When a long-term fund, award or scholarship is established with the Ontario Arts Foundation, the foundation assumes responsibility for the investment of the assets forming the fund. The Board of Directors establishes an investment strategy, which it documents in an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) and monitors on a regular basis.

All assets held in the fund are pooled for investment purposes, and invested by external professional investment managers. We use more than one manager in order to access leading investment expertise, diversify the portfolio and mitigate market risk.

Our long-term objective in investing assets is to provide a predictable and stable level of income to support arts organizations and fund awards/scholarships. As the capital grows in line with market performance, annual payouts increase accordingly. A portion of the yearly returns is reinvested, after a review by the Board of Directors, to protect the value of the capital against inflation and build a reserve to fund a payout in a year when investment returns are lower. Recent years have proved challenging, but our investment philosophy is sound and commonly shared by long-term capital/endowed funds.

Summary information about the growth of investment assets, long-term performance and payouts is outlined in a document at this link.

Investment Policy Statement – February 2023

Our Investment Managers

Burgundy Asset Management –  is a leading global investment manager providing discretionary investment management for private clients, foundations, endowments, pensions and family offices. The firm seeks value in strong companies through rigorous fundamental research that enables the firm to seek out strong, undervalued companies with the potential to achieve solid, absolute returns over the long term.

Turtle Creek Asset Management –  is an independent investment management firm focused on long term capital growth for a clientele of high net worth individuals, families and institutions. The Foundation is invested in the Turtle Creek Equity Fund which seeks to provide long term capital growth by investing in the common equity of public companies.

Connor Clark and Lunn –  is an experienced owner and active manager of infrastructure assets. They have a demonstrated track record of delivering critical, resilient infrastructure assets to local communities while creating value for investors.