2010 Financials

The Foundation’s goal remains constant: to increase our investments in the community to meet the needs of the people of Rhode Island and to inspire additional philanthropy throughout our state, solely to leverage the impact of our endowment in the communities we serve.

The Rhode Island Foundation employs long-term investment strategies and sound financial principles to ensure not only that the philanthropic dollars entrusted to us last forever but also that we make available the maximum amount possible for grantmaking every year.

A committee of Foundation directors and community members with expertise in the field governs our investments. The committee establishes investment policy, monitors the individual investment managers and their performance, and sets each year’s spending rate. In addition to its chief financial officer, the Foundation utilizes an outside investment consultant.

The Foundation’s asset allocation is diversified and we set high performance standards for our investment managers. During the past decade, the Foundation has increased the proportion of equity investments and has expanded its portfolio to include emerging markets, alternative investments, and global fixed income assets.

The Foundation is committed to a “total return” investment philosophy, including a total current spending limit of 5.9 percent, to ensure that our endowment grows in perpetuity. Any investment return earned over the spending limit is added to principal, thus increasing the size of the endowment to combat inflation and overcome cyclical down markets. In 2010, as the economy continued to recover, we were pleased with our investment performance of 14.9 percent. We are also proud to note that, benchmarked against foundations and endowments of under $1 billion nationwide, we outperformed the top quartile for the one, five, and seven year periods.

We are proud to note that, benchmarked against foundations and endowments of under $1 billion nationwide, we outperformed the top quartile for the one, five, and seven year periods.

Our investment strategy fits with our goals as a community foundation: increasing our investments in the community and boosting overall philanthropy throughout Rhode Island. We also are committed to carefully managing our operating expenses, again with the goal of maximizing our investments in Rhode Island. To this end, in 2010 our operating expenses were managed to within 1.1 percent of our total net assets, which is well within industry standards for community foundations.

Thanks to these strategies and to our 16-quarter trailing average policy we were able to distribute more than $29 million in the community in 2010 – a recordbreaking grantmaking number.

Selected Financial Information

Years ended December 31, 2010 and 2009. Full financial statements are available upon request. Form 990s, when they are complete, will be available at www.rifoundation.org.