Foundation Announces Strong 2009 Performance

Richmond Jewish Foundation announces strong performance results, outperforming significant market indices for 2009. The Foundation’s main fund finished the year up 27% relative to its benchmark of 25.1%. The Foundation manages approximately $27.6 million in assets.

“Our investment manager, SEI, has done an outstanding job in one of the most challenging market environments in quite some time,” said GD Rothenberg, chair of Richmond Jewish Foundation’s Investment Committee. “Through the end of the third quarter, our investment results ranked in the top 8% on a calendar year-to-date basis versus our peer group (endowments/foundations with assets under $100 million). Even though the markets have sharply rebounded in 2009, it was a difficult year to outperform. It’s good to see this trend continued during the fourth quarter resulting in one of the fund’s best performances in many years.”

Richmond Jewish Foundation acts as a fiscal steward of the Richmond Jewish community’s charitable assets. Its objective is to earn good returns on investments without taking an inordinate amount of risk. For the past five years SEI Investments Management Corporation from Oaks, PA has managed Richmond Jewish Foundation’s assets.

“I greatly appreciate the members of the Investment Committee for their continued leadership to ensure that the community’s assets are well managed. They take their role as a fiduciary very seriously and it shows,” said Rothenberg.  

 The other members of the Investment Committee include Beryl Ball, Tom Byer, David Gardner, Lynn Kessler, Roger Leibowitz, Adam Plotkin, Richard Schwarzchild, Bob Weisberger, Michael Blumberg, Gail Moskowtiz and Stewart Kasen.