Forever Fund

For more information about the Women's Forever Fund, please go to our dedicated website: www.womensforeverfund.org.uk

And if you haven't already, please sign our petition, which is calling for a long-term funding settlement for the women's sector! www.change.org/womensfund

Baroness Shaista Gohir kindly hosted our launch event

The women's sector needs a bold and ambitious plan to address the chronic and worsening funding crisis of the women's sector.

WRC, together with its National Advisory Board, has developed a proposal for The Women's Forever Fund – an ethical investment vehicle for long-term, sustainable funding.

We are seeking an initial government contribution of £50 million, drawn from the Dormant Assets Scheme, from which the women’s sector has never previously benefited.

Corporate partners and philanthropists have indicated they will match-fund if the government commits first, unlocking long-term, blended investment and establishing stable, future-facing funding for vital women’s services.

We have three main objectives:

1. Financial Sustainability and Collectivity

Create a long-term, stable funding source for the women’s sector that can generate socially responsible returns for a core costs grant-making programme.

This financial security, outside of the competitive commissioning model, will also encourage collective voice and action from the women’s sector to drive progressive social change.

2. Empowerment and Gender Equality

Finance organisations that support and empower women, resulting in better physical and mental health, more lives saved, higher levels of education and skills, less poverty, happier parenting and more confidence and resilience.

3. Social Impact and Community Engagement

Measure and report on the social justice outcomes of funded organisations, ensuring transparency and accountability. Organisations will have more capacity for social change work and to encourage their service users to do so, too.

Jess Phillips, then Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls endorsed our proposal at the event

Projected annual grant allocation

Assuming 40% of returns are distributed to women’s organisations from a target annual return, over a 10-year period, of 7% per annum (Source: CCLA Investment Management):

We are seeking £350 million from government, corporates and philanthropists to be ethically invested over 6 years. We expect a return of over £20million for grant-making over this period.

This amount will continue to grow over time, lessening the investment burden.

Ethical Investment

The fund avoids companies or sectors that contribute to environmental harm, such as fossil fuel companies, engaged in harmful or unethical practices such as gambling, pornography, tobacco, alcohol and arms.

Contributing towards the Forever Fund will, therefore, be the gold standard for Corporate Social Responsibility.

Launch

A launch event for the campaign was held at the House of Lords on January 28th 2026. Read more about it here.

We are all very excited to finally get this project off the ground. The sector needs a bold and ambitious plan to get us out of the never-ending financial quagmire we have been facing for decades.

Blog

We have a Women's Forever Fund blog where you can read the latest news and funding analysis:

What £50k Can't Do - Any Why We Keep Pretending It Can (Jan 2026)

The Forever Fund Campaign is Live - and the Energy was Electric (Feb 2026)

What on Earth is an Ethical Endowment - and Why Does it Matter for Women? (Feb 2026)

Dormant Assets: A Quick Explainer (And Who Really Decides Where the Money Goes?) (March 2026)

If Funding Shapes Outcomes, Why are Women's Organisations Still Underfunded? (April 2026)

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For further information please email us at [email protected]

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