The Trinity College endowment plays a critical role in enabling students to engage in a challenging liberal arts education, to live in a community of bold, independent thinkers, and to go on to lead transformative lives.
This fall, to promote further education about its endowment, Trinity launched a series of initiatives, including a public Virtual Long Walk event titled “Investing for Impact” on October 10.
Moderated by Kevin Maloney ’79, finance department chair at Bryant University, former vice chair of Trinity’s Board of Trustees, and current member of the Trinity College Investment Subcommittee, the panel included three experts in the field. Panelists were Debby Kuenstner, chief investment officer at Wellesley College; Deborah Spalding, global head of nature finance at Conservation International and former chief investment officer at Commonfund; and Geraldine Watson, executive vice president finance, operations, and Pocantico at Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Panelists and investment experts addressed questions that had been submitted by Trinity community members.
“Last night’s discussion about the complexities of managing endowments for the dual purpose of generating returns to support the student experience and investing responsibly was robust and informative,” said Trinity President Joanne Berger-Sweeney. “In large measure, this is thanks to all alumni, students, faculty, and staff who submitted questions for panelists to ponder.”
In a letter to the community in August, Berger-Sweeney also announced that the College would be publishing information about the endowment and its performance in the first of what will be a series of annual endowment reports. In addition, a new endowment website will answer frequently asked questions, and a primer on endowments will appear in the fall 2024 issue of The Trinity Reporter alumni magazine.
Thanks to generous donations from alumni and friends of the College, Trinity has more than 1,000 individual endowed funds. Since the first fund was established in 1853, these gifts and accumulated investment returns have supported students and have made the Trinity experience possible.
