Nicola and Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation will pour in $100 million to kickstart an all-women investment fund that will provide capital for listed companies with strong gender equity policies and donate 1 per cent of assets to non-profits improving women’s economic prosperity.

Future Generation Women is the latest arm of philanthropic investment company Future Generation, established by prominent fund manager Geoff Wilson a decade ago, and run by Caroline Gurney.

“If women are fully utilised and you tap into the skills and talent of women, there’s going to be more women in the workforce,” Gurney said. “At the moment, gender inequality costs Australia $128 billion. By investing more in women, you’re going to have a much fairer society.”

The Future Generation model, which donates a portion of its assets because fund managers are not charging fees, has more than $1 billion under management and donated $87 million to non-profits over the past 10 years.

Twelve high-profile stock pickers, including Jun Bei Liu from Tribeca Investments and Emma Fisher from Airlie Asset Management, will join Future Generation Women on a pro-bono basis after being selected by an investment committee.

They will bring a “gender lens” into investment decisions, prioritising organisations that have strong gender equality policies as well as a track record

The unlisted trust will initially be available only to institutional investors who are required to make a minimum investment of $250,000, with the aim of expanding it to retail investors over the coming years.

Minderoo Foundation committed the $100 million seed funding. Its chief executive, John Hartman, attended the fund’s launch in Sydney on Wednesday, highlighting just 19 per cent of fund managers in an industry worth $4.3 trillion are women.