As the global economic market continues to grow and evolve, investors and donors alike are wondering what the future holds.

At The San Diego Foundation, we believe it’s important to regularly communicate our investment strategies and market position to provide donors with continuous support and education regarding their charitable funds.

Recently, we invited fund holders at The Foundation to our 2020 Investment Summit, an exclusive event that provided donors with more information about investment returns and strategies. The event served as an opportunity for donors to hear from The Foundation’s team of investment experts and learn more about how current events and trends are impacting the global market.

Investment Performance

During the 2020 Investment Summit, our keynote speaker Shelly Heier, President & Chief Operating Officer of national investment consulting firm Verus Investments, explained how recent trends are driving performance across various asset classes.

After a volatile 2018, the past year marked the strongest on record for the U.S. stock market since 2013. In addition, a dramatic decline in U.S. interest rates led to a great environment for bonds. As a result, the Endowment Portfolio posted a 17.0% return for the calendar year, outperforming its policy index.

Shelly emphasized that with the U.S. stock market leading the way in 2019, the valuation gap between U.S. stocks and non-U.S. stocks grew wider.

The San Diego Foundation Investment Committee believes that valuation is one of the strongest predictors of future returns. As such, we continue to emphasize non-U.S. stocks and emerging markets stocks as a sizeable portion of our overall portfolio. As history has proven, the range of market outcomes reduces over longer periods of time, ultimately favoring long-term investment portfolios, including those at The San Diego Foundation.

Our investment strategy is structured to enable donors to maximize their philanthropic impact over the long-term.

Long-Term Value

The San Diego Foundation Investment Committee takes a long-term, value-oriented approach to investing.

As Investment Committee Chair Steve Klosterman shared during the event, The Foundation Investment Committee, which is made up of industry professionals with more than 150 years of combined global and domestic expertise, focuses on finding undervalued asset classes to achieve the best risk-adjusted returns for donors. By pooling charitable assets, including more than $599 million in our Endowment Portfolio, we are able to increase the impact of charitable giving in the region, create sustainable growth and help donors improve quality of life in San Diego and beyond.

Since 1975, The San Diego Foundation and its Investment Committee has helped thousands of San Diego donors grant more than $1.2 billion to strengthen communities across San Diego.

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