Every dollar your organization manages was given for a reason.
We help mission-driven organizations develop investment strategies aligned with their mission, goals, and financial needs: investing each dollar for its purpose, planning for the cash you'll need, and giving your board clear reporting and oversight.
One organization's assets, invested for what they're meant to do.
For thirty years, a regional arts center has brought music, theater, and visual arts to young people. Tamara is its executive director. Greg chairs the investment committee. Follow their plan in seven chapters.
An illustrative organization. Names, allocations, and details are hypothetical and do not represent an actual client or a recommendation. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal.
Start with the mission
The arts center's assets had grown over thirty years, but everything sat in one pooled account, invested the same way. We started with what the money needs to do: fund programs this year, preserve the endowment for students not yet born, and help the organization through hard years.
What we do
Develop investment strategies aligned with your organization's mission, goals, and financial needs, and help establish and review investment portfolios based on your objectives and risk considerations.
What you leave with
An investment strategy that starts from your mission.
Invest each dollar for its purpose
Money needed next month shouldn't be invested like money meant to last for generations. We separated the center's assets into operating funds, reserves, and the endowment, each invested for its own time horizon, with an annual distribution from the endowment supporting programs.
What we do
Help manage your endowment, reserve, and operating assets.
What you leave with
Each pool of money invested for what it's meant to do.
Plan for the cash you'll need
Arts organizations have uneven years. We reviewed the center's cash flow month by month, and sized its reserve so a hard year could be met from the reserve, rather than by selling endowment investments in a down market.
See the difference
What we do
Review your cash flow and liquidity needs, so funds are available when they're needed.
What you leave with
A plan for lean months and hard years, made in advance.
Oversee every manager
Each part of the portfolio uses the fund or manager we believe fits it best, whether active or index. When one manager trailed its benchmark and peers for several years, we brought the committee a review with alternatives, and the committee decided to replace it.
What we do
Evaluate investment managers and strategies, and provide ongoing oversight.
What you leave with
Every manager evaluated, with ongoing oversight and clear recommendations.
Report in plain language
Greg's committee used to receive statements dozens of pages long. Now they get regular reports on performance, spending, and fees, and review meetings where they can ask questions and get straight answers.
What we do
Provide ongoing investment performance reporting and reviews.
What you leave with
Reporting your board can read, understand, and act on.
Put governance in writing
Board members come and go. The process shouldn't. We helped the center document its investment policy, reporting schedule, and who is responsible for each decision, and we coordinate with the board, the investment committee, and the organization's other advisors.
What we do
Help establish processes for governance, reporting, and investment oversight, and coordinate with your board, investment committee, and other advisors.
What you leave with
A clear, documented process that outlasts any one board.
Grow with the mission
When the center launched a campaign to build new studios, its financial strategy changed with it. We added a building fund invested for its shorter timeline, and revisited the spending policy and investment policy statement with the committee.
What we do
Regularly review your organization's financial strategy as its mission, needs, and circumstances evolve.
What you leave with
A financial strategy that's revisited as your mission grows.
Chapter 1 of 7
Stewardship is shared. So is the work.
A mission-driven organization's investments are overseen by volunteers and staff who each carry part of the responsibility. We support each of them, so decisions are well informed and well documented.
Your boardSets direction and approves investment policy.
Investment committeeOversees the portfolio and makes decisions, with our analysis and recommendations.
Staff and finance teamManage day-to-day cash needs, with a plan for what's coming.
Auditor and CPAHandle audits and filings, with reporting from us that's ready when they need it.
Begin with a conversation about your mission.
Bring your investment policy statement and recent statements. We'll walk through how your assets line up with what they're meant to do.
