Calvert Giving Fund Sets High Bar for Donor Advised Funds: 100 Percent Socially Responsible Strategy Outperforms S&P 500 in Down Market

BETHESDA, MD., August 26, 2009 — As interest in donor advised funds (DAFs) heats up, Calvert Foundation announced today that the assets in its donor advised fund, the Calvert Giving Fund, outperformed the S&P 500/Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond 60/40 Index by 6.55 percent over the last year. And what is just as newsworthy: the Calvert Giving Fund achieved this performance through a 100 percent socially and environmentally sound investment strategy.

Calvert Giving Fund clients have the ability to make a deeper philanthropic impact with their donations by choosing from a wide array of socially responsible themed and structured investments in which to park their donated assets until they are granted out to charities. The Calvert Giving Fund also offers the “Global Impact Ventures” (GIV) platform, which provides donors access to an unprecedented range of professionally managed funds that have private debt and/or equity stakes in social enterprises, innovative nonprofits and microfinance institutions.

Clients also pick from the Calvert Group’s industry leading sustainable and responsible mutual funds, including the newest additions of the Calvert Global Alternative Energy Fund (CGAEX) and the Calvert Global Water Fund (CFWAX). They also select to invest their donated assets in Calvert Foundation’s Community Investment Note, which allows investors to support over 250 organizations worldwide that provide affordable housing, microfinance, and essential community services.

A donor advised fund allows today's philanthropists to invest a tax-deductible donation and then grant the proceeds to their favorite causes over time. While the assets wait to be granted out, they are invested so that they may grow, creating more dollars available to grant out. Its simplicity and ease of use, especially regarding tax and administration, has led to a surge in interest in the product, which is often used as an alternative to a private family foundation. The Calvert Giving Fund goes one step further. By only offering socially responsible investment options for donated assets, it enables the philanthropist's money to make a positive sustainable difference while it is invested as well as when it is given away in grants to nonprofits, thereby magnifying its charitable impact.