Florida Foundation Boosts PE Allocation By 50 Percent

The Community Foundation in Jacksonville, which manages assets of $81 million, has ratcheted up its target allocation to private equity to 12 percent from 8 percent. That’s not a lot of money ($3 million), but the move is a rare instance of good news for cash-starved general partners.

To date the foundation has backed a variety of primary and secondary funds-of-funds managers. Primary funds-of-funds pledges have included ones to The Investment Fund For Foundations’ TIFF Private Equity Partners 2005; Park Street Capital Private Equity Fund VII LP; Portfolio Advisors Private Equity Fund IV; and Northgate Capital IV. Pledges to secondary funds have gone to Goldman Sachs Vintage Fund IV; Lehman Bros. Secondary Opportunities Fund; and Newbury Secondary Fund.

The foundation, a philanthropic organization which began in 1964 in Jacksonville, Fla., has hired St. Louis-based Hammond Associates Institutional Fund Consultants to advise it on managing its assets. The Foundation’s alternative investments, including private equity, venture capital, hedge funds and real estate, represented 23.5 percent of total assets as of Dec. 31, 2008.