Endowment Committee Statement of Policy

March 11, 2024

At its monthly meeting on April 3, 2000, the Board of the Gladwyne Fire Company passed a resolution stating the Endowment Committee will annually create a Statement of Policy for investing and distributing assets of the Endowment Fund. The Endowment Committee shall report this policy to the Board for approval at the March meeting.

The Endowment Fund is intended to help insure the long-term financial security of the Gladwyne Fire Company. The fund will provide an income stream to supplement annual giving. Supplementing the operating budget will aid Gladwyne Fire Company in attracting and retaining volunteer firefighters. A consistent, objective and disciplined investment approach is required to meet this goal. The Committee feels that given the purpose of the fund, the desire for future growth has to be balanced with the need for stability, and this would best be accomplished through broad diversification of fund assets.

In March, 2024, the Endowment Committee agreed to target the overall allocations of the Endowment Fund as follows:

• 6-8% Cash
• 13-20% Fixed Income
• 72-81% Equity

The Fund’s assets are currently invested in six Vanguard funds.  The Committee recommended we rebalance the fund in the following manner:

• Money Market                           8 %
• Star Fund                                43 %
• Strategic Equity                       11 %
• Global Equity                            6  %
• Windsor                                   19 %
• S & P 500 Index                      13  %

The Endowment Committee expects to continue this investment policy.  Although a distribution from the Endowment Fund is not currently included in the Fire Company’s budget, a distribution of up to 5% of the Endowment’s assets can be distributed on a yearly basis.