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Foundations and Endowments: A Case for Risk
Similar Yet DistinctMost people consider foundations and endowments to be essentially interchangeable entities as both can be viewed as pots of money that exist to provide charitable support to nonprofits. But if you peel back the first layer of the onion, you will see structural differences between the two that can have important implications on their investment … [Read more...] about Foundations and Endowments: A Case for Risk
Foundations and Endowments: Cousins, not Twins
Similar Yet DistinctMost people consider foundations and endowments to be essentially interchangeable entities as both can be viewed as pots of money that exist to provide charitable support to nonprofits. But if you peel back the first layer of the onion, you will see structural differences between the two that can have important implications on their investment … [Read more...] about Foundations and Endowments: Cousins, not Twins
Bend it Like ….Markowitz
The economist Harry Markowitz won a Nobel prize for his work on Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT). One of the core concepts of MPT is that diversifying an investment portfolio can change the overall risk/return profile of the portfolio as a whole. MPT can most easily be represented graphically. If one had a list of assets classes with expected returns and expected volatility, … [Read more...] about Bend it Like ….Markowitz
The Endowment Model: A Brief Overview
The "endowment" model of investing, often simply referred to as the "Yale" model, after Yale's legendary Chief Investment Officer, David Swenson, who literally wrote the book on multi-asset class investing and is widely credited for Yale's incredible long term investment performance. Many articles, case studies, and academic papers have been written about Yale's extraordinary … [Read more...] about The Endowment Model: A Brief Overview
Is Our Foundation Getting the Most Bang for Our Buck?
There is a core question in managing money that is very difficult to answer, which is How hard is our money working? One hears about taking "calculated risks" or the term "risk adjusted returns" when discussing investment results. Too often the underlying components necessary to evaluate risk aren't disclosed, are difficult to understand, or aren't even measured at all. So risk … [Read more...] about Is Our Foundation Getting the Most Bang for Our Buck?