Discover Appleton Group Charitable
Like so many Wisconsin non-profits, your organization is a bedrock of our great State. Your mission is clear, your leaders are committed, your donors are energized, and your Board is engaged. Wisconsin is a better place because of you!
But your mission takes money, and more than ever your endowment is a critical component of long-term success. That’s why we’ve created Appleton Group Charitable to help Wisconsin non-profits better manage their existing endowment portfolios.
Acting in a fiduciary capacity, Appleton Group Charitable’s professional advisor staff provides a four-step start-to-finish endowment management solution addressing all ongoing aspects of your endowment program.
We’ll help you and your Board of Directors understand your obligations under the Wisconsin Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act, (UPMIFA) and the roles of all parties involved in your program. We’ll help identify prudent long-term endowment spending goals, assess current providers and existing service contracts, document and evaluate fees, identify your current risk exposure, and ensure that all assets are protected from theft and/or embezzlement.
Appleton Group Charitable will help you create and adopt a robust and current Investment Policy Statement, which will establish a plan for the future management and oversight of your endowment program. We offer a complete suite of low-cost, suitable endowment strategies to choose from, including Traditional Growth & Income, Risk-Managed Growth & Income, Hybrid Endowment Portfolio (utilizing both risk-accepting and risk-managed strategies) and a Socially Responsible Investing strategy (risk-managed).
And Appleton Group’s experience in risk-managed strategies can help reduce the excessive periodic losses that have plagued so many programs over the past 15+ years.
We will fully implement your new endowment management and monitoring process, ensuring that your program matches both your Investment Policy Statement and Wisconsin State statutes. Monthly (or quarterly) distributions will be automatically sent either via check or electronically to your organization’s bank account. We’ll also establish a secure data vault for easy access to your investment policy statement, periodic Board/committee minutes, and quarterly performance and due diligence reports.
Every endowment plan is good at the start. But ensuring that your program stays on-track and demonstrates resiliency through ever-changing markets is critical. Appleton Group Charitable has a robust monitoring process that addresses the key tenets of your program, including ongoing performance and risk monitoring, benchmarking progress against goals, ongoing investment due diligence, ongoing expense monitoring (to ensure fees are fair and reasonable), and replacement of underlying investments as appropriate (in accordance with the Investment Policy Statement and Due Diligence Monitor). We’ll also provide ongoing training for your staff and your Board and evaluate your effectiveness in meeting your ongoing fiduciary obligations.
Appleton Group Charitable is committed to your organization’s ongoing endowment success. And we honor and respect the many relationships your organization has fostered over the years. That’s why as your fiduciary, we’ll objectively assess whether your existing relationships continue to be beneficial to your organization, and as appropriate we’ll work to continue those we can and establish new relationships as needed.
It starts with a conversation with an Appleton Group Advisor. Our staff of trained, Wisconsin-based fiduciary advisors is ready to help meet your organization’s endowment investing needs from start-to-finish.
Call our office at (920) 993-7727 to schedule an introductory meeting.
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Recent Posts from Appleton Group Charitable…
Quick Comment – More Defense
Appleton Group further reduced invested positions yesterday across nearly all risk-managed and hybrid strategies. In our broad asset allocation strategies we have reduced stock market exposure over the past three weeks by approximately 80%, and bond market exposure by nearly 65%. A quick word about the bond market: efforts by central banks such as the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to stimulate the economy have been largely ineffective but may yield results in the coming months. The broader bond market has actually seen rising interest rates in the past week, a sign that [...]
Quick Comment – Operations Normal
Due to recent market turbulence, Appleton Group continues to hold extremely high historic cash positions across all risk-managed and hybrid strategies. For our retired clients and those taking periodic withdrawals, the amount of assets that are insulated from market risk is often enough to last more than 15 years of normal sustainable distributions. This is an extreme adjustment away from the positions we target, but is prudent given current conditions. I’ll have more market commentary as the week goes on, especially in light of what’s happening in the bond market. That’s an area to which we’ve [...]
Quick Comment – Fed Stepping Up
Following yesterday's steep selloff, world markets have bounced in the early going Friday. Massive fiscal stimulus packages across the globe have been deployed, most notably here in the U.S. and in Germany. Here in the States, the Federal Reserve has ballooned it's balance sheet to at least $5.7 trillion (it was only $500 billion in 2000). In Germany, they're deploying 500 billion euros in stimulus, and are stating that it's the first of what will be an "unlimited commitment." Watch for a special Three Minute Trend Talk Monday morning. We'll talk about the extraordinary steps being [...]
