Funding Requests for PIERCE COUNTY CONNECTED Now Being Accepted

About Us

Financial Information

COVID-19 Impact on Fund Stewardship & Market Conditions 

As COVID-19 and the necessary public health measures to address it create market volatility, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation offers these insights into its stewardship of funds:

1. GTCF’s endowment funds are intended to last forever. We knowingly accept the ups and downs in the market.

2. After an uneventful start to the year, the S&P 500 Index of U.S. stocks was down 20% in the first quarter of 2020. By comparison, the GTCF endowment declined 15.7%. Our investment policy guides us to invest in a globally balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds, private capital and alternative strategies. This diversification has provided some helpful risk management, but the overall portfolio has experienced declines that will take time to recover. The most recent reporting period covers performance through March 31. Thankfully, investment returns were much better in April.

3. Our non-endowed, short-term portfolio declined 5% in the first quarter of 2020.

4. The members of our investment committee and the money managers responsible for stewarding the investment of our assets have experienced difficult environments before.

The primary endowment manager, Vanguard, is closely monitoring global investment markets and remains focused on three broad concepts:

  • Monitor market conditions for excessively pessimistic mispricing
  • Monitor investment managers to be sure they are responding appropriately to volatility and the higher likelihood of inefficient market pricing
  • Seek opportunities to add capital to previously closed managers as openings can be driven by an improved opportunity set and/or decisions by their current investors to withdrawal capital.

In managing the various investment pools, GTCF pursues the following approach:

  • Establish a strategic asset allocation which is expected to achieve the long–term return objective of each pool.
  • Diversify the portfolio by asset class and strategy as this increases the likelihood of achieving return objectives while managing risk under different economic/market conditions.
  • Maintain the strategic asset allocation within established ranges through rigorous monitoring and regular rebalancing. This discipline forces the sale of assets when they are relatively expensive and the purchase of assets when they are relatively cheap.
  • Stick with chosen fund managers as long as they remain ethical, have not deviated from their strategy or changed key staff.
  • Avoid the temptation to market time or change strategy based on current conditions or near–term outlook.

GTCF is prepared for times such as this.  Even though fund values are currently depressed, we will continue to process grants and distributions. To ensure timely philanthropic support to the organizations and causes you care about, we have increased processing grant recommendations from bi-monthly to weekly.

 

 

Greater Tacoma Community Foundation’s investment model is based on modern portfolio theory, employing strategically diversified asset allocation. Our endowed funds are pooled to provide investment management economies of scale and access to investment vehicles that are unavailable to smaller individual funds.

GTCF’s endowment portfolio employs a diversified growth strategy with the goal of generating a long-term rate of return sufficient to offset inflation, administrative, and management fees, plus regular grantmaking distributions. Grantmaking distributions are currently calculated at 4.3% of the sixteen-quarter rolling average market value for permanently endowed funds.

Overseeing our investments is the work of our Investment Committee, which is comprised of experienced professionals with extensive backgrounds in investment and finance. The Committee adheres to disciplined decision-making processes, guided by our Investment Policy Statement.

Administrative Fee Schedule

2019 Form 990

2019 Audited Financial Statements