To manage, in a fiduciary manner, the portfolio of assets held by the KSU Foundation.
This chart shows the foundation’s total assets, which topped $439 million in fiscal year 2010. The green sections indicate the portion of total assets that are permanent endowments, which are held in the endowment pool. The purple portion represents temporarily restricted assets, which encompass donor-restricted expendable funds, quasi-endowed funds and unrestricted net assets (including the foundation building, university real estate fund and underwriting funds for the foundation and the university).
The majority of funds invested by the KSU Foundation are permanent endowments. Even though each endowed account is separate and has its own identity, almost all the funds are commingled and invested in a pooled investment fund. The endowment pool is a diversified fund comprised of equities, fixed income and alternative investments designed to ensure that future growth is sufficient to offset normal inflation plus reasonable spending, thereby preserving the purchasing power of the participant for future generations.
These accounts are small with funds having special investment objectives that cannot, for various reasons, be met by the endowment pool. Often, these accounts are short-term, and as opportunities arise, they are eliminated in order to simplify account management.
This investment pool is essentially the university’s “checking account” for non-state funds held by university departments and programs. The return at any time of the entire principal amount is guaranteed by the foundation. The principal is invested in liquid investments and any income earned on the investments is retained by the foundation to cover the expense of administering the accounts.
These are funds held in trust for donors who have established charitable remainder unitrusts, charitable remainder annuity trusts and gift annuities. Each of these trust funds and annuities is individually managed according to the now by the Finance and Audit Committee’s recommendations. Investment of these funds is customized to correspond with the needs of each trust and beneficiary. At the termination of the trusts and annuities, the principal amount of the trust is invested in the endowment pool or made available to the university for expenditure, as directed by the trust document.
The mission of the real estate function of the foundation is to acquire, manage and liquidate the real estate held by the foundation.
Real estate holdings are a more specialized sub-class of the foundation’s assets. Because of the complexity of these holdings, real estate requires significant attention to properly manage the individual properties.
The KSU Foundation’s policy is to liquidate real estate whenever prudent. There are many properties, however, that the foundation has held, either because of investment return, university utilization or donor stipulation.