Investing & expertise

 

Performance matters

We provide investment strategies that help deliver strong and sustained performance.

Our investment approach features a focus on avoiding undue risk while seeking to deliver long-term outperformance. We manage risk with a strategic, disciplined approach at the portfolio level, and allocate investment selection to active managers we've carefully vetted and deployed. This helps us maintain relatively steady performance on the way to providing positive financial outcomes.

Investment option overview

There are several types of funds that can fulfill your needs. Here’s a look at what we offer.


Index investing

Vanguard was built on indexing. We pioneered the strategy, and we’re still leading the way well into the 21st century.

Driven by advanced modeling and trading techniques, our index funds are run by an expert team of traders and portfolio managers. The funds feature an enduring record of offering tight index tracking and low fees. The result? More than $7 trillion invested in our index funds.1

1 Source: Vanguard, January 31, 2024.

Actively managed investing

As the market fluctuates, you want a team that can manage your investments based on strategies, not trends.

Our actively managed funds are built on sound and sophisticated investment strategies from some of the top minds in the industry. So you can count on the expertise of not only our in-house managers, but also the two dozen investment firms we work with.


Balanced investing

With a balanced fund, you can reduce volatility by increasing diversification. 

Balanced mutual funds invest in both bonds and stocks and can be actively managed or index funds (or a mix of both). By potentially holding hundreds—sometimes thousands—of securities in a single balanced fund, you can get more diversification than you would by buying individual bonds and stocks.


Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing

Align your investments with your preferences.

Our ESG funds, which have differing investment styles and objectives, invest in stocks and bonds. They're a great way to complement your portfolio with funds that reflect your personal preferences. Some of our funds are indexed and follow an exclusionary strategy that omits companies that don't meet certain ESG criteria. We also have three active funds focusing on companies that meet certain ESG criteria, such as demonstrating leading ESG practices.


Other solutions

Of course, there are numerous concerns that can add to the pressure of trying to maximize your organization’s impact. Spending policies, portfolio construction, liquidity needs, and cost can all make it difficult to manage your nonprofit portfolio by yourself.

That’s why we offer a series of low-cost, single-fund solutions for smaller nonprofits that offer portfolio diversity while transferring portfolio construction to us.

And for larger nonprofit institutions, we also offer liquid alternatives and other alternative assets.

Contact us

We understand the unique needs of nonprofit investors. To speak with a representative about your account, please call our Institutional Investment Services Group at 800-950-0053.

For more information about any fund, visit institutional.vanguard.com or call 800-523-1036 to obtain a prospectus or, if available, a summary prospectus. Investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses, and other important information are contained in the prospectus; read and consider it carefully before investing.

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.

ESG funds are subject to ESG investment risk, which is the chance that the stocks or bonds screened by the index provider or advisor, as applicable, for ESG criteria generally will underperform the market as a whole or, in the aggregate, will trail returns of other funds screened for ESG criteria. The index provider or advisor’s assessment of a company, based on the company’s level of involvement in a particular industry or their own ESG criteria, may differ from that of other funds or an investor’s assessment of such company. As a result, the companies deemed eligible by the index provider or advisor may not reflect the beliefs and values of any particular investor and may not exhibit positive or favorable ESG characteristics. The evaluation of companies for ESG screening or integration is dependent on the timely and accurate reporting of ESG data by the companies. Successful application of the screens will depend on the index provider or advisor's proper identification and analysis of ESG data. The advisor may not be successful in assessing and identifying companies that have or will have a positive impact or support a given position. In some circumstances, companies could ultimately have a negative or no impact or support of a given position.