Our Story
ClearView was launched in 2014 as a “project” to help executives and board members of small and mid-size foundations, endowments and nonprofit organizations make more informed investment decisions. We began with a dozen “Beta” members that agreed to share their investment portfolio data to facilitate quarterly peer analysis. In early 2016 we launched the ClearView Peer Reporting Portal (a confidential, online, password protected system) to include Member organization data as well as data from the InvestorForce (now Investment Metrics) Foundation and Endowment Universe of over 1100 such organizations from around the country.
As relationships with our Members deepened, we concluded that the scope of their needs was beyond our initial vision for ClearView. Our Members appreciated the access we provided to timely and relevant peer analysis, but they wanted and needed more. As a result, ClearView began to help Members interpret investment data and to identify “best practices” to assist Members in becoming more effective fiduciaries for their organizations. This led to a redefinition of ClearView as a “member-based, research-focused learning and teaching organization” that produces research and educational content that we now provide for all our Members and their Advisers.
Our members soon began to request assistance with Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for Investment Advisers and Outsourced Chief Investment Officers (“OCIOs”). We agreed to help because of the growing challenges that executives and boards face in this area, and because we believed this could bring deeper learning and context to our broader Membership. We have since provided Adviser/OCIO RFP consulting projects for 54 foundations, endowments, and nonprofits.
As of June 2023, the ClearView Fiduciary Alliance includes 85 Member organizations across 16 states plus the District of Columbia, ranging in size from $1 million to nearly $400 million. Collectively these members represent approximately $4 billion in investment assets.
Our Core Beliefs…
- Donors and beneficiaries expect good stewardship of institutional assets.
- Foundation, Endowment and Nonprofit executives and board members have a fiduciary responsibility to exercise “care” and “loyalty” in making investment decisions.
- That responsibility means that these individuals must pursue information and analysis that is independent, timely and objective.
- Well informed Fiduciaries tend to make better investment decisions.
- Sharing experiences, practices and outcomes with peers, together with ongoing education, strengthens investment decision-making.
- Informed leadership, sound governance, comprehensive policy and consistent process are the key building blocks to an effective institutional investment program.