As your philanthropic partner, we strengthen your client relationships by serving as a specialist in philanthropic education and charitable giving goalsetting while keeping your client’s financial, personal, and business objectives in mind. We can assist you behind the scenes or in any capacity that helps you best deliver true value and expertise to all those you serve.
Here’s why advisors from across Greater Greensboro work with us:
Reputation
We’ve been a trusted partner in the community for more than 35 years, with approximately 700 funds and close to $300 million in assets.
Knowledge
We are experts on giving and can provide you with resources on fund types and giving strategies to meet your clients’ objectives.
Connections
Our staff has the extensive local knowledge and relationships necessary to ensure your clients’ contributions can make the largest impact.
Options
We offer a variety of investment pools as well as outside managed pools for aggregate fund balances of $500,000 or more that allow you to be actively involved in your clients’ investment strategy.
Flexibility
We accept a variety of assets from your clients including cash, stock, life insurance, real estate, business interests, and more.
Access
We can provide you with access to our resource site for Professional Advisors called GiftLaw, a free resource with online tools like the GiftLaw calculator, which enables you to calculate charitable deductions for your clients, and GiftLaw Pro, for researching the latest gift planning information.
Accountability
The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro meets the stringent criteria set forth by the National Standards for U.S. Community Foundations.
We take our role as philanthropic experts in our community very seriously, and we are eager to assist you in serving your clients with tax, legal, and regulatory insights and information regarding tax-savvy charitable giving vehicles. Feel free to use the following resources while preparing plans for or meeting with your clients. If you have questions or would like to request that our staff join you in discussions with your clients, contact us.
Conversation Guides and Workbooks
Philanthropic Educational Resources
Questions?
- Feel free to explore our website for comprehensive information, but if you can't find what you need, we're here to help. Don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or specific inquiries you may have—our team is ready to assist you in navigating the resources tailored to meet your financial advisory needs. Contact Us
We pledge to be good stewards of your charitable assets. Our overarching investment purpose is adherence to a sound investment policy which balances annual spending (grant) needs with preservation of the real (inflation-adjusted) value of assets. In other words, today’s endowment contributions will be prudently invested, provide an annual funding stream, and at a minimum maintain purchasing power in perpetuity.
Investment Management
Investment of our charitable funds is subject to several layers of fiduciary oversight.
The Board of Directors
The Community Foundation’s 30-member group of community leaders and advocates has the ultimate fiduciary responsibility for all of our assets in addition to approving the Investment Policy Statement.
The 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. The robust deliberations of this entire group occur at least quarterly.
The Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
An executive on our staff engages with investment professionals and shoulders the day-to-day administrative responsibilities of our portfolios.
Investment Consultant
An independent consultancy firm performs investment research, recommends investment strategy and asset allocation, and provides investment performance reporting. The Fund Evaluation Group (FEG) has been engaged since 2002 to serve in this fiduciary role and advise the Investment Committee and CFO in all aspects of overseeing our portfolios.
Investment Managers
These individuals manage the underlying assets in our portfolios and report regularly to all the other groups, committees, and individuals above.
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 of charitable causes.
Main (Long-Term) 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.
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 trusts 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.
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.
To learn more about any of these investment options, our investment strategy, or our investment management, contact Marci.