Risk Management

John Keshner Managing Director, Not-for-Profit Investment Solutions, Northern Trust Asset Management As an endowed charity with a goal of existing into perpetuity, your time horizon is much longer than the one-generation (30-year) horizon of an individual or pension fund. Your aim of supporting thematic charitable goals through ongoing distributions as set by the organization’s board, rather than facing specific liabilities, also sets you apart. Maintaining steady distribution levels may not be mandated, but it is important. As a result, your investment strategy and risk management goals revolve around the tug and pull between maintaining purchasing power across multiple generations and providing steady support of your charitable intentions in the nearer term. Maintaining this balance presents different risk management challenges than other investors face.