UO Foundation Honored as Mid-Size Nonprofit of the Year

Business Wire, Jan 14, 2008

EUGENE, Ore. -- At a recent ceremony, Foundation & Endowment Money Management (FEMM) awarded the University of Oregon Foundation the Mid-Size Nonprofit of the Year award.

A private, nonprofit corporation, the UO Foundation is responsible for administering the thousands of private gifts donated annually to the University.

In a statement, FEMM said the UO Foundation made a series of savvy investment moves this past year leaving it well positioned to weather the recent stormy markets. The Seventh Annual Nonprofit Awards for Excellence recognized the people and organizations that stood out for excellence in nonprofit investing over the past year. Nominees and winners in a variety of categories were selected by the editorial teams of Institutional Investor's Foundation & Endowment Money Management and Alternative Investment News newsletters following their industry-wide due diligence and interviews with industry leaders. Award winners are exemplars of the best-run nonprofits in performance, investment decisions and use of managers.

"We withstood the gyrations of the market pretty well in the last few months," said Jay Namyet, the UO Foundation's chief investment officer (CIO). "We weren't caught up in the insanity of the leveraged debt markets," he said, explaining that the Foundation avoided exposure to the subprime fallout and other highly leveraged investments.

The Foundation's assets, which are more than $600 million, have grown in part from the current fundraising campaign, "Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives." Begun in 2001, the campaign has raised $736 million to date.

When Namyet arrived at the Foundation in 2000 as its first CIO, he led efforts to create greater growth and more persistent performance. As a result of these efforts, for the year ending June 30, 2007, returns were 19.8 percent, and during this past decade performance has consistently ranked in the top quartile of peer institutions.

In part, this success is attributed to a substantial increase of alternative investments such as real estate, energy, private equity and hedge funds. Namyet also oversees $90 million in charitable remainder trust assets and $50 million in current use assets.

Since 1922, the Foundation has received, invested and distributed private gifts, funding student scholarships, faculty support, academic programs and building improvements. The stewardship goal has been to provide increasing amounts of financial support for the University while preserving the long-term purchasing power of assets under management.

The Foundation also supports the University by leading in advocacy for the University, and by developing, financing, constructing, acquiring and operating facilities for or on behalf of the University.

For information about the UO Foundation, visit www.uofoundation.org.