The European Foundation Financial and Investment Officers Group (EFFIO) and the US-based Foundation Financial Officers Group (FFOG) convened the first ever joint conference on endowment investments on 15-17 April in London. Entitled ‘Investing Endowments in a Global World: Foundations’ Perspectives and Practice’, it brought together over 100 chief investment officers, chief financial officers and board members responsible for investments from some of the largest independent European and US foundations, with a collective asset base in the region of €130 billion.

The Wellcome Trust and the Nuffield Foundation co-hosted this event, with the support of the European Foundation Centre (EFC).
The event provided a unique forum for networking, information exchange and learning on investing in an increasingly complex global marketplace – in an atmosphere of mutual trust and confidentiality. Throughout the conference, participants explored differences and similarities in investment approaches and strategies between European and US foundations and discussed some of the underlying reasons, such as the regulatory environment; different governance and assets structures; and diversity of foundation types. Speakers included leading investment experts from Europe, the US and India.
EFFIO and FFOG are membership-based networks of financial and investment officers of large independent endowed foundations. Established in 2002, EFFIO now has 24 member organizations from 10 countries. FFOG was founded in 1974 and comprises over 350 members from 200 foundations.

For more information
Contact Sevdalina Rukanova, EFFIO, at srukanova@efc.be