Impact of Giving - Foundation

2018 Kean Endowment Returns

The Importance of Endowed Funds

Endowment gifts, the most enduring investments in our community, establish a continuing wellspring of income, weathering market fluctuations to provide scholarships, professorships and other educational resources. Kean University is extremely grateful to those responsible for making such a difference at this institution by means of these generous donations. Our mission remains constant: to ensure meaningful, enriching, and rewarding student experiences, which in turn are critical to the success of the University as a whole. More than ever, alumni and friends are the lifeblood of this essential objective. Over the last decade, the breadth of the University’s programs expanded and standards for excellence were raised ever higher, concurrent to an increase in support from private donors and growth in the University’s endowment. Kean University counts on your ongoing support so that we may ensure our status as a place where students come to transform themselves into the people they aspire to be.

Endowment Investment Performance

Despite 2018 being a volatile year in global equity markets, Kean Foundation’s Main Endowment portfolio has continued to perform in line with its primary benchmark since inception. On a cumulative basis, the Main Endowment has returned 12.1% as of calendar end 2018. Equity markets had a challenging year (MSCI All Country World was -9.4%) as investors digested; a Fed that was expected to be more aggressive hiking rates, global growth concerns, and trade tensions with China.

However, bonds, which are meant to be the protection piece of the diversified portfolio, performed well throughout 2018 and returned 0.7%. This is also above their respective benchmark, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which was flat for 2018. With the Fed pivoting its interest rate hiking stance, and not anticipating any rate hikes in 2019, we expect to become more defensive as we prepare for a later cycle environment. Although we don’t suspect a recession is imminent, we want to prepare for more volatility and continue to make tactical trades as we see pockets of opportunity in the market.

As we move into 2019, we are extremely committed to maximizing our efforts and yours to ensure your gifts continue to have a great impact through investments. Thank you for your continued philanthropic support.

For more information, please contact one of the Foundation's advancement officers.

Social Media Community Guidelines

The Kean University Foundation manages several social media channels. Through these channels, we aim to facilitate supportive conversations and share informative, engaging content. But please note—if you post to one of our social media channels, send us messages, reply to our tweets or comment on any of our posts, you are agreeing to follow and adhere to these Social Media Community Guidelines.

Additionally, please remember that the comments and responses you read on our channels from other community members come from them, not us. The content of other peoples’ comments, opinions and statements, even if they’re posted on our channels, do not necessarily reflect our views—they are the responsibility of the members of the public who choose to post them.

In order to help us keep our Kean University Foundation and Kean Alumni social media channels as supportive places to discuss shared topics of interest, please abide by the following Social Media Community Guidelines:

Be Respectful
1. Respect is a core part of being a Kean Cougar. Although we welcome your comments and feedback, you must take the responsibility to share both in a way that is respectful to Kean University, our team members and our overall community.
2. We will not tolerate comments, replies, messages or posts that are inappropriate, harassing in nature, or otherwise abusive.
3. We do not welcome comments, replies, messages or posts that are promoting or soliciting a third-party site. This includes third-party products and initiatives.
4. Social media is not the proper forum to send us feedback about our services. Please email kuf@keanfoundation.org for help with those topics.
5. We reserve the right to remove comments/replies/message that do not adhere to our policies, or any content that we believe does not comply.
6. We reserve the right to block or ban anyone who violates our policies.

Comment Moderation and Responses
1. We monitor our social media channels on weekdays, during normal business hours. We try to respond as soon as we are able.
2. Although we are moderating our social media channels to ensure that those commenting are complying with our guidelines, we are not responsible for anything posted by members of the public.

Your Posts May Become Our Future Content
1. When tagging us on social media platforms, please keep in mind that you are consenting to us potentially resharing your content in the future as User Generated Content. By posting on our channels and tagging us in your content, you agree that your posts may be freely used by us on our social media channels, and possibly on our website or in our newsletter.
  1. Knowing this, please do not post any information that you prefer to keep confidential.
  2. Do not share any information from which you expect to receive compensation.
2. When you post on or interact with any of our social media channels, remember that your name, likeness and social media handle will be visible to us and associated with your post/reply/message. If we reshare or use your post/reply/message elsewhere, we may display your name, likeness and social media handle when we do so.

May 2021

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The Impact of Giving

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2018 Kean Endowment Returns

The Importance of Endowed Funds

Endowment Investment Performance

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