Investments & Financials

The communities' charitable assets are held either by The Foundation's corporation known as the The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Inc. (The Corporation) or in trust by one of four trustee banks: Wells Fargo,  Bank of America, NewAlliance Bank, and People's United Bank. Donors determine whether a trustee or the Corporation will manage.

Each document below shows a snapshot of the relative investment performance of The Corporation, including those endowments managed for the Valley Community Foundation, and its two largest trustee banks, and includes each entity's market-driven investment performance benchmark as reported by Colonial Consulting, LLC.

 Investment performance 2nd Quarter 2010

 Investment performance - May 2010

  Investment performance - April 2010

  Investment performance 1st Quarter 2010

  Investment performance 4th Quarter 2009

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The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

 Financial Statements (2009)

 Form 990 (2009)

 IRS Designation Letter

The Valley Community Foundation (Affiliate)

Financial Statements (2009)

 Form 990 (2009)

 IRS Designation Letter

 

In addition to benchmarking the performance against market-driven indices, The Corporation also compares its performance against its community foundation peers nationally. Since inception of the national survey, The Corporation has consistently ranked among the top of its peer group as reflected in the chart below.

The chart represents the Council on Foundations’ national investment survey comprising more than $8.3 billion in charitable assets of more than one hundred of community foundations, for the periods ended December 31, 2009 as reported in February 2010. All data is expressed as percentages, and annualized for periods of more than one year. Effective in 2008, The Council on Foundations began to express performance net of investment management and custodial fees. Therefore, the 3-year through 10-year returns are a blend of next and gross performance. N = number of survey participants and ( ) is a negative number.

	YTD		1 year		3 years		5 years		7 years		10 years
CFGNH Inc.	27.0		27.0		0.8		4.8		8.7		5.7
Relative Benchmark	27.4		27.4		(3.2)		2.2		6.3		3.4
Peer Data	23.8 N=124		23.8 N=124		(0.8) N=111		3.2 N=101		6.9 N=86		3.7 N=63

 

Administrative Fee Policy

The administration of more than 700 component funds making up The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven is the responsibility of the professional staff. Generally, not more than 1% of a trailing 4-quarter market average calculated annually is charged to endowed funds for administrative, investment, and philanthropic services provided by The Community Foundation.

Due diligence is conducted by The Community Foundation staff to insure that nonprofits receiving grants are in good standing, and that all appropriate audit, tax filing, and related reports are complete.

Organization Endowment Fee Policy

The Foundation provides organization endowment services for 501(c)(3) organizations, and all other exempt organizations considered on a case-by-case basis, subject to Board of Directors’ approval. 

For organization endowment funds with a market value less than or equal to $100,000, an annual fee of $25.00 is assessed. For information on fees associated with organizational endowments with a market value greater than $100,000, contact Sharon Cappetta at scappetta@cfgnh.org or (203) 777-7071.

Modifications to The Community Foundation's fee structure are under consideration for 2010.

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven for more than eighty years has been primarily an endowment organization designed to maintain the communities’ charitable assets in perpetuity.  Therefore, the investment management concepts and best practices contained within Connecticut law, such as the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, and the Uniform Prudent Investors Act form the basis of our investment philosophy and strategy. Specifically:

The Community Foundation’s Corporation, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Inc. ( “CFGNH, Inc.” or “The Corporation”), which includes those funds held by The Community Foundation’s affiliate – The Valley Community Foundation, in order to preserve the purchasing power and real economic spending of the endowment, shall manage its assets in accordance with a total-return approach, which does not distinguish between an asset’s yield and appreciation, but rather on the total expected return of the assets over the long-term.  The Foundation will withdraw a specific percentage of the market value from the endowment in accordance with a Spending Rule Policy, which is designed to prudently release a predictable stream of revenue during each fiscal year to meet the region’s charitable needs, while at the same time allowing for maximum flexibility and efficiency of the investment management process.

In order to achieve the spending requirements and maintain the endowment’s purchasing power, the The Corporation operates in accordance with two policies: 1) The Spending Rule Policy and, 2) The Asset Allocation Policy.

Generally, and in the absence of an institution’s desire to retain the right to withdraw principal from its organization endowment within the meaning of financial accounting standard No. 136 under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the process for extracting financial resources from endowment funds to meet the charitable needs of our community is accomplished through a Spending Rule Policy, which is defined as follows:

A Spending Rate, which is determined annually by The Corporaton's Board of Directors, equal to the greater of: a) Fixed percentage¹ of the endowment assets available for investment based on a trailing five-year moving average; or b) Four and One-Quarter Percent (4.25%) (the “Floor”) of the market valuation of the endowment assets at the end of the most recent calendar quarter; provided however in no event shall the Foundation spend more than Five and Three-Quarters Percent (5.75%) (the “Cap”) of the market valuation of the endowment at the end of the most recent calendar quarter.


_{1 The Spending Rate for 2010 is equal to Five and Three-Quarter Percent (5.75%).}

The Corporation's long-term asset allocation model is as follows¹:

Asset Class	Target   Weight	Operating  Range
US Large/Mid Cap Equities	17.5%	15%-20%
US Small Cap Equities	5.0%	3%-8%
Non-Us Developed Equities	17.5%	15%-20%
Non-Us Emerging Equities	5.0%	3%-8%	Total equities 45%
Private Equity	5.0%	2%-8%
Absolute Return	10.0%	7%-13%
Hedged Equity	10.0%	7%-13%
Real Assets	10.0%	7%-13%	Total alternatives 35%
Bonds	20.0%	15%-25%	Total bonds 20%

Based on the expected rate of return of each asset class in proportion to its respective target weighting, The Corporation’s endowment has an annualized expected rate of return over the long-term equal of approximately  9.2%,  thereby achieving both the spending and purchasing power (inflation protection) financial policy requirements discussed above.

¹ _{Adopted 5 March 2010 by the Investment Committee and approved 18 March 2010 by The Corporation’s Board of Directors}

The external investment managers listed below are retained to perform specific asset class services in accordance with the long-term asset allocation model, and are chosen through a competitive selection process conducted by The Community Foundation's Investment Committee. 

The twenty managers currently retained are:

Asset Class	Manager	Strategy/Style	Market Benchmark
Large/Mid Cap	Adage Capital Partners	Active/Enhanced	S&P 500
Small Cap	Ashford Capital	Growth	Russell 2000 – Growth
Small Cap	Dimensional Fund Advisors	Value	Russell 2000 – Value
Small Cap	CMG	Core	Russell 2000
Non-US Developed	ArtioGlobal (Julius Baer)	Core	MSCI EAFE
Non-US Developed	Long Leaf Partners	Concentrated Value	MSCI EAFE - Value
Non-Us Developed	Dimensional Fund Advisors	Value	MSCI EAFE - Value
Non-US Developed	Gryphon International	Growth	MSCI EAFE – Growth
Non-US Emerging	Mondrian Investment Partners	Emerging Markets	MSCI Emerging Markets
Bonds	Colchester Global	Global Sovereign	Citigroup World Government Bond
Bonds	Mondrian	Emerging Market Debt	JPM EMBI Plus
Bonds	I R & M	Intermediate TIPS	Citigroup US Inflation-linked Index
Bonds	Vanguard	Long-term Treasuries	Barclay's Government Index
Private Equity	T.I.F.F. Partners1,2	Multi-strategy	Russell 1000; T-Bills + 5%
Absolute Return	T.I.F.F2	Multi-strategy	HFRI Fund of Funds
Hedged Equity	Forrester Capital, LLP2	Long/Short	HFRI Equity Hedge/S&P 500
Real Assets	Metropolitan LLP2,3	Real Estate	NCREIF Property Index
Real Assets	Shorenstein Fund Nine4	Real Estate	NCREIF Property Index
Real Assets	LBA Realty Fund IV4	Real Estate	NCREIF Property Index
Real Assets	Varde Partners4	Distressed Special Situations	HFRI Distressed Securities/ S&P 500

¹ _{T.I.F.F. = The Investment Fund for Foundations, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to assist the investment management processes for nonprofit organizations.}
² _{Fund of Funds strategy.}
³ _{Three separate funds:  III, V, and International II.}
⁴ _Direct.

The Community Foundation's Corporation and The Community Foundation measure and assess its investment performance monthly, both on a manager-by-manager and cumulatively, through an external third party.  All investment performance data, including holdings and transactions, is independently provided by each manager The Community Foundation’s independent auditor and to Colonial Consulting, L.L.C., a New York based firm that provides evaluation and investment advisory services to more than seventy foundations and endowments nationally, including more than twenty community foundations.  Investment performance is assessed against two benchmarks, as follows:

“Absolute”:   The Absolute investment performance benchmark is equal to the Consumer Price Index plus effective Spending Rate.

“Relative”:  The Relative investment performance benchmark is equal to fifty (50) basis points (0.5%) above the rate of return produced by specific market benchmarks, which represent the asset classes contained in the long-term asset allocation model, with such market benchmarks weighted in accordance with the model’s target allocation.

The total expected annual cost for investment management process is approximately seventy-five (75) basis points (0.75%). The Foundation has and will continue to present any investment performance statistics on a “net of fee basis” (i.e. after the payment of all direct costs associated with the investment management process) when comparing its results against the Absolute and Relative benchmarks.  In fiscal year 2009 (audited, 26 February 2010), the cost of investment management for the endowment was 76.5 basis points, and The Corporation’s net return after the cost of investment management was 27.0%.

The Community Foundation’s Board of Directors annually appoints an Investment Committee consisting of eight (8) members, not necessarily from the its own membership, which shall be responsible for complete oversight and implementation of the strategies, models, and managers for the investment of the charitable assets entrusted to The Corporation.  In concert with the professional staff, the Investment Committee may engage consultants as necessary or desirable to discharge its duties, and shall report such results, activities, and actions to the Board of Directors, the donors, and the general public via The Community Foundation’s website, at regular intervals.

Currently, the Investment Committee consists of two (2) members of The Community Foundation’s Board of Directors, four (4) members from The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s trustees, and two (2) independent investment experts selected by the committee’s membership.