Assets Scheme, which corporate partners and philanthropists have indicated that they will match-fund. After the initial contributions are made, the Women’s Resource Centre said it is seeking a total of £350m from government, corporates and philanthropists to be ethically invested over the next six years, with a return of over £20m for grantmaking over this period.