Each year, American foundations give away billions of dollars to address social and environmental issues. This number, though substantial, is dwarfed by the amount of assets that remain invested in foundations’ endowments. Few foundations, however, recognize the vast funds in their investment portfolios as anything other than a source of income to fund grants and operating expenses. This in unfortunate because, as the Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) and some of its forward-thinking peers have shown, the funds in a foundation’s investment portfolio can in fact be leveraged to address numerous social and environmental issues while preserving or even enhancing the long-term value of the portfolio.

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