President and CEO Meredith Jones (fourth from right) and Vice President and Director of Investments Jim Geary (third from left) with the Maine Community Foundation Investment Committee (left to right): Martha Dumont, John B. Sullivan, Maggie Keohan, Peter Rothschild, Forrest Berkley, Jean Deighan and Elizabeth Hilpman.
Effective stewardship of philanthropic assets is key to the Maine Community Foundation's ability to fulfill its mission of building permanent charitable funds to strengthen Maine communities. Our investment goal is to preserve and enhance the real value of these assets over time.
Investment Committee Oversight
Members of the Maine Community Foundation's Investment Committee have extensive experience in business, investments, and financial services.
The committee sets investment strategy, hires outside professional managers, and monitors investment performance against industry benchmarks.
Investment Committee Members
- Peter Rothschild (Committee Chair), private investor
- Forrest Berkley, retired Partner and current board member, Grantham, Mayo, VanOtterloo & Co., LLC
- Jean Deighan, President, Deighan Associates
- Martha Dumont, Managing Director, CreditSights
- Elizabeth R. Hilpman, Partner, Barlow Partners
- Maggie Keohan, Vice President, Goldman Sachs
- John B. Sullivan, President, Portland Global Advisors
The foundation also benefits from the expert counsel of several independent investment advisors. They are Elizabeth Cohen, John Train, and Robert Rothschild.
Cambridge Associates Investment Consultants
Cambridge Associates, LLC, of Boston works with the Investment Committee to monitor the investment performance of individual managers and advises the committee on investment strategy, asset allocation, and manager selection. The firm is one of the nation's leading investment consultants, serving a distinguished client base of over 900 colleges, universities, and foundations.
Investment Strategy
The Maine Community Foundation investment strategy calls for a portfolio diversified across U.S. domestic and global asset classes.
A diversified portfolio helps to maximize investment returns at acceptable levels of risk. The foundation also uses multiple investment managers in major asset classes to further diversify the holdings.
View the community foundation's latest financial information, including our latest investment performance report and chart.
Investment Managers
Managers are chosen based on their expertise in managing specific asset classes and their proven ability over time to deliver favorable investment results. As of December 31, 2011, the managers of the Primary Investment Portfolio and their respective asset expertise were:
| Firm |
Market sector |
| Abrams Capital Partners |
Multi-strategy |
| City of London |
Emerging markets |
| Commonfund Capital, LP |
Private equity/venture capital and natural resources |
| Conatus Capital |
Long/short equity |
Davidson Kempner
Institutional Partners, LP |
Merger arbitrage |
| D. F. Dent & Company |
U.S. small/mid cap growth equities |
| DSM Capital Partners |
U.S. equity |
| Eagle Capital |
U.S. equity |
| Eaton Vance Investment Managers |
U.S. small cap core |
| Edgewood Management |
U.S. equity |
| Elliott International Limited |
Distressed debt and various arbitrage strategies |
| Fernwood Restructurings |
Distressed debt |
| Gardner, Russo & Gardner |
U.S. and international value-style equity |
| GoodHaven Capital Management, LLC |
U.S equity |
| Hansberger Global Investors |
International equity |
| Kestrel Investment Management |
U.S. small cap value |
| Legacy Venture |
Venture capital |
| Lone Cascade, LP |
U.S. and international long-only equity |
| Lone Dragon Pine |
Emerging markets |
Metropolitan Real Estate
Equity Partners |
Real estate |
| Mondrian Investment Partners |
International equity |
| Park Street Capital |
Natural resources |
| PIMCO |
U.S. bonds and TIPS |
| Riva Capital Management III |
Multi-strategy |
| Schneider Capital Management |
U.S. small cap value |
| Stark Investments, LP |
Absolute return/multi-strategy |
| State Street Global Advisors |
Real estate, international equity, U.S. equity, U.S. bonds |
| The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF) |
Private equity, venture capital |
| UBS |
Cash and index holdings |
| Vanguard Index Fund |
U.S. equity |
The investment results of each individual manager are regularly monitored by the Investment Committee and Cambridge Associates. The performance of each manager is measured against a specific benchmark appropriate to the asset class and a peer group of investment managers with a similar strategy.
Investment Opportunities for Nonprofits
Community foundations offer exceptional opportunities to nonprofits to pool their assets and attain a level of investment management and an economy of scale normally available only to much larger organizations.
The Maine Community Foundation provides this possibility by allowing nonprofits to invest their endowments in its primary investment portfolio, which employs professional investment managers who are specialists in diversified sectors of the investment markets.
Nonprofit endowments can capitalize on the investment benefits of this multi-manager investment approach by working with the foundation. See Endowment Funds for Nonprofits for more information.
Maine Community Foundation Investment Staff
Trained as a certified public accountant, James Geary, Vice President and Director of Investments, is an experienced financial executive who has served as a corporate controller and bank trust officer. For the past seven years, Jim has worked directly with the community foundation's Investment Committee, Cambridge Associates, and all of the individual investment managers.
Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act
The Maine Community Foundation adheres to the standards and practices described in the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) passed by the Maine State Legislature in 2009. The act encourages long-term investment strategies that moderate portfolio value fluctuations resulting from sudden shifts in interest rates and market valuations.