While it’s no secret that the stock market has rebounded from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery hasn’t been consistent across all asset classes.
The Jewish Community Foundation has a lay investment committee that oversees the Foundation’s investment firm, Strategic Investment Group (SIG) out of Arlington, Virginia. SIG oversees two funds, the common pool and the long-term pool, for the Foundation and its fundholders.
Over the 12-month period ending April 30, 2021, the common pool, which takes a more conservative approach and is styled for donor advised funds, has returned 23.5% versus a benchmark of 19.1%. The long-term pool, which is styled for longer term funds such as endowments, has returned 34.9% versus 30.3%.
The investment committee, chaired by Brian Scharf, has ultimate oversight responsibility of the investment portfolio. The committee made sure that policy ranges for each asset class were appropriate given the economic conditions. With an eye to the long-term, the committee kept the portfolio fully invested and diversified during the stock market’s fall and subsequent rise.
“The Foundation’s investment committee is an outstanding group of experienced and engaged professionals that take our role as fiduciary very seriously,” Scharf said.
Another important factor was the expertise of SIG.
“SIG did a great job sticking to their investment process by maintaining their diversified allocation across asset classes and geographies. During 2020, we saw a shift in the market leaders as value and small-cap outperformed growth and large-cap. We appreciate their efforts to help grow the assets at JCF while protecting capital through prudent risk management,” Scharf said.
A major benefit of growing Foundation assets is that fundholders have increased grantable dollars to deploy to the charitable organizations of their choice. For more information about the Foundation’s investment portfolio or to open a fund at the Foundation, contact Kevin Taylor at (913) 327-8134 or .
