Heading for Change, the climate- and gender-focused endowment fund launched last month by impact investor Suzanne Biegel and her husband, Daniel Maskit, has received its first commitments from the Skoll and Laudes foundations, the Pioneers Post reports.

Commitment include $500,000 from Skoll and a “decent-sized investment” from Laudes. The couple has a goal to grow the endowment to $10 million; combined with the initial $1 million provided by Biegel and Maskit, the fund now holds nearly $2 million. Heading for Change is structured as a donor-advised fund and managed by ImpactAssets.

Biegel, the co-founder of GenderSmart, which is now 2X Global, revealed last month that she was terminally ill with lung cancer and created Heading for Change as her legacy project.

“Climate action will only work if it involves all of us,” said Laudes Foundation CEO Leslie Johnston. “The nexus between climate and gender is still not understood or even integrated in how investors and businesses operate. Our seed support of this important initiative is, we hope, a signaling action to show other foundations that this is a critically important topic, and it needs funders—from both the philanthropic and private sectors—to support it.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/AJ Watt)