Think Philanthropy: Managing Endowments

Investing for the Public Benefit

A key contemporary trend in foundation philanthropy is the shift from making grants to create social impact, to using investment strategies to create change. 

The Institute for Philanthropy has been researching endowed charities' investment issues since it first invited Professor David Swensen, Chief Investment Officer of the Yale Endowment, to address UK funders on the management of charitable assets in 2006. 

Since then we have explored many of the dimensions of investment and philanthropy, undertaking pieces on:

• Impact Investing
• Spending-out as a charitable foundation
• Managing charitable endowments

Practical Advice for Impact Investors (2011)

Impact investing - for positive social or environmental as well as financial returns - is a growing market with huge potential. The concept holds great appeal for many asset holders; however, intermediaries and advisors are often unwilling and uninterested when it comes to getting involved in this market, and are proving a barrier to its development. Investors need to be proactive in seeking the right opportunities and advisors.

This publication aims to offer practical advice to philanthropists and investors wishing to increase their understanding of impact investing. It is the product of a seminar held by the Institute for Philanthropy with the help of McKinsey & Company at the offices of SVG Capital in May 2011. It presents summaries of presentations given to an audience of philanthropists and investors by active impact investors and by experts from a range of organisations working in the field: with contributions from TBLI Group, KL Felicitas Foundation, Ariya Capital, Triodos Bank, Bridges Ventures and Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts.

• Download Practical Advice for Impact Investors

The Power of Now (2010)

In recent years, charitable trust and foundation trustees have engaged in an increasing number of conversations and debates on the phenomenon of ‘spend out'. Spend out, known in the USA as ‘spend down' or ‘limited lifespan', refers to a trust's decision to spend all or part of its capital assets within a specified timeframe. While most trusts and foundations in the UK and the USA are still established in perpetuity and maintain endowments, the limited life option is beginning to attract more attention, though research in this area - particularly in the UK - is sparse. This 53-page paper, which includes case studies with some of the UK's leading foundations – includingThe Tubney Charitable Trust - seeks to broaden our wider understanding of spending out in the UK by examining trusts and foundations that are currently in the process of depleting their endowment and examining those factors leading to their decision to terminate.

• Download The Power of Now