Foundation and Endowment Asset Management

Introduction

Recognising the need for focused research on investment challenges faced by managers in the not-for-profit sector, the Initiative on Foundation and Endowment Asset Management, based in London Business School, was set up in 2002-03 with funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies. 

The Initiative's research and educational programme built on previous work on the endowment and foundation sector, in 1995 and 2001, when London Business School held two one-day programmes exploring best practices in charitable funds management, also with support of The Atlantic Philanthropies.

The inaugural Foundation and Endowment Asset Management (FEAM) programme, in June 2006, was attended by 75 participants, representing some £40 billion pounds of combined investment assets across Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK, Ukraine, and the USA.

The FEAM programme addresses the management of endowment assets and other long-term pools of capital, and is taught by an extensive and distinguished faculty. The FEAM programme and the Initiative's other research and educational activities are designed specifically to address pressing issues for investors within the philanthropic sector.

The next FEAM programme will be in June 2007.

The key aims of the Initiative are:

• Research and publication:
  On all aspects of endowment asset management
• Education and Dissemination:
  To enable better understanding of investment issues specific to endowments, foundations and the charitable sector as well as to encourage best practice within the industry

These aims are being achieved by developing material for use in the FEAM programme and in other post-graduate and executive courses.

In addition, seminars and courses are held jointly with other institutions active in the philanthropic world to offer both educational and networking opportunities. Cross-border understanding of the non-for-profit world is encouraged by events jointly hosted by London Business School and professional bodies. 

To encourage an appreciation of the diversity of aims and objectives of participants in the sector, the School invites leading practitioners to present at these events.