PROVIDENCE – The value of The Rhode Island Foundation’s investments fell 27 percent in 2008, the 93-year-old nonprofit has disclosed in its annual report.
The foundation said its net assets totaled $428.66 million on Dec. 31, down from $575.07 million at the end of 2007 and $513.53 million at the end of 2006. The fair value of its investments slid to $409.16 million in 2008 from $561.07 million the year before.
Beyond Cash Donations: How New Forms of Giving Are Transforming Not-for-Profit Accounting
Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,…
Learn More
The foundation’s portfolio was pummeled further in the first quarter, according to its Web site. As of March 31, the value of its investments was down 29.1 percent year-over-year and 6.2 percent since 2006.
However, the market rebound in recent months likely brightened the picture in the current quarter.
In a letter introducing the annual report, Neil D. Steinberg, The Rhode Island Foundation’s president and CEO, and David M. Hirsch, its chairman, wrote that the nonprofit’s “financial outlook remained cautiously optimistic … despite a stunning downturn in the financial markets,” and said they “feel confident in our long-term investment strategies.”
The organization has a minimum annual growth target for its investments of 6 percent above inflation. Over the past decade, it has boosted the proportion of its asset portfolio in equity investments and added emerging market, global fixed income and “alternative investments,” which now make up 25 percent of its portfolio. Just 15 percent was invested in fixed-income products.
Steinberg and Hirsch added that the organization “maintained our position as one of the largest community foundations in the United States by asset size” in 2008.
The report also said the foundation’s 10-year average investment return was 5.8 percent at the end of last year, “nearly double the national community foundation average.” And the foundation noted that some university and college endowments lost 40 percent of their value last year.
The report also emphasized that 2008 was not a uniformly bleak year for The Rhode Island Foundation. The organization said it distributed a record total of $27 million in grants to 1,312 organizations statewide during the year.
The foundation also said it received more than $44 million in new charitable gifts last year, the second-highest amount in its history. It added 57 new permanent endowments, bringing the total number to 1,140, and added 10 local nonprofits’ endowment funds to the 126 it already managed.
Two of the foundation’s special campaigns also continued last year. The Black Philanthropy Initiative had raised $250,000 toward a $1 million goal by the end of last year, while a $1 million campaign to fund Equity Action, which promotes gay rights, is on track to be completed by the end of March 2011, the report said.
Among other changes at the foundation last year were the hiring of former Fleet Bank executive Neil D. Steinberg as the nonprofit’s fourth president and CEO and the election of David M. Hirsch, Vertex Distribution Inc.’s president and CEO, as its new board chairman.
Steinberg and Hirsch closed their letter on an optimistic note. “We will come out of this economic downturn,” they wrote. “And the Foundation will find new ways to continue fulfilling its mission, thanks in no small part to the wonderful Rhode Islanders engaging in philanthropy for the greatest good of the community.”
The Rhode Island Foundation, founded in 1916, is one of the nation’s largest and oldest charitable organizations serving a specific geographic community. Additional information is available at RIFoundation.org.
