A brighter future. You can do more than just wish for it.

For almost eighty years, The
Community Foundation has been
a trusted steward of the region’s
charitable funds, which at the
close of the year totaled more than
680. Each of these funds, whether
established through a donor’s
gift or bequest, or by a local
non-profit organization, serves a
specified purpose related to the
needs and opportunities of Greater
New Haven. At the end of 2007,
by virtue of the generosity of our
donors, the confidence placed in
us by local non-profits, and our
favorable investment performance,
the communities’ charitable
endowment grew to almost
$300 million.
The Foundation’s assets are
held either by a charitable
corporation set up by
The Foundation known as The
Community Foundation for
Greater New Haven Inc. (the
Corporation) or in trust by one
of its four trustee institutions:
Wachovia Bank, Bank of America,
NewAlliance Bank and People’s
Bank. Donors determine whether
G I V I N G M O R E
Sending a global message
improves our environment.
One of the greatest legacies we
can leave for future generations is
clean and safe water. To do this, we
must protect water at its source and
the open spaces surrounding it. At
the invitation of The Foundation
and Watershed Fund, leading
environmentalists Chinaʼs Ma Jun
and Americaʼs Russell Brenneman
delivered that global message to an
audience of rapt activists.
Investment Management & Performance : 2007
a trustee or the Corporation will
manage the funds they establish.
In 2007, the investment of
The Corporation’s assets and Bank
of America’s trust assets continued
to be guided by its Investment
Committee consisting of
Foundation and external experts.
The Investment Committee
manages the risk and return on the
endowment using a framework
that allocates the charitable assets
to different types of investment
strategies under a long-term asset
allocation model (see Corporation’s
T A K I N G T H E L E A D
Preventing youth violence
creates a brighter future.
Responding to increases in youth
violence, The Foundation hosted
a forum to identify reasons and
possible remedies. Gifts from
donors like you made it possible for
The Foundation to make a grant of
$100,000 to hire Outreach Workers
to prevent youth violence. Partners
included the City of New Haven
(Community Services Administration),
the New Haven Police Department
and one or more community-based
non-profit organizations.
model on the following page).
Their efforts contributed to sound
investment results that exceeded
the market-based performance
benchmark and more than met
the community’s expectation of
endowment growth adequate to
both produce a steady stream of
charitable revenue and protect
against inflation.
In addition to benchmarking
the performance against marketdriven
indices, the Corporation
also compares its performance
against its community foundation
peers nationally. Since inception
of the national survey seven
years ago, the Corporation has
consistently ranked among the
top of its peer group.
On the following page is the
investment performance for the
Corporation and The Foundation’s
two largest trustees versus the
market-driven benchmark for the
periods ended 31 December 2007.
All data is expressed as annualized
percentages, and after the payment
of all investment management
fees and expenses.