Director of Investments Blog Post

The Community Foundation of Sarasota County is a public charity founded in 1979 by the Southwest Florida Estate Planning Council as a resource for caring individuals and the causes they support, enabling them to make a charitable impact on the community. Details below.

Reports to: Chief Financial Officer

Purpose:

This position leads the analysis, reporting, operations and communications related to CFSC’s core investment portfolios, individually managed accounts, program related investments (PRI), agency endowments and certain treasury functions. The Director works closely with external third-party investment managers and the CFSC Investment Committee, and reports to the Chief Financial Officer. In collaboration with the Foundation’s leadership team and its Investment Committee, the Director ensures effective administration of the overall investment program. This position is the ‘public face’ of CFSC’s investment team, responsible for a portfolio of institutional and individually managed investment accounts and non-profit agency endowment funds.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Provide primary daily oversight and administration of investment accounts to ensure proper stewardship of the Foundation’s assets, including review of monthly investment reconciliations for all portfolios.
2. Work closely with the Controller to monitor investment performance, ensure compliance with the Foundation’s policy guidelines and provide quarterly reporting to the Investment Committee.
3. Attend quarterly or annual investment manager review meetings, provide feedback and communicate relevant information to CFO and/or Investment Committee.
4. Regularly analyze investments, monitor capital markets and economic conditions and be able to explain how conditions impact portfolio returns.
5. Stay current on market trends, the evolving impact investing market, innovative investment options and portfolio management via relevant publications/learning opportunities (locally and nationally). Evaluate, present and recommend ideas, improvements and best practices to CFO and Foundation leadership.
6. Coordinate activities related to new investment relationships and prepare/coordinate all accounting and audit support related to investments (including fair value measurement) to provide proper due diligence and oversight of the Foundation’s assets.
7. Source and perform due diligence on new managers, and on-going review of existing managers.
8. Develop and maintain working relationships with professional advisors, trustee banks, and impact investing borrowers.
9. Serve as the Finance department’s liaison with the Philanthropy team, including donor communication related to investments, reviewing complex gifts, evaluation of the acceptability of non-cash gifts, charitable gift annuities, lead trusts, etc., and evaluation of any non-standard agreements with donors to mitigate risk to the Foundation.
10. Interact with donors and professional advisors, as requested, regarding gift, investment, and financial matters to provide excellent service in support of the Foundation’s mission.
11. In collaboration with the CFO and committee co-chairs, set agendas for quarterly Investment Committee meetings with a focus on ensuring compliance with CFSC’s investment policy.
12. Coordinate the Investment Committee’s annual review and update of the Foundation’s investment policy statement.
13. Develop a framework for monitoring, reporting and tracking program-related investments.
14. When requested, report to the Investment Committee or Board of Directors on summary of impact.
15. Oversee a portfolio of non-profit agency endowments. Prepare reports or presentations for agency fund review meetings, when requested.
16. Serve as a member of the Foundation’s employee retirement plan committee with a focus on fund monitoring and overall performance, in order to ensure sound planning for an integral Foundation staff benefit.
17. Facilitate investment technology and operational improvements to scale team capacity.
18. Work collaboratively with CFO to implement finance and investment components of key strategic initiatives of the Foundation.
19. Other duties as assigned, based on business needs.

Qualifications:

1. Bachelor’s degree in a specialized area of Finance, Accounting, or Investments required.
2. Professional certification preferred (e.g. CFP, CFA, CPA).
3. Minimum 10 years professional experience in investment management and a demonstrated ability to clearly present investment portfolio risk/returns and capital market conditions/ outlook.
4. Experience in the investment or retirement fund/endowment sector, including working with investment consultants, engaging in asset allocation and manager selections, and partnering with legal counsel on matters related to investment manager relationships.
5. Strong commitment to excellence in strategic, organizational, fiscal and budgetary management.
6. Demonstrated ability to use financial analysis to generate, evaluate and act on strategic opportunities; ability to support leadership by modeling and forecasting resources needed to achieve strategic goals of the organization.
7. Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex financial information and ideas into clear, concise, and compelling materials for internal and external stakeholders.
8. Knowledge of diversified investment vehicles.
9. Extensive knowledge of financial strategy, trends, reports, accounting processes and systems.
10. Excellent communication and relationship-building skills; proven success with internal and external stakeholders (nonprofit organizations, donors, staff, board members, etc.).
11. Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite; advanced skills in EXCEL and PowerPoint. Strong overall technology affinity.
12. Able to self-support for basic computer and network problems.

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