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Quarterly Update
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January 30, 2015
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Giving Spotlight: The Fund for Columbia County
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Hudson Day Care Center, a Fund for Columbia County Grantee
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Sometimes giving can be practical and permanent. That combination describes a recent gift from Kinderhook, NY resident Bob Albern, who made a donation from his IRA to Berkshire Taconic's Fund for Columbia County, which helps improve the quality of life there through grants to nonprofits.Bob was inspired to give by a campaign the fund had launched to build its endowment. At the same time, he was aware that Congress had renewed the Charitable IRA Distribution, which allowed individuals to make gifts without treating the distribution as income. Read More
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Winter Grantmaking Tops $2.28M
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Berkshire Taconic recently announced the recipients of its final round of grantmaking for 2014. We distributed $2.28 million: $674,253 in grants to individuals and nonprofits in the four-county region we serve, and grants totaling $1.6 million from donors who have established charitable funds with us. Through our competitive grantmaking, we awarded grants from the William and Margery S. Barrett Fund for Adams, Cheshire and Savoy; the Central Berkshire Fund; the Artists Resource Trust Fund; the Amy Clampitt Fund; the Women's Club of the Berkshires Fund; the New World Fund; the Tupelo Fund; 10 education enrichment funds; and a fund supported by a group of anonymous donors in the Northwest Corner. A full list of grants and grant recipients can be found at www.berkshiretaconic.org/wintergrants. |
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New Clampitt Poet Moves In
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Jacob Shores-Argüello has already fallen in love with the charms of Lenox, Massachusetts. He finds inspiration in the winter landscape, the cafes and shops that line the town center and the cozy home in which he is currently staying, once the residence of renowned poet Amy Clampitt.Jacob is the 19th recipient of the Amy Clampitt residency, which for over a decade has provided poets and literary scholars a stipend and a six- to twelve-month stay at Clampitt's former residence in Lenox, where they can focus exclusively on their creative work. He arrived in the Berkshires from Texas last month. Read More
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Investing for Good
| Date: Friday, March 13
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Learn how Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation invests and manages its funds to support the charitable vision of its donors. Led by Ann Goodbody, chair of Berkshire Taconic's Investment Committee, A. J. Pietrantone, VP of Finance & Administration and Tom Lupone of Prime, Buchholz & Associates, this informative webinar will review investment processes and policies, investment performance and portfolio structure. Nonprofit board members, attorneys and CPAs and those with Berkshire Taconic funds are encouraged to join the webinar, as well as anyone interested in learning more about our investment portfolio.
Contact A. J. Pietrantone at 413.229.0370 x 112 or by email with any questions.
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2015 Spending Policy
| As reported in November, we wish to remind all endowed fund holders that the board of directors raised the spending policy rate from 4.0% to 4.5% for calendar year 2015, and those funds are available as detailed in the annual spending policy letter distributed at the start of the year.
For more information about the investment managers and performance, or BTCF's investment and spending policy, please visit our website or contact A. J. Pietrantone, Vice President for Finance and Administration.
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President's Message
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Generosity abounds here, so I don't think you'll be surprised to learn that Berkshire Taconic is nationally recognized for the generosity of our donors. In a study of over 300 community foundations, ours is listed 61st in the rankings for most gifts per capita! (This puts us ahead of foundations in Cleveland, Seattle, Rhode Island and Vermont). And we have been in the top 100 for many years. Read More
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Portraits of Generosity
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Our newest publication highlights dedicated donors, nonprofit leaders and community members who give back to their region through acts of generosity. They have inspiring stories to share, and we are proud to be their partner. Read Here
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Investment Returns as of 12/31/14
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Socially Responsible Investment Pool
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For the quarter ended December 31, 2014, the Managed Pool rose 1.1%, slightly outperforming our benchmark for the period. The annual return was strong, at 5.8%, with long-term returns outpacing the benchmark in each period. The Fund's market value at the end of the quarter closed at $109.6 million. Both the Income and Socially Responsible pools also outperformed their benchmarks for the quarter and year.
Quarterly results continue to demonstrate the benefits of diversification: performance with substantially less volatility than the general equity markets. And while individual manager performance will ebb and flow depending on market conditions, active management is anticipated to outperform indices over substantial periods of time.
Asset class performance was mixed by quarter's end, with domestic equities, flexible capital and fixed income showing gains. Several of the portfolio's managers were exceptionally strong performers in both absolute and relative terms: Farallon, Elliott and Prince Street all reflected significant return above benchmarks.
Faced with an unpredictable global market environment, the BTCF Investment Committee remains cautious, making only modest adjustments in asset allocation and identifying managers with track records suitable to the current environment and constituent funding needs.
*As of December 31, 2014, the asset mix was 61.7% global public equity, 6.1% global private equity, 14.8% flexible capital, 13% credit strategies, 1.2% inflation hedging and 3.2% liquid capital.
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