The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham is committed to transparency and accountability. We take seriously our fiduciary responsibility to operate with the highest standards of integrity and stewardship — ensuring community charitable funds are effectively and ethically reinvested in civic improvements.
TCFHR is accredited by the Community Foundations National Standards, the nation’s highest standard for philanthropic excellence that establishes legal, ethical, effective practices for donor services, investment management, grantmaking, and administration.
The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County exists to establish and manage charitable funds to support the needs of the local community. We safeguard charitable endowments, donor-advised funds, and local nonprofit agency funds for current and future community needs through:
At The Community Foundation of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County, we place significant emphasis on our fiduciary role as holder and manager of community funds. Key to this role is accountability and transparency.
How does TCFHR invest funds?
We believe strongly in our fiduciary role in the long-term stewardship of our investments, which are truly a community asset. Our Investment Policy Statement guides and directs all management and allocation of investments for both our endowments and short-term charitable funds. The policy defines our risk tolerance, target asset allocation ranges, and benchmarks.
We maintain a group of highly qualified professionals on our Investment Committee to monitor compliance and develop investment policies. The committee meets quarterly.
What is TCFHR’s investment objective?
Our investment objective is to preserve the real value of our charitable funds while maintaining the desired grant expenditure payout rate to ensure availability of funds for grant purposes in both the short and long term. For our long-term assets, we seek a total rate of return that at a minimum supports and ideally exceeds our spending policy distribution percentage, administrative fees, expenses, and inflation.
How are investments managed?
Our primary long-term investment portfolio is managed by two local investment advisors: Graves Light Lenhart Private Wealth Management and Virginia Wealth Advisors of Janney Montgomery Scott LLC. These advisors actively manage and monitor our investment assets to ensure long-term financial growth, adequate liquidity, and compliance with the investment objectives established by our Investment Policy Statement.
We recognize the value of building relationships with local investment advisors and providing them with an opportunity to assist their clients in making charitable contributions to TCFHR. We welcome partnerships with investment advisors who wish to manage the assets of charitable funds started by their clients’ contributions to TCFHR. This partnership opportunity allows investment advisors to continue to manage a portion of TCFHR’s investments that the advisors previously managed for their clients while increasing community impact. These accounts must adhere to the investment policy statement. TCFHR currently partners with over 14 local advisors.
How do TCFHR’s investments perform?
We are more interested in the long-term return than the quarterly market fluctuations. Investment performance is monitored by staff with formal reviews conducted by our Investment Committee at the quarterly meetings. Investment performance is measured against indices defined by our investment policy statement and is also compared to industry benchmarks.
How are endowment distributions calculated?
Our annual distribution policy is carefully analyzed and designed to ensure the longevity of endowed funds and provide annual distributions while considering market fluctuations and other changes in value. Endowment funds currently distribute 4% of a rolling 20-quarter average fund balance annually. Although the distribution policy may occasionally result in appropriation of principal, the annual distribution is intended to preserve the principal of the fund to support its purpose. The Investment Committee annually reviews the distribution percentage and considers general economic conditions and expected market return.
