The FEG Community Foundation Survey investigates an array of investment and enterprise topics including spending policy, asset allocation, donor advised funds, technology, grant cycles, and responsive / mission-based investing.

Based on client feedback that current surveys available to community foundations often are too narrow in scope, FEG expanded their own survey first issued in 2014 with the explicit goal of providing a peer comparison for spending policy and asset allocation to include fresh perspectives on topics such as fundraising, donor advised funds, technology, grant cycles, and responsive / mission-based investing.

26% of community foundations surveyed have investments in Responsive Investing Strategies a broad term encompassing Environmental, Social and Governance, Mission Related Investing, Program-Related Investing, and Socially Responsible Investing.

Community foundations with greater than $250 million in assets express a more favorable opinion of active strategies relative to smaller foundations; however, the majority of community foundations were balanced or neutral in preference between active and passive investment strategies.

“We have worked with community foundations for more than 28 years and understand that investments are one part of the equation for enterprise considerations that community foundation professionals must address as they work to fulfill their missions,” said Becky Wood, Head of Consulting at FEG. FEG service lines include FEG Consulting, which provides traditional, non-discretionary investment consulting services to institutions; FEG OCIO, which provides outsourced CIO and discretionary portfolio management services for institutions; FEG Research, which provides traditional and alternative strategies’ investment manager research, due diligence, and monitoring; and FEG Managed Portfolios, which provides a series of turnkey portfolios for financial intermediaries.