Local Knowledge:
The Valley Community Foundation’s staff and board members have experience and insight into the strengths, needs and history of the Valley. Their expertise helps determine the areas of greatest need and where our grants can be most effective at a local level. Our grantmaking, ongoing research and extensive contacts in the community help us connect donors to organizations that match their charitable goals.
A Variety of Giving Tools:
We offer several types of funds to help your clients reach their financial and philanthropic objectives. Your clients may contribute, at any amount, to an already existing fund or open their own. All donations to the Valley Community Foundation are tax deductible.
| If your client wants: | Options: |
|---|---|
| their gift to be flexible enough to address current and unforeseen future needs | they could establish or donate to an Unrestricted Fund. |
| to support a specific interest through several nonprofits over time | they could establish or donate to a Preference Fund. |
| to support one or several specific organizations | they could establish or donate to a Designated Fund. |
| to be involved in choosing the nonprofits they support | they could establish or donate to a Donor Advised Fund. |
| to support students through their education | they could establish or contribute to a Scholarship Fund. |
| to give now | they may wish to set up a Charitable Gift Annuity |
| to give later | Charitable Remainder Trusts make a bequest make a retirement beneficiary designation |
Sound Investment Management:
The VCF funds are managed by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Inc via its Commingled Fund. The primary investment objective is to preserve, over the long-term, the portfolio’s purchasing power through asset growth at least equal to the VCF’s Spending Policy plus the rate of inflation. The Commingled Fund seeks to achieve this objective through a philosophy that seeks to maximize the total absolute return of the charitable assets within the confines of acceptable risk, including:
- Allocation of the Commingled Fund to multiple asset classes with a focus on long-term returns;
- Utilization of consistent and meaningful asset class diversification to achieve the return objectives during a variety of economic and market conditions;
- Avoidance of the prediction of short-term market behavior via market timing strategies, and
Retention of world-class investment managers who are expected to outperform index funds over most three-to-five year periods, or full market cycles.
The Commingled Fund is managed in accordance with the following asset allocation framework.
Asset Class Policy Target Policy Range Benchmark Public Equities 50% 45 - 55% MSCI All-Country World Index Private Assets 20% 10 - 30% MSCI All-Country World Index
CPI + 5.5%
Hedge Funds 15% 10 - 20% HFRI Fund of Funds Index Fixed Income 15% 10 - 25% Bloomberg US Aggregate Index
Since inception (January, 1995), the Commingled Fund has produced an 8.2% net annualized rate of return or 1.1% more per year versus the market benchmark for the periods ended March 2024. Over the last ten year ending March, 2024, the Commingled Fund has returned 6.8% net on an annualized basis, or approximately 80 basis points of excess return per year vis-à-vis the market benchmark.
