Endowments can provide a long-term source of financial stability and growth for a nonprofit organization. Nonprofit boards and endowment committees don’t have to be experts in investing to successfully manage an endowment. There are a few key terms and concepts that every stakeholder should know to make informed decisions and maximize the potential performance of your endowment. Inflation This is a hot topic all Read More
Fairlight’s Q2 2023 Market & Economic Snapshot
The stock market gained in the second quarter of 2023 driven by the performance of a mere 10 stocks. At the same time, the bond market was a mixed picture. While headline inflation was down, core inflation is still high. What does it all mean? Read about it in Fairlight’s Market and Economic Snapshot. Talk to the financial experts at Fairlight Advisors to learn more about managing your nonprofit’s Read More
Nonprofit Investing: Growing After a Major Gift
It's a dream come true After years of planning and managing a well-crafted fundraising campaign, your nonprofit lands a game-changing, million-dollar, unrestricted gift. Or maybe it’s an accumulation of smaller donations that develops into a pool of cash many times greater than the nonprofit’s annual budget. While you’d think such an opportunity would launch a flurry of activity to deploy those funds, we’ve found Read More
3 Things Nonprofits Need to Know About Markets
Nonprofit endowment investors depend on the stock market to be reasonably consistent so they can meet their philanthropic program spending. Unfortunately, the stock market has been extremely unpredictable or volatile, zigzagging like a rollercoaster, reacting emotionally to the latest news. So how do nonprofits with a true endowment navigate these volatile market conditions? Here are 3 things nonprofits should know Read More
Three Lessons For Nonprofits When Banks Fails
On Friday, March 10th, major headlines around the world announced the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (ticker SVB) and the largest bank failure since Washington Mutual in 2008. Understandably, this made investors nervous, including nonprofit leaders and board members even though many did not hold deposits with SVB directly. The question on their minds: “Our my bank deposit accounts at risk now? Were other, regional or Read More
A Fairlight Advisors Nonprofit Financial Planning Update: 9.30.22
Well, it's been a wild ride in the stock market this week for nonprofit investors, much like living at home with a teenager, I've still got one of my own here. But we've all been teenagers once upon a time, we've been cold, one minute, hot and bothered the next up, down. And that's a lot of what we've been experiencing in the market this week. But here at Fairlight advisors, we sit down with our nonprofit endowment Read More
Nonprofit Investing and Emerging Markets
At Fairlight Advisors, we have long advocated that a nonprofit endowment investment strategy include a well-diversified, global market portfolio which includes both equity and fixed income allocations to emerging markets. The last five years of returns have been lumpy for Emerging Markets to say the least. While there were some bright spots such as China’s faster recovery from the pandemic in Q’3 of 2020, there were Read More
What’s on the Fixed Income Menu: An Array of Solutions for Nonprofit Reserves
Imagine a toolbox with only one tool: a hammer. The hammer is versatile for projects big and small, but if you’re building a house, as we all know, a toolbox with a lonely hammer won’t get the job done. In the same way, building a financially resilient nonprofit needs a variety of financial planning tools to fund the philanthropic mission. Yet several small to midsized nonprofits park all their funds—whether for Read More
Nonprofit Investing: 3 Things to Remember
During market volatility, nonprofit leaders and board members can begin to get nervous about the endowments investments. While most nonprofits can refer to their investment policy for guidance, it also helps to remember three important concepts when reviewing your nonprofit’s long-term investment. 1. Target allocations are an investor’s friend. We work with our clients to develop a target asset allocation after a Read More
Recession or Not? A Conversation with Bill Kan, Candent Capital
We recently spoke to Bill Kan, the founder of Candent Capital, a firm based in the Bay Area providing financial planning, investment and wealth management services, to ask him what he thinks about all of the buzz around whether we are going to suffer another recession, after having experienced one two years ago. So Bill are we going to have a recession or not and what should nonprofit endowment investors be prepared Read More
