Investment strategy for organizations changing their communities.
Whether you just received your first major gift or you're ready to put capital to work in the neighborhoods you serve, this is where mission and rigor meet, across health, education, arts, and equity-focused missions alike.
What We Do Together
Who This Is For
The First-Time Steward
"We just received a significant gift. Now what?"
You're holding a new gift and a board that's excited but needs more support. There's no gift too small to steward well; we'll help you build the governance and investment policy from scratch, in plain language, at your pace.
Investment Policy Statements
Governance
First Endowment
The Overlooked Upgrader
"Our current advisor checks the box. We need more than that."
Your endowment deserves a partner who's working as hard as you are, not a generalist advisor who treats your board like just another account, and not a mega-OCIO where you're a rounding error. From proactive outreach to portfolios mapped to your grantmaking priorities, we treat your board like the fiduciaries they are, giving them the experience and impact they deserve.
Portfolio Review
Values Alignment
Board Education
The Place-Based Pioneer
"We want our capital to work in the same zip codes we serve."
Your core portfolio is already covered. What you need is a partner who knows your community, manages deal flow, due diligence, and governance that makes a carve-out credible at the institutional level.
Place-Based Investing
Local Deal Access
Carve-Out Strategy
Investment Philosophy
How we choose and monitor every fund in your endowment portfolio.
The Zenith Fund Scoring System
Every fund in your portfolio is scored continuously, not just once, at onboarding. We built the Zenith Fund Scoring System specifically for the nonprofits and foundations we serve: a documented framework that holds each fund accountable across five weighted factors.
- Performance against benchmark
- Performance against peers
- Risk-adjusted return
- Portfolio construction and process quality
- Operational and cost factors
Low-Cost First. Active Management on Merit.
We build most portfolios around low-cost index strategies. Lower fees are a well-established way to keep more of your return working for you over time.
This is a general principle, not a guarantee. Index and low-cost strategies still carry market risk and can lose value.
When we do recommend active management, it has to earn its place through demonstrated outperformance, measurable impact alpha, or both. If a fund can’t clear that bar, it doesn’t stay in your portfolio.
Protect principal first, then pursue growth
The goal behind every factor is the same: protect principal first, then pursue growth, so a volatile quarter doesn’t undo years of stewardship.
The result: a cost-efficient, analytically grounded portfolio built to navigate different market cycles, though no portfolio is immune to a market downturn. We hold our own fee to the same standard: a single, disclosed asset-based management fee, no commissions, no product revenue, no surprises on your invoice.