The Fundamentals of Investments & Endowments: A Practical Guide for Grant-Making Trusts & Foundations

Managing an endowment effectively is essential to ensuring the long-term sustainability of your organisation’s grant-making activities. But navigating the world of investments can feel overwhelming, filled with assumptions re knowledge of things like asset classes, complex jargon, bewildering benchmarking data and intricate financial concepts and graphs.

Join us for an engaging, in-person training session designed specifically to help you demystify this jargon and equip you with the fundamental knowledge needed to confidently engage with your investment strategy, ask the right questions, and make informed decisions to safeguard and grow your endowment.

This session will be led by Liz Wild, Investment Specialist at McInroy & Wood and Trustee of Two Ridings Community Foundation. With extensive experience in managing investments and advising charities and others on endowments, Liz is renowned for her ability to demystify complex financial concepts and make them accessible to all. Her dual expertise as both an investment professional and a trustee offers unique insights into balancing financial performance with philanthropic impact.

What You Will Learn:

• Understanding endowments: purpose, structure, and impact
• Key investment principles: risk, return, and asset classes and allocation
• Decoding financial jargon: what you need to know
• The role of investment managers and trustees
• Measuring performance: benchmarks, reporting, and governance
• Responsible and ethical investing: aligning values with financial strategy

Who Should Attend?

This session is ideal for trustees and staff of grant-making trusts and foundations who want to gain confidence in overseeing investments. Whether you are new to investments or have spent too long in board meetings being afraid to ask questions, this session is for you.

Why Attend?

• Be empowered so you can better understand your endowment’s role in supporting your mission
• Get clarity and break down complex investment concepts into actionable insights
• Build your confidence so you can engage meaningfully with financial professionals and fellow trustees
• Play your part so you ensure your endowment continues to support generations to come

Secure Your Place Today!

Follow this link to book via Ticket Tailor.

This is our first event being sold via Ticket Tailor – if you come across any issues, do get in touch with Alex or Jan directly and we will rectify.

If possible, please pay by credit card, but if you do need an invoice to pay by BACS or cheque, you will see this option listed on Ticket Tailor. We will then send you an invoice directly to the person who has made the booking.

1. It is a maximum of two people per organisation at each training workshop.
2. The cost is £52.50 per person if you or your organisation is a Yorkshire Funders’ member and £100.00 for non-members. This includes tea, coffee and light refreshments, with the chance to network after the session.
3. In order for this session to be as informative and interactive as possible, we can only offer 13 places on this course.