Strong start to year for charity funds

Finance | Gareth Jones | 1 May 2006

Charity funds started the year very strongly, gaining 6.3 percent during the first quarter on the back of excellent equity performance, according to recent research. WM Performance Services, preliminary charity fund results for the first quarter of 2006 showed that in the last 12 months, the average charity fund achieved a return of 25 per cent.

The return for the last three years was 20.4 per cent per annum, representing a real return of around 17.5 percent per annum for the average charity. During the quarter, the highest equity returns were recorded in Europe (11.3 per cent) and the UK (8.1 per cent). Japan and the Pacific Rim returns were slightly lower, at around 5 per cent. North America suffered slightly from the weakness of the dollar and posted the lowest equity return, at 3.4 percent. Rising bond yields resulted in slightly negative returns (around -0.6 per cent) for government and corporate bonds during the quarter. Property remained a consistent performer at close to 4 per cent.

"Against a benign inflation environment, and despite bond markets faltering, equity markets moved ahead very strongly, and with just over three-quarters of their assets invested in equities, charities benefited greatly from this," said George Urquhart, head of charity business at WM Performance Services.

Directory: WM Performance

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