Forrests give $150m to gender equality fund

Minderoo has had a major overhaul after an increase in its financial endowment thanks to the Forrests, who although living separate lives, remain committed to giving away a family fortune of more than $30 billion.

The Forrests made the $US100 million gender fund grant without any of the fanfare associated with big Minderoo initiatives in the past – a sign of a new era at the foundation.

The gender fund will direct most of its efforts to countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa via grants to a range of organisations with an emphasis on those led by women.

“We cannot achieve meaningful progress in any area if we leave half of the world’s population behind,” Ms Forrest said in the annual report.

Apart from Mr Hartman, the rest of the Minderoo nine-member executive team are women.

The foundation recently hired former Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth chief executive Penny Dakin as executive director of communities to complete the new leadership team.

Minderoo became one of the biggest philanthropic foundations in the world last June when the Forrests tipped in 220 million shares in iron ore miner Fortescue. The shares were worth about $5 billion at the time and represented about a fifth of their total shareholding in the company.

The Australian Financial Review revealed a month later that Dr Forrest, the Fortescue founder and executive chairman, and Ms Forrest had separated after 31 years of marriage, but remained aligned on the future direction of Fortescue, Minderoo and their private company Tattarang.

The share donation took Minderoo’s endowment to about $7.6 billion from $2.6 billion. The endowment now stands at about $9 billion thanks to an increase in the Fortescue share price since last June.

Overhauled focus

The Forrests opted to sharpen Minderoo’s focus to three core areas last year in an acknowledgement that they may have taken on too many causes in too many jurisdictions.

Mr Hartman said the overhaul put more emphasis on work in Australia and the Asia Pacific, and on helping vulnerable communities, gender and equality, and protecting oceans as part of the Forrest vision “to create a society that values all people and natural ecosystems”.

Minderoo expenditure increased to $268 million in 2022-23, up from $178 million in the previous year.

The annual report highlights the release of the fifth edition of Walk Free’s Global Slavery Index, which exposed an increase in the number of people living in modern slavery, and Minderoo’s work with partners to provide housing for homeless women in Western Australia.

Other initiatives include Minderoo’s war on plastics; a landmark national study on seafood mislabelling and species substitution; and Minderoo’s support of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (High Seas Treaty) to establish large-scale marine protected areas in the high seas.

Minderoo also provided funding for housing, education and support for children in Ukraine hit by Russia’s invasion and help in the recovery from the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria last February.

The foundation gave $20 million to a cancer centre at Sydney Children’s Hospital, $10 million to a skin cancer centre at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, backed a WA hospice for sick children and their families and campaigned against vaping.

More recently, Minderoo committed $10 million in humanitarian aid for civilians affected by the conflict in Gaza.

Mr Hartman said Minderoo wanted to remain nimble so it could respond to events like the Gaza conflict while working on its long-term goals in communities, gender equity and protecting oceans.

Mr Hartman said the new executive team and structure set Minderoo up for a big increase in the scale of its work over the second half of 2023-24 and into next year.

“We want to make sure that we’re bringing partners together, and backing partners and empowering our partners to deliver real change,” he said.

“We want to keep thinking globally and acting locally, and I think that’s an extremely positive thing for Australia. It is quite an incredible thing for Australia to have a philanthropic organisation with the resources that Minderoo holds.”

Mr Hartman is also chief executive of Tattarang, the privately-owned Forrest family entity that owns businesses like Squadron Energy, nickel miner Wyloo and RM Williams.