Who Does the Work? Investment Governance Takeaways from Philanthropy Southeast 2026

Anna Dunn Tabke, CFA, CAIA, founder and president of Leita Advisory, led "Beyond Performance: Governance, Alignment, and Communication in a More Complex Investment Portfolio" for the Philanthropy Southeast 2026 Virtual Investing Series on October 8. She was joined by Anne Davis, President of The Christy-Houston Foundation, Inc. and a trustee of the Murfreesboro Community Investment Trust.

Anne sits on both sides of the table. She leads a small foundation staff that works with the board and an outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO), and she also serves as a trustee on a board that hired its first OCIO a few years back.

Our webinar explored two key questions that are top of mind for non-profit leaders today:

• What is your job under your investment governance model?

• What does that model require to work?

Why governance needs more attention now

A foundation that plans to exist in perpetuity has to earn its spending plus inflation, roughly CPI + 5% a year. Portfolios built to reach that target have grown more complicated. In fiscal 1999, the average U.S. college and university endowment held about 8% in alternatives (private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, real estate and commodities). By fiscal 2025, it held about 30%.

Each of those allocations brings its own managers, paperwork, capital calls, K-1s and valuation work. The people overseeing it all (a board, an investment committee, an executive director, a CFO, a consultant, an OCIO) are arranged differently at almost every foundation. The same job title can mean very different work from one organization to the next.

Five takeaways

1. Know which decisions you own

Foundations usually get investment help in one of three ways, and many blend them:

• Internal investment team: investment staff make the decisions. This is rare outside very large foundations.

• Investment consultant: the consultant advises, the committee recommends and the board approves.

• OCIO: the OCIO makes day-to-day decisions within the limits of the Investment Policy Statement (IPS).

Responsibilities shift a lot between the consultant and OCIO models. With a consultant, the board or committee decides return and spending policy, strategic asset allocation, manager selection and rebalancing, and staff carry out much of the operational work. With an OCIO, the committee still sets return and spending policy and strategic asset allocation. Manager selection, rebalancing, cash management, reporting and paperwork move to the OCIO, and the committee and staff oversee that work.

An OCIO shares fiduciary duty with the investment committee. The committee keeps its part of that duty. Every agreement is different, so committees should read theirs. One question from the session is worth bringing to any committee: when your provider brings something to a meeting, are you being asked to decide, to give input, or to understand an action already taken? Make sure you are clear on your role.

2. Capacity: someone has to do the work

An OCIO takes on two very different workstreams, investments and operations. On the investment side, it makes investment decisions. Outsourced CIOs hire and fire asset managers, set tactical asset allocation, and rebalance the portfolio to take advantage of market dislocations and other shorter-term opportunities. On the operations side, the OCIO completes and executes paperwork for asset management funds, raises cash, and keeps track of important documents like K-1s and AML/KYC verification. Organizations can now mix and match roles more than they could a few years ago. It is no longer a given that an OCIO delivers a set menu of services that cover both investments and operations; much depends on the client and its needs. That gives clients more choice, and it also creates more room for confusion about who owns a task. A committee and an internal finance team should be able to say who handles K-1s, trades, reports, manager decisions and IPS changes.

"The work never really disappears," says Anna. "It just shifts around."

3. Clarity: everyone knows why the portfolio is built this way

The Investment Policy Statement is the board's written plan for the portfolio. It sets objectives, spending, asset allocation and benchmarks, and it outlines roles and responsibilities. Best practice is to review it every two years, or even annually. It should be a living document.

A good IPS answers four questions every trustee should be able to answer:

1. What is our portfolio strategy, and why do we have it?

2. How does this portfolio support our organization and fund our spending?

3. Who is responsible for decisions about the objectives, the asset allocation, the managers, and the money moves?

4. How should we monitor the portfolio over time?

4. Communication: meetings that explain the numbers

Quarterly meetings drift toward reading performance reports and rehashing the last three months in the markets. Three best practices keep them useful for fiduciaries:

• Revisit the reasoning behind the strategy every year.

• Dig into one topic per meeting, so that everyone understands the strategies and managers, and a bad number arrives with context.

• Write down why you decided, so new members inherit the reasoning for the decisions along with the portfolio they oversee.

5. Composition: the right people at the table

Good investment trustees are willing and able to decide, do their homework before meetings, and ask good questions. Good questions come from every background, including members who don't work in investing. It's important to have the right people at the table.

Northern Trust's guidance for nonprofit directors covers several habits of strong boards, including: know the documents, bring in experts, "govern, don't manage," and build and renew the board.

Questions for your next committee meeting

• Capacity: Who does the work, and where are our gaps?

• Clarity: Could every trustee explain why our portfolio is built this way and how it should perform?

• Communication: Do our meetings explain, or just report?

• Composition: Do we have the right people at the table?

Thank you to Philanthropy Southeast for hosting, and to Anne Davis for sharing both of her perspectives.