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    Endowments and Foundations

    Endowments and Foundations

    Overview

    We have extensive experience partnering with many of the world’s leading endowments and foundations, not-for-profits and charitable organizations. We understand the unique challenges facing endowments and foundations, and are equipped to help clients achieve their investment goals – from driving asset growth and resourcing investment teams effectively to managing liquidity and risk.

    Our Approach: How We Partner with Clients

    Many of the world’s leading endowments and foundations rely on us to identify relevant market trends and investment opportunities. We strive to anticipate the evolving needs of our clients and provide tailored support through the following service channels:

    Broad Investing Capabilities
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    From bespoke alternative investment solutions to traditional long-only offerings, as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) and impact investing capabilities, the breadth of the GSAM platform enables us to support our clients’ strategies across the full asset class spectrum.

    Customized Investment Solutions
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    We work directly with investment committees to understand the unique objectives of each endowment and foundation, and tailor solutions across a broad spectrum of offerings – from portfolio design to asset allocation and advisory solutions.

    Research, Education and Training
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    We are committed to delivering ongoing, innovative and timely research and market commentary to our clients and their investment consultants. We welcome the opportunity to provide client education and training sessions.

    Examples of Our Partnership with Clients

    Client Description

    A large Minnesota-based family foundation. The client’s mission was to improve the quality of life for present and future generations by dedicating its resources to attend to, unite and empower those it serves.

     

    Client Objective

    In 2013, the board embarked on a process to discover how the endowment could be restructured to further its mission. After committing in 2014 to investing 10% of its endowment in mission-aligned strategies, the client sought specific investments that would generate financial return, meet its fiduciary duty and drive program learning.
    GSAM Solution

    We worked with the client to source, diligence, recommend and manage mission-aligned investments, including public and private funds, direct investments and some program-related investments (PRIs). Following the investment committee’s decision to commit to a carbon efficiency strategy, we worked with the client to design a less carbon-intensive Russell 3000 index. This resulted in relationship-building between the Foundation and CEOs of carbon-conscious companies.
    Client Description

    A Roman Catholic congregation of women based in Missouri. The client had over a decade of experience in negative screening, shareholder advocacy and below-market community development investing.

     

    Client Objective

    In 2011, the organization’s leadership decided to take the endowment “in a new direction” by pursuing impact investing to advance its mission. The client was seeking long-term capital preservation and investments that aligned with its mission and values. Specifically, they wanted their investments to have a positive environmental impact that “promoted the compassionate care of creation” by addressing climate change, detoxifying the environment and exercising responsible stewardship of natural resources. 
    GSAM Solution

    We worked with the client to source, diligence, recommend and manage a pool of strategies dedicated to direct impact investments within private equity, private debt and real assets. 85% of the restructured portfolio was dedicated to market-rate mission-related investments, with up to 15% exposure to high impact, below-market mission-driven investments. One strategy included an assessment of a specialty consumer lending company that provided "pay-as-you-go" solar energy services to more than 300,000 off-grid homes in East Africa.

    Related Strategies

    Equity
    Fixed Income
    Alternatives
    Multi-Asset
    Outsourced CIO
    ESG and Impact Investing
    Liquidity Solutions

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    For more information, please contact your GSAM relationship manager.