Investment Management and Performance

About the Endowment Portfolios

Whether to set up a fund with HFPG, Inc. or in trust with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving is at the discretion of the donor. The service provided by the Foundation is the same. Learn more about giving to the Hartford Foundation.

These two entities are included in the Foundation's annual audited financial statements and IRS Form 990.

You can request a copy by contacting the Foundation at 860-548-1888 or hfpg@hfpg.org. Selected consolidated financial information is also shown in the Foundation’s annual report.

HFPG, Inc. (The Corporate Portfolio)

Created in 1979 as a nonprofit corporation, HFPG, Inc. serves as a corporate affiliate of the Hartford Foundation. The assets which comprise the donor funds that are held in HFPG, Inc. are held in custody at Northern Trust and are invested with professional investment managers retained by the Foundation with oversight by the Investment Committee. Crewcial Partners, LLC of New York, N.Y., serves as the investment advisor to the Committee. Funds established in HFPG, Inc. are invested on a diversified basis with investment managers selected by the Foundation’s Investment Committee at the recommendation of Foundation staff and Crewcial Partners. These managers are chosen based on their specialization in a given asset class after rigorous due diligence to measure key attributes of manager capability and firm stability. Manager performance is monitored regularly by Foundation investment staff and Crewcial Partners, and reviewed with the Investment Committee and the Foundation’s Board of Directors on a quarterly basis.

Hartford Foundation Trust (The Trust Portfolio)

This consists of numerous trusts established by many donors with trustee banks since 1925, each governed by a Declaration of Trust. Today, Bank of America, N.A. acts as the Trustee of these component trusts, which are held in a common fund. Bank of America also serves as the custodian of the trusts held in the Trust portfolio. The Trustee has sole authority to invest in a diversified portfolio with professional investment managers (which may include Bank of America, N.A. or any of its investment management affiliates) chosen on a competitive basis. The other trustee bank is KeyBank. NEPC, LLC of Boston, Massachusetts, serves as investment consultant to the Trust.

Investment manager selection for the Trust is reviewed with the Foundation’s investment staff and Investment Committee prior to the retention or dismissal of an investment manager. Investment performance is monitored regularly by the Trustee and Foundation investment staff and the consultant and reviewed by the Foundation’s Investment Committee and Board of Directors on a quarterly basis.

Investment Philosophy and Managers

We are patient, long-term investors and maintain broad diversification within the investment portfolio. Outside investment professionals, selected and monitored by staff, the consultants, the Investment Committee and/or the trustee bank, manage the endowment. We seek to retain sophisticated, operationally-sound, institutionally-oriented investment management firms which actively control the growth of their firm’s assets under management. We also strongly prefer that the investment professionals have a significant ownership interest in their employer. These investment professionals should be experienced, focused, disciplined, patient, and consistently able to balance the risk and reward of the securities they purchase and the portfolios they manage. We pay close attention to the management fees we pay for these services.

THE ALLOCATION OF THE ENDOWMENT AMONG AVAILABLE ASSET CLASSES HAS A KEY INFLUENCE ON LONG-TERM INVESTMENT RESULTS.

Corporate Portfolio

The below visualization is interactive. Feel free to hover (desktop), or click (mobile) on the donut chart to highlight data points.

Trust Portfolio

The below visualization is interactive. Feel free to hover (desktop), or click (mobile) on the donut chart to highlight data points.

REBALANCING

The endowment’s asset allocation is reviewed on a continual basis, and portfolio rebalancing to long-term asset allocation targets is conducted when needed.

Investment Performance

The Hartford Foundation’s assets are managed by its corporate affiliate, HFPG, Inc. (the “Corporate Portfolio”) and by the Hartford Foundation Trust (the “Trust Portfolio”).

The investment performance* of the Foundation’s broadly diversified endowment portfolios for periods ended December 31, 2022 is as follows:

CORPORATE PORTFOLIO
(HFPG, Inc.)

$454.3 MM**

TRUST PORTFOLIO
(Trustee Bank)

$575.8 MM**

*These annualized investment returns are net of investment management fees.

**Rounded to the nearest $100,000. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

HOW HAVE THE HARTFORD FOUNDATION'S INVESTMENTS PERFORMED?

A solid fourth quarter rally (the S&P was up 7.6% in the 4th quarter) did not erase the sting of significant market declines in 2022; the S&P 500 fell 18.1% for the year while the Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index dropped 13.0%.

The main drivers of the market results include the higher interest rate environment as the US Federal Reserve has moved aggressively to combat inflation through higher short-term borrowing costs, and geopolitical pressures from both Russia and the continued war in Ukraine, as well as China. This was coupled with investor fears of a recession.

Against this backdrop, the Corporate Portfolio fell 15.1%, an outcome that was 50 basis points above the benchmark. The Trust portfolio returned a negative 12.7%, 80 basis points over the benchmark. While 2022 was a volatile and challenging year, it is important to take a long-term view. Our diversified portfolios remain well positioned across a variety of asset classes, investment managers and geographies.

*When reviewing these returns, please note that past performance is not a guarantee of future results.

**Last updated December 31, 2022