Investments: Managing Foundation Assets for Greater Impact Imagine a foundation with $10 million in assets. To meet the 5% distribution requirement, it must allocate $500,000 annually. While foundations carefully manage their grant distributions, what happens to the remaining $9.5 million? This section explores how foundations manage investments, including oversight responsibilities and key fiduciary principles. Smart... Read More
In 2020, the pandemic upended our daily lives and the philanthropic landscape. But the Claire Friedlander Family Foundation‘s board saw this crisis as an opportunity to transform their giving, investment focus and protocol — proactively aligning the assets of the foundation with its mission. The pandemic and ensuing hardships gave the board the impetus to... Read More
For many years, small-staffed foundations have been at the heart of the impact investing movement, joining with, and at times leading, larger philanthropies. Small-staffed foundations tend to be more agile than their larger, staffed counterparts; they often have more knowledge on needs in certain issue areas and geographies; they’re better positioned to deploy a greater... Read More
Financial advisors who work with investment committees of foundations, endowments, and other philanthropic entities find the fiduciary standard an important component of their work. But many are actually not fiduciaries. In fact, the Dodd–Frank legislation of 2010 required the SEC to study the fiduciary standard, because there is a good deal of confusion among investors... Read More
For the past few years, investors have enjoyed a long period of relative calm in the markets. In recent months, however, market volatility has begun to rear its head. This volatility can naturally be unnerving, but one must remember that volatility is, in fact, a normal part of the investing cycle. Those of us that... Read More
It’s that time of year again—the days are getting warmer, daffodils and tulips in bloom, and for many, a bit of spring cleaning. Now, have you considered the same for your investment portfolio? This ten step checklist can help: 1. Has the organization’s risk tolerance changed? Think about the time horizon of your organization, an... Read More