The Third Link Growth fund, launched last year by former CFS chief executive Chris Cuffe, only attracted $28 million in funds, well below Cuffe's $150 million target and despite the fund's outperformance.

One year on, the fund lost more than 13 per cent over the year to the end of May, beating the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index by more than 17 per cent by not being fully invested in growth orientated stocks and having a tilt towards international shares.

The fund had more than 77 per cent of its fund invested in Australian and international shares and over 22 per cent in fixed interest securities and cash. However, unlike some managed funds, the fund had less than 50 basis points invested in cash.

The fund is designed to provide Social Ventures Australia (SVA) with a regular income stream of around $1.5 million per year once the fund reaches $150 million in funds under management.

So far, the fund has donated $200,000 to SVA, which divides the sum across a number of charities including the Beacon Foundation and Youngcare.

But the fund has suffered from an overall fall in investor sentiment as many retail and institutional investors wait on the sidelines for signs of market stability.

"While I would have hoped the fund would be closed by now, the global financial crisis put a strong brake on inflows almost immediately after the fund's launch," wrote Cuffe in the fund report.

"We do however expect applications to progressively increase as investor confidence in equity markets slowly returns."

Cuffe said he would continue to promote the fund using word of mouth and pro bono advertisements.

"If we thought we had to give it a harder pay push we would. The feedback to us is people would use the fund once they feel more comfortable with the markets," he said.

"We've had around 7,000 hits on the website so I think there's a lot of interest in the product, but we're not bigger than the global financial crisis."

The fund is supported largely on a pro-bono basis by some of the biggest names in financial services including Ernst & Young, Deloitte, Treasury Group, RBC Dexia Investor Services Trust and BT Financial Group.

The fund is invested with 17 fund managers including Australian equities specialists Cooper Investors and Platypus Asset Management; global credit and cash manager Colonial First State Investments and alternative investment managers Select Asset Management and Ellerston Capital.