Virginia Tech Foundation endowment performance earns award for excellence
The Virginia Tech Foundation received the 2011 Award for Excellence for Mid-size Nonprofit of the Year from The Foundation and Endowment Intelligence daily (FEI).
FEI cited an endowment performance over the past several years placing the foundation “solidly in the top quartile of performers” and for having made several tactical moves that earned the endowment a 19.6 percent return for fiscal year 2011.
“I want to recognize John Cusimano, our director of investments and debt management for the foundation, and investment manager Daniel Ward for a solid performance in a year of ups and downs and a generally volatile investment environment. I am pleased that we positioned ourselves to achieve returns better than market averages over the last three years and better than our benchmarks,” said Ray Smoot, chief executive officer for the foundation. “Dan led our work in scrapping traditional asset models which then provided opportunities to be more tactical and take advantage of valuation swings in the market.”
The university’s endowment topped $600 million for the first time this year.
The Virginia Tech Foundation was cited by FEI for “a series of tactical plays over the past year far more progressive than many of its larger peers.”
FEI is a premium daily information service focused exclusively on the investment management of foundations, endowments, hospitals, and other nonprofit institutions.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
