Kitty Glitter

Thursday, 21 April 2011 20:05

I won!  I won!  I won $7.50 on a slot machine at the Atlantis in the Bahamas on a machine called “Kitty Glitter.”   In exchange for about 10 quarters, I received $10.00 back, which is a 300 percent return on my investment. Was this skill or just plain dumb luck?  I vote for plain dumb luck.

Investing the Community Foundation’s funds takes a lot of skill.  Rather than putting some money in a machine and pressing a button to see if the pictures align, the Community Foundation’s Investment Committee strategizes, analyzes, reviews, discusses, and decides before making investment policy decisions, hiring investment managers, and determining appropriate investments.  This committee, comprised of volunteers with investment, accounting, legal, and finance expertise, plays a vital role in making sure that the funds entrusted to us are invested wisely and that the funds are generating enough investment return to create maximum impact in the community. 

Before investing, donors are asked to clarify their expectations about two aspects of the fund: how they wish to structure the “spending” from the fund each year (a percentage of the fund, net income only, or some other amount) and how much the fund will “spend” each year to award grants and scholarships. If they have a specific dollar amount in mind they want to recommend to be awarded annually, the fund can be designed to meet these goals. Knowing the donors’ intentions from the outset allows the Investment Committee to place the funds in the appropriate investment option. 

The Community Foundation offers a number of different options for its pooled investments.  The Community Foundation also offers donors the opportunity to recommend a different investment option if the fund exceeds $100,000.  We call this our $100,000 policy.  Original name, huh?  But that’s what it has always been called and it gets the point across.

I love to talk about the Community Foundation’s investment practices or the $100,000 policy, so give me a call if you want to learn more. 

I bought my daughter a Bahamas t-shirt with my investment return.

With the Community Foundation’s investment return, we are awarding grants and scholarships that are For Good. Forever.  For Frederick County. 

PS…This is for T, C, M, B, L, and M who dared me to include Kitty Glitter in my next blog.  For taking the challenge, I hope your checks made out to the Community Foundation are in the mail!  

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