How we manage your investments
When a long-term fund, award or scholarship is established with the Ontario Arts Foundation, the foundation assumes responsibility for the investment of the assets forming the fund. The Board of Directors establishes an investment strategy, which it documents in an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) and monitors on a regular basis.
All assets held in the fund are pooled for investment purposes, and invested by external professional investment managers. We use more than one manager in order to access leading investment expertise, diversify the portfolio and mitigate market risk.
Our long-term objective in investing assets is to provide a predictable and stable level of income to support arts organizations and fund awards/scholarships. As the capital grows in line with market performance, annual payouts increase accordingly. A portion of the yearly returns is reinvested, after a review by the Board of Directors, to protect the value of the capital against inflation and build a reserve to fund a payout in a year when investment returns are lower. Recent years have proved challenging, but our investment philosophy is sound and commonly shared by long-term capital/endowed funds.
Summary information about the growth of investment assets, long-term performance and payouts is outlined in a document at this link.
Foundation Investment Policy Statement
Our Investment Managers
Burgundy Asset Management - is a leading global investment manager providing discretionary investment management for private clients, foundations, endowments, pensions and family offices. The firm seeks value in strong companies through rigorous fundamental research that enables the firm to seek out strong, undervalued companies with the potential to achieve solid, absolute returns over the long term.
Perennial Asset Management - is an independent Canadian investment boutique that provided discretionary investment management for private individuals. The firm employs an active core investment style which provides flexibility to take advantage of investment opportunities wherever they exist and to reduce risk by minimizing the exposure to areas of the market that they believe to be over-priced. The firm is more active than ‘buy and hold’ investors as they move investments from areas of over valuation to sectors that offer more opportunity.
Blair, Franklin Asset Management - manages the Blair Franklin Global Credit Fund and the Blair, Franklin Global Rates Fund. The Global Credit Fund is an absolute return fund which is focused on the global credit markets including corporate, infrastructure, provincial and government bonds.