(Source: Business Wire)
The Davlin Philanthropic Fund, the first no-load mutual fund to allow investors to make charitable contributions from their management fees, ended its first year of operations on June 10th by making substantial progress toward the goal of educating charities and investors about "sustainable giving." Most important, the Davlin Philanthropic Fund sent out its first donation checks to nine separate charities.
The Fund also reported that, in a year when market conditions were extremely unfavorable, the Fund outperformed two major indices: the Russell 2000 and the S&P 500. William E.B. Davlin, President and Portfolio Manager, said: "We finished our first year with a loss of 2.82 percent versus a loss of 27.25 percent for the Russell 2000 and a loss of 28.85 percent for the S&P 500 (for the same June 11, 2008 to June 10, 2009 period). Nobody likes to lose money, but we take some comfort in that we did our job as value investors, preserving our investors' capital better than most."
Even more than his solid investment performance during a difficult year, Davlin is encouraged by the reception he has received from the more than 50 charities he has visited. "We have received an exceptionally positive response to our Fund. Charities are excited to learn about a new fundraising tool that allows them to create a new, sustainable revenue stream from their existing supporters without asking for yet another donation," he said. "Charities are starting to call us, wanting to include the Fund in their money-raising efforts. They want to let their supporters know we are out there by including the fund information in their newsletters and publications and by adding Davlin Philanthropic Fund web-links to their web sites."
Most exciting, he said, was presenting the Fund's first donation checks. The Alzheimer's Association, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), Angel Flight East, the Earthwatch Institute, Hands Together for Haiti, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, the Public Theatre/Shakespeare Festival (New York City) and WNRN (a public radio station in Charlottesville, Va.) all received Davlin Foundation distributions in April.
"These are great charities doing important work to improve our society and we are happy to see them benefiting from the power of sustainable giving," said Davlin.
Describing Fund performance for the year, Davlin said that the stock market in 2008 and early 2009 contained a number of investment "value traps" - companies trading at what appeared to be huge discounts, but with a lot more bad news yet to be priced into the stocks.
