You entrust your charitable dollars to us. We help you achieve your goals using sound financial principles and careful stewardship.
We take great care to invest your funds wisely, transparently and prudently, so they will grow over time and be available for grant-making now and for generations to come.
We work with our community-led Investment Committee of seasoned experts, in partnership with NEPC, LLC, an institutional investment consulting firm, to utilize a diversified portfolio strategy that emphasizes growth and capital appreciation while protecting your investments. We want you to be able to support your favorite causes and nonprofits for years to come. The cornerstone of our investment strategy is the preservation of capital, so funds are available for our community, regardless of market performance.
When you establish a fund, you will have the opportunity to participate in our investment portfolio, hold the fund in our money market account or invest through your current financial partner. A description of the Area Foundation’s Investment portfolio is described below.
The Legacy Portfolio is designed for long term growth. It is a diversified portfolio of global equity, global fixed income, and alternatives. Within equity, the portfolio contains exposure to both developed and emerging regions, across all capitalization ranges. Within fixed income, allocations exist to domestic investment grade and global sovereign debt. The Portfolio also contains allocations to illiquid direct lending investments and may contain private equity and/or hedge funds. In terms of implementation of the strategy, the Portfolio is executed via a combination of index funds and active managers, with index funds being utilized in efficient areas of the market while world class active managers have been chosen for less efficient areas.
The Managed Portfolio is similar to the Legacy Portfolio in that it is appropriate for those looking for long term growth, and it is a diversified portfolio of global equity and global fixed income. However, unlike the Legacy Portfolio, the use of alternatives is limited to a relatively small allocation to liquid real assets (natural resource equity, commodities, and inflation linked bonds). Within equity, the portfolio contains exposure to both developed and emerging regions, across all capitalization ranges. Within fixed income, allocations exist to both investment grade and below investment grade debt, as well as global sovereign debt. There are no allocations to direct lending, private equity or hedge funds in this portfolio, therefore diversification is not as broad as in the Legacy Portfolio. In terms of implementation of the strategy, the Portfolio is executed via a combination of index funds and active managers, with index funds being utilized in efficient areas of the market while world class active managers have been chosen for less efficient areas.
The 60/40 Index is appropriate for those seeking more modest growth as it is invested 60 percent equity, 40 percent fixed income. Diversification is more limited than in the Legacy and Managed portfolios in that the majority of equity exposure is in domestic markets, with modest exposure to international developed and emerging geographies. Similarly, fixed income exposure is solely focused on domestic Treasury securities. In terms of implementation, index vehicles are used in this portfolio, with no active management.
As a 501(c)(3) public charitable organization, we take pride in providing clear, transparent information about our financial position, investment management, performance and fees. We are committed to prudent fund distributions and long-term investing so that your charitable gifts will go further in our community.
