The endowment is made up of separate named funds established with donations from our donors. The Board’s policy is to invest endowment funds as our long-term asset, maintaining their real value. We do not spend the capital of funds that are invested in our endowment unless, in the Board’s view, there is a genuinely exceptional reason for doing so. Donations to funds within the endowment cannot therefore be withdrawn for distribution.
The value of individual funds, and the revenue they accrue, is calculated by giving each one a ‘unit’ within our overall portfolio.
Effective management of our finances and assets is the overall responsibility of the Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees, with a particular role delegated to the Finance & General Purposes Sub-Committee. The Committee is chaired by one of our Trustees – Nick Fernyhough.
The Board appoints professional Investment Managers and monitors their performance. The appointment of Investment Managers is reviewed at least every three years. Our current Investment Managers are BlackRock and CCLA Investment Management Limited. Investment Managers are given discretionary powers to select investments within overall policies agreed with the Community Foundation.
The Community Foundation operates a total returns policy on its main endowment funds, meaning we set a level of cash to be withdrawn from the endowment each year from dividends and capital. The withdrawal level is reviewed regularly to ensure we are producing as much as possible for distribution whilst also maximising the long-term real value of the fund. The current withdrawal rate is set at 4.5% per annum calculated on quarter-end market values. However, donors may request that the Board reinvests some, or the entire amount withdrawn from their named fund for a period, rather than use it for grants.
There are no ethical restrictions on the main portfolio, but donors may elect to invest their funds in a separate ethical fund.
For more information please contact our contact our director Grant Robson on 01202 670815 or email him at grant@dorsetcf.org.
