Agenda

Changes to the disbursement quota will have significant impacts on some foundations. You may need to adjust your operations and investments to meet the increased disbursement quota requirements. There are also new anti-avoidance provisions and transparency requirements enacted as a result of the 2022 Federal Budget that will impact some foundations. Adopt best practices to:

• Assess, and adjust, your current legal documents such as articles and objects, gift agreements, gift acceptance policies, restricted gifts, etc.
• Adjust your investment policy statement
• Change your grant making budget and enhance your grant making systems and capacity
• Potentially disclose additional information to the CRA

Enhance your disbursement policies to remain compliant and enable long-term investments.

Among their multiple challenges, investment committees will be reviewing their membership composition for effective decision making. Improve your governance and policy objectives with new approaches to committee recruitment. Develop a blueprint to:

• Establish a balanced committee
• Rotate membership to introduce new strategies
• Choose and recruit new members for effective decision-making

Transform your member recruitment approaches for successful investment decisions.

Selecting an investment manager that can meet your organization’s objectives requires thorough due diligence of the manager’s investment philosophy, investment process, stock selection and portfolio construction decisions. Separating sustainability from greenwash also requires a thorough assessment of philosophy and process. Learn how to evaluate managers’ sustainability claims and commitments by evaluating firm-level and strategy-specific aspects such as:

• sustainability philosophy, policies, and practices
• resources and specialized skills
• investment integration and decision making
• investment stewardship
• client reporting

Hone your ability to select managers that can meet your financial and sustainability objectives

The US and Canadian private debt markets offer different nuances. The not profit sector faces a differently regulated marketplace and differing sophistications. The challenge is the decision making and evaluation, with this session offering an action plan:

• How investment committees can use private debt against interest rates
• Diversifying foundation portfolios for protection and as a hedge
• Covering your bases to mitigate the risks
• Assessing the performance of private debt: manger evaluations and loans

Reinvigorate your investment structures to achieve better returns.

Investing in a sustainability mandate can significantly impact your investment portfolio. By focusing on soil health, carbon sequestration, and freshwater management, you can support food security and contribute to positive climate change initiatives. Additionally, by investing in this mandate, you can provide generational support for young farmers and assist with farm family transition. Join the movement and invest in a sustainable future.’

• Powerful portfolio diversification
• An effective and proven hedge against inflation
• Higher risk-adjusted returns
• Strong ESG compatibility that is sustainable.

An investment strategy that aims to produce steady, long-term risk-adjusted returns by creating portfolios of productive Canadian farmland.

Impact investing is moving up the agenda. Your organization will want to establish ground rules when measuring financial performance and new investments. How do you measure success before embarking on this new financial journey? Source practical tips to:

• Prepare for your new journey: impact investing, why now?
• Adopt metrics which best measure financial success
• Convert metrics into successful investment decisions

Improve how you measure your financial performance to increase impact investments and achieve your mission.

• Leverage global best practices to implement your net zero commitment
• Align your portfolio with the best available science
• Benefit from change management and thought leadership as part of the ESG journey

• Obtaining an internal mandate for impact investing
• Establishing financial and impact requirements for your endowment
• Integrating impact investing at board and staff level to deliver your strategy

Dive into the case for real estate development in institutional portfolios. Understand the benefits of higher risk-adjusted returns, why now is a good time to be in the market and how managers assess/validate projects through volatile markets. With the real estate market becoming increasingly complex, it is essential to maximize your understanding of these investments to reap their benefits. Join us to understand how to invest in successful real estate development projects that can strengthen institutional portfolios and position them for long-term success by:

• Understanding the various types of development-based investments, including their risks and benefits;
• Exploring strategies to maximize returns on these investments while minimizing risks;
• Diving into case studies and discovering how to analyze and monitor development-based investments.

Gain a deeper understanding of returns in real estate and learn how to leverage development-based investments.

Nowadays, the elements of natural capital and their potential to create additional value cannot be overlooked by investors. This talk will focus on the attributes of global farmland and timberland investments, ways to access these asset classes, and their impact when incorporated into a diversified portfolio.

• Exploring the the opportunities in Natural Capital
• Including Natural Capital benefit your portfolio to deliver financial benefit