Investment Options

Preserving Your Charitable Assets for Perpetual Impact

We are committed to responsibly managing your charitable assets. Our investment strategy focuses on maintaining a sound balance between meeting annual spending (grant) requirements and preserving the real (inflation-adjusted) value of assets. This means that your endowment contributions will be invested wisely to generate an annual funding stream while ensuring the long-term purchasing power of your donations remains intact.

Investment Management

Investment in our charitable funds is subject to several layers of fiduciary oversight.

Investment Committee

This group, comprised of at least three current Board members, puts that policy into practice and monitors our portfolios’ performances. The Investment Committee is supported by an advisory group of community leaders who have strong business and institutional investment backgrounds to assure depth of knowledge and diversity of perspectives.

Investment Options

The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro offers four primary investment options: Main (Long-Term) Pool, ESG Pool, Direct Asset Manager Portfolios, and Charitable Trusts’ Portfolios.

Most assets are invested in one of the Community Foundation’s pools, based on the preference and the time horizons of our donors. Large investment pools benefit from economies of scale in terms of both investment fees and access to types of investment holdings. Over time, lower investment fees result in higher annual grant support for charitable causes.

Main Pool

Our largest pool to date has a long-term horizon, with a broadly diversified portfolio, including specific allocations to private capital investments. For this long-term pool, the Investment Committee is responsible for selecting the investment managers, along with all other aspects of investment policy.

The Community Foundation also has a short-term pool which is invested solely in cash equivalents, and an option for a 50/50 “balanced” pool, invested in publicly traded, liquid equity, and fixed income holdings.

ESG Pool

Investments for this pool are focused on investment managers and underlying companies that integrate environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) factors into their business practices and decision-making processes. As with the Main Pool, the ESG Pool has a long-term focus and the Investment Committee is responsible for selecting its managers and overseeing the investment policy.

Direct Asset Manager Portfolios

These represent a pool(s) of charitable assets managed by local investment advisor(s) in order to enhance client relationships and facilitate charitable giving to the Community Foundation. The minimum balance for a Direct Asset Manager portfolio is $500,000, and total fees should be comparable to the Community Foundation’s Main Pool. Direct Asset Manager accounts may not confer any financial benefit to the donor or related party. The Investment Committee maintains fiduciary responsibilities for the approval of these Manager relationships, along with oversight of asset allocation and investment policy.

Charitable Trusts’ Portfolios

These are charitable trust accounts, established by donors, in which the Community Foundation retains a financial interest.

Investment managers may be selected by the donor. Similar to a Direct Asset Manager portfolio, the Investment Committee maintains all fiduciary responsibilities for these assets and for setting overall investment policy.

To learn more about any of these investment options, our investment strategy, or our investment management, contact Marci.