Endowment Investment Policy Information

The Endowment Fund for WWU is comprised of gifts from thousands of donors, with the purpose to generate consistent and predictable income to be used to support scholarships, programs and faculty at Western Washington University. WWU’s Endowment is invested to support Western Washington University in perpetuity and to achieve intergenerational equity. 

The Fund’s investment objectives are designed to ensure the Fund can generate regular income while also maintaining the long-term purchasing power of the portfolio. This is achieved by maximizing the value of the Fund while also balancing its exposure to investment risk. The Fund must also ensure the necessary amount of liquidity is available to support the Foundation’s commitments to WWU. 

The Endowment Investment Policy for The Foundation for WWU & Alumni sets forth guidelines for the management, standards of conduct, and investment targets for WWU’s Endowment Fund. The Finance Committee is responsible for developing the Endowment Investment Policy, for establishing investment policies and procedures, and is additionally responsible for the development of target asset allocations, benchmarks, investment strategies, guidelines, and restrictions for the Endowment Fund. Foundation Management (i.e., the President and CEO of the Foundation and the CFO of the Foundation) are responsible for ensuring the investment policies and procedures are followed as stated in the Endowment Investment Policy. 

The Foundation has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the portfolio is managed with the same degree of care and loyalty as we would any personal assets.  The Foundation has chosen to outsource some of this responsibility to external managers who also serve as co-fiduciaries of the portfolio.  Those managers are Russell Investments of Seattle, WA, Commonfund of Wilton, CT, and Mason Investments of Reston, VA. 

The Endowment Investment Policy states that the Finance Committee will consider sustainable or ESG-related investment vehicles in the determination of appropriate-investments for the portfolio. Selections of such investment vehicles must approximate the return / risk profile of the original portfolio. For more information about the sustainability characteristics of WWU’s Endowment Fund, please visit our Sustainability Performance webpage: 
foundation.wwu.edu/investment-information-and-sustainability-performance

For fiscal year 2025, The Foundation for WWU & Alumni has engaged the consulting firm Aon Investments to review the Foundation’s existing practices around responsible investing. This partnership will include a review of the existing Endowment Investment Policy and Foundation governance structure, and will develop goals and benchmarks for measuring the Foundation’s responsible impact.