Building Relationships
The stability of our firm and the continuity of our people allow us to build enduring relationships with foundations and other not-for-profit organizations. Based on a thorough understanding of your organization’s mission, values, and resources, our goal is to help you strengthen your financial position and respond to new challenges and opportunities.
Our investment process is based on a transparent and continual dialogue among trustees, board members, and their portfolio managers. By drawing on our strategic asset allocation capabilities and proven research expertise, we design customized portfolios and financial guidance for every step of the organization’s growth.
Investment Policy Development
A not-for-profit’s investment policy statement is the foundation of the investment process. In addition to helping the organization’s governing body meet its fiduciary duties, a well-documented policy statement provides structure and parameters to the investment process.
We work closely with foundations, endowments, and other not-for-profit organizations to create investment policy statements that articulate:
- Investment objectives, risk tolerance, and time frame
- Target rates of return and macroeconomic assumptions
- Acceptable types of investments and prohibited transactions
- Process for selecting, monitoring, and replacing investment managers
- Acceptable allocation ranges for asset classes
- Cash distribution guidelines and requirements
- Timeline for reviewing investment performance and guidelines
Research Analysis
The firm’s highly regarded internal research capabilities are complemented by an open-architecture platform designed to offer clients access to asset classes and leading managers throughout the industry.
Whether researching a specific company or evaluating an external money manager, our bottom-up research process involves:
- Extensive meetings with management and key industry contacts
- Detailed financial analysis
- Ongoing due diligence
Risk Management
As part of the ongoing dialogue with our clients, we continually identify potential challenges to the portfolio and identify asset-allocation strategies to mitigate these risks. Our active management and strategic asset allocation capabilities are designed to create portfolios that are able to respond to evolving opportunities and risks in today’s global markets and to attempt to maximize the portfolio’s long-term success.
