Endowment Secures Full Funding; Engages Investment Manager

The Government of Canada today transferred approximately $177.4 million, which combined with an earlier payment of $22.6 million, completes the $200 million endowment set forth under the Softwood Lumber Agreement 2006. Since “officially” beginning business on November 1, 2006, the Endowment has operated on borrowed funds. The interest earned against the corpus will now allow the Endowment to cover operating expenses and begin to build funds to achieve missional commitments.

“While we tried to be patient in waiting on full funding, we haven’t been idle,” said Endowment President Carlton Owen. “Among the many actions we’ve taken during this start-up period have been getting our staff in place, initiating our strategy development process, securing offices and identifying a partner to manage our funds,” he continued. Effective May 1, 2007, Commonfund and its Commonfund Strategic Solutions® will become sole manager of the Endowment’s $200 million corpus. After reviewing proposals from more than a dozen investment management firms and consultants the Endowment engaged Commonfund, based in Wilton, Connecticut, because of its targeted commitment to not-for-profit endowments. Commonfund was established in 1971 and is today the world’s largest nonprofit investment manager.