Finance and Investments
The Jewish Community Foundation’s top priority is stewardship of your charitable funds. The Foundation takes seriously its legal and moral responsibility to protect and grow assets for our community today and for generations to come.
As a 501(c)(3) public charity with approximately $200 million in assets under management, transparency and prudent financial management is built into the fabric of our institution. When you give a gift to the Foundation, it goes into one of our funds based on your direction. All dollars from the funds are managed in a commingled investment pool. Our investment success is based on sound strategies and oversight by experts.
View our latest QUARTERLY INVESTMENT REPORT
Investment Expertise
The Foundation’s Investment Committee, composed of experienced volunteer professionals (listed below), meets a minimum of four times a year and uses the services of Fiducient Advisors for advice regarding asset allocation and manager selection. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees has overall fiduciary responsibility for our investment pool. Fiducient Advisors provides specialized research, monthly manager performance summaries and quarterly portfolio analysis and reports. It is one of the premier advisors for community foundations and endowments around the country.
Within each asset class, we use world-class investment managers who are expected to outperform an appropriate market benchmark over long periods. This means that, even though our overall portfolio is diverse, each asset class is managed by experts in that particular strategy. In addition, we use market index funds to enhance diversification and moderate our management fees.
Our Investment Committee
Advisors and the Jewish Community Foundation’s Investment Committee select and review asset managers and investment vehicles, design and implement an asset mix within established asset allocation guidelines, monitor portfolio performance and recommend and implement our investment policy. The following individuals serve on our Investment Committee and receive no compensation for their work:
Joshua Gottfried, Chair
Brian Fierston
Gerald B. Goldberg
Robert B. Goldfarb
Walter L. Harrison
Elisabeth Kostin
Naomi Baline Kleinman
David Marks
David Roth
Jay Spivak
I am honored to serve alongside a committee of experienced and wise members. With the guidance of our consultant, we carefully invest the endowment with the responsibility of l’dor v’dor — ensuring that this sacred work can support and strengthen our Jewish community for generations to come.
Joshua Gottfried, Chair, JCF Investment Committee
Our Strategic Asset Allocation
The Foundation’s Investment Committee and Board focuses on maintaining a prudent strategy, consistently executed. This strategy is built on diversification and balance, the key factors in long term investment success.
The strategy seeks to build on the Foundation’s innate advantages, including its long-term horizon, its pooled assets – and the access to sophisticated investment managers that this allows – as well as a robust and continuous evaluation process.
Diversification is key, with targets of equities – 58 percent, fixed income/cash – 15 percent, and alternative investment/private equities – 27 percent, across geographies, industries, and growth and value approaches. The strategic asset allocation below demonstrates the important role of diversification.
ASSET CLASS
MINIMUM
TARGET
MAXIMUM
MARKET INDEX
Fixed Income*
5%
15%
25%
Bloomberg Barclays Capital Agg
Domestic Equity
25%
35%
45%
Russell 3000 Index
International Equity
13%
23%
33%
MSCI AC World ex USA
Real Assets
2%
7%
15%
FTSE NAREIT/Wellington Blended Benchmark
Marketable Alternatives
5%
10%
20%
HFRI Fund of Funds
Private Equity
5%
10%
20%
Cambridge Private Equity Index
Cash and Equivalent
0%
0%
5%
U.S. T-Bills
* The Foundation may invest up to 5% of its fixed income portfolio in State of Israel bonds.
Endowment Distributions
Endowment distributions follow a carefully designed calculation that balances maximizing available grant dollars with safeguarding the principal for the future. The spending policy sets the annual distribution rate—essentially determining how much the Foundation grants each year from eligible funds. To minimize market volatility and ensure consistent grant availability, the policy calculates distributions based on the average fund balances over the past 20 quarters. In addition, the Foundation applies a ”minimum/maximum” calculation to adjust for large increases (donations) and reductions (grant payments). This approach allows the Foundation to provide steady support to the community, especially during economic downturns, while also protecting the long-term integrity of the endowment through built-in spending limits. Though the calculation is complex, its purpose is simple: to create stability, adaptability, and sustainable funding for the future.
Spending Policy: How it Works
Example 1:
Stable Fund Balance
Assume a fund has a $10,000 balance over 20 quarters:
Baseline spending policy calculation:
The average fund balance over the previous 20 quarters (five years): $10,000.00
Spending Policy ($10,000 * 0.05) = $500.00
Fund amount available for spending: $500.00
Example 2:
When a Fund Balance Increases
Assume a fund has a $10,000 over 19 quarters, and in the last quarter, $5,000 was added to the fund. The calculations would be as follows:
Baseline spending policy calculation:
The average fund balance over the
previous 20 quarters (five years): $10,250.00
Spending Policy ($10,250 * 0.05) = $512.50
Floor calculation:
Balance as of 6/30
$15,000.00
Floor Calculation ($15,000 * 0.04) = $600.00
Ceiling calculation:
Balance as of 6/30
$15,000.00
Ceiling Calculation ($15,000 * 0.055) = $825.00
Fund amount available for spending: $600.00
Example 3:
When a Fund Balance Decreases
Assume a fund has a $10,000 over 19 quarters, and in the last quarter, $5,000 had been distributed from the fund. The calculations would be as follows:
Baseline spending policy calculation:
The average fund balance over the previous 20 quarters (five years): $9,750.00
Spending Policy ($9,750 * 0.05) = $487.50
Floor calculation:
Balance as of 6/30
$5,000.00
Floor Calculation ($5,000 * 0.04) = $200.00
Ceiling calculation:
Balance as of 6/30
$5,000.00
Ceiling Calculation ($5,000 * 0.055) = $275.00
Fund amount available for spending: $275
*Please note: Spending policy determinations are separate from administrative fees charged by the Foundation. Administrative fees are calculated each month based on the average daily value of the fund’s assets and are directly charged to each fund each month. Some might say that the spending policy is 5%, from which the administrative fee of 1% is also taken; therefore, the average grant is 4%. While this is a generally acceptable approximation, this oversimplification does not accurately describe the calculations or the nuances involved in each process.
For more information, please contact Laura Whitney, Chief Financial Officer, at 860-523-7460.
