What Sets Us Apart - Crewcial Partners

From the beginning, we set out to be more than just another investment consulting firm. We set out to be the firm that applied the most advanced investment strategies available to investors to the most important segment in the market, specifically non-profit organizations. Each of us comes from an investment background and our previous companies had a mix of clients. Our goal was, remains today and will always focus on non-profit endowments, community foundations and other similar mission focused institutions.

Trust is one of our core values and has been since the beginning. One thing we knew that had to be different about our firm from competitors is that we did not want to offer any competing products or services to clients that could cause any conflict of interest. This industry has a lot of consultants who sell their own products to investors they advise. One hundred percent of our revenue comes from ensuring our clients have the right portfolios and we negotiate manager fees down for them as we are on their same side.

Our firm has grown over the years at a measured, intentional pace by our current founding partners. We view our boutique size as a benefit to all clients as our size enables us to share information freely with everyone on the team which they apply to their client relationships. Our research team is the perfect size to cover every asset class in every style, sector and geography and put newly introduced managers through a rigorous process that ensures that if they are approved they pass our tests.

High performing portfolios take your purpose and your missions further and make them stronger. This is the inspiration for our differentiated approach to asset allocation. We’ve co-created thousands of asset allocations by partnering with our non-profit clients and proven that value should and can be achieved through careful, deliberate implementation of client requirements in an asset allocation. Results, mission driven investments including DEI and ESG, and spending requirements can be achieved together. And that’s what we work for every day, at Crewcial Partners.

Private Asset Research

We’re proud of our extensive capabilities in private equity and the deep experience in venture capital, growth equity, buyouts, mezzanine/direct lending, and turnarounds/distressed/special situations. Our private real assets research covers a broad array of strategies, including energy, minerals, real estate, infrastructure, timber, farmland assets among others.

Differentiated Asset Allocation

A proven investment philosophy fueled by niche managers.

Our process has both quantitative and qualitative components, with an emphasis on intelligent portfolio diversification and flexibility over rigidity. We respect the use of style boxes and include managers or strategies that fit the IPS guidelines, some of which are not a traditional choice. Valuation plays a key role, with a focus on areas that may be offered at a discount and well-positioned to outperform over the long-term.

The combination of these highly active managers and passive strategy has been a key our client.

We implement ESG through investing in public and private markets, aiming for both measurement and accountability. Impact measurement is improving at the public markets level, but many investors choose private assets for impact investing given its superior impact targeting and precision. There is an almost limitless number of geographies, communities, and industries being positively affected by managers with an investment plan that marries returns with positive change, and we can help clients determine how best to express their interest in contributing to these efforts.

When we research managers, we always diligence how they consider ESG factors to ensure a holistic assessment of the risk and opportunities inherent to their stock-selection process. As a result, we apply our ESG assessment framework to all managers regardless of investment mandate or criteria.

For specific ESG managers (whose mandates are more thematic depending on their investment mandate), we take a more systematic approach to assessing their investment process based on the most relevant factors to the theme on which they focus. Importantly, we do not see ESG investing as an approach that should present a “trade off” to achieving prudent financial returns; instead, we see the consideration of ESG factors as a critical part of the process of achieving the desired financial returns and outcomes.

Performance and Intentionality

We have created an ESG Manager Assessment Framework to assess performance and intentionality across the Environmental (E), Social (S) and Governance (G) pillars both at the fund level and underlying security level. At the fund level, we will review data points like emissions reporting commitments (E), fund management diversity (S), and board engagement strategies (G). At the underlying security level, we will review data points like GHG emissions reporting requirements (E), the frequency of known/reported environmental violations (E), gender and ethnic diversity at the board level (S), disclosure of gender and ethnic demographics at the workforce level (S), the frequency of known/reported violations related to human and labor rights (S), and metrics that pertain to board independence, executive compensation, and business ethics (G). Further, where the information is relevant and available, we will assess the alignment of a company’s goods and services to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Our goal is to assess every public-equity manager we have, and score each based on our ESG Manager Framework to ensure our clients’ investments align their missions with their investment policies and investment objectives.”

Tuokpe Ajuyah

Head of ESG and Impact Investments

Non Profit Focus

Our firm was founded in 1980 on a relationship with The Salvation Army, which remains a valued client today.

Throughout our history we have focused almost exclusively on non-profits, providing us a comprehensive perspective on the range of issues that these organizations face. They are 95% of our clients and we have worked with almost every type of non-profit. We bring that collective knowledge to every new and existing relationship. Their time horizons are all the same and this is our competitive advantage.

Investment Focus

We understand the power of a rolling 10-year return that is greater than spending plus inflation is for your mission. Crewcial’s ultimate objective is to assist philanthropic organizations achieve this demanding investment objective, knowing that when successful, more capital is created to care for the less fortunate in our society, elderly and sick as well as educate the next generation.

Our investment manager due diligence process is focused on hiring limited capacity and highly concentrated managers who have a niche focus, allowing them to trade in an inefficient market more productively. Investments in these managers enable us to generate client returns. We seek managers with the conviction to hold a limited number of investments, as concentration allows one to generate alpha, which is necessary for the continued existence of your institution in perpetuity.

Our approach to diversity in our firm.

Inclusion is one of our firm’s core values. To us, this means an inclusive, equitable, and diverse team is integral to Crewcial’s culture. From our C-suite to our roster of managers, we take the view that diversity is an essential component of a successful investment strategy. We treat diversity as significant as proper diversification and it is a key ingredient in what makes Crewcial a well-aligned and insightful partner.

Crewcial believes that diversity should be a conscious part of everything we do, both within our firm and our industry. We are proud that due to our actions Crewcial earned the #1 spot for the Diverse Managers Asset Initiative based on the latest Institutional Investor survey.

We applaud many of our clients who are building robust organizations designed to further justice, health, and equity in your region and align ourselves with you through our Core Values. Your commitment to meeting immediate community needs, coupled with an eye towards long-term solutions, reflects our aligned values and commitment to this important work.

Our Crewcial Outreach Summer Internship program reflects our approach in action as it provides training and connections for women and ethnically diverse young people interested in the financial services industry. This has evolved into our Future Investors Training Program, an intentional hiring pipeline for our investment team, where two alumni now serve. An additional two graduates from this program joined Crewcial’s business development and data analytics teams. Within our industry, we support diversity through our partnerships with prominent organizations including the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC), the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP), Seizing Every Opportunity (SEO), and the Robert Toigo Foundation, who have long worked to address the inequities that exist in the financial services industry.

Crewcial believes that furthering diversity in our field requires us to measure our progress and seek continual improvement. We assess ourselves in two ways: ensuring diversity in our internal team and in our investment practices.

Within Crewcial, our HR department tracks the diversity of our staff across functional groups and seniority to ensure that Crewcial and our clients continue to benefit from a diverse and talented workforce. We are especially proud that 75% of our C-Suite are diverse as well as more than 50% of our entire team. Programs like the Crewcial Outreach Summer Internship program and Future Investors Training Program ensure that we improve on this front every year.

Our approach to diversity in our investments.

Within our investment practices, we have made significant progress towards diversity. As over 12.0% of all client assets are allocated to diverse managers. We improve this number by measuring the outreach of our research team to identify talented, diverse managers for client portfolios. We track meetings with diverse managers as a percentage of all manager meetings, the number of diverse managers that we recommend to clients, and the amount of capital that has been allocated to them. These metrics are tracked to ensure we are continuing to enhance and expand the choices available to our clients.

We have uncovered dozens of top managers that span ethnicity and gender enabling us to invest over $1B in diverse managers. Over 20% of our approved manager list is comprised of managers with over 50% ownership by minority or women managers.

We believe that a differentiated set of life experiences gives many of these managers a differentiated perspective on companies and industries, and results in a differentiated portfolio.

We are deeply committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion both within our firm and across the financial services industry, and our elevated profile in this area has ensured continuous high caliber deal flow.

We believe that a differentiated set of life experiences gives many of these managers a differentiated perspective on companies and industries, and results in a differentiated portfolio.

“At Crewcial, we’re disrupting historical norms around who is talented and who gets a seat at the table. We know that diverse access to capital leads to greater outcomes.”

Angela Matheny

Director of Investment Staff & Diverse Manager Equity

Our client service and investment coordination teams can act as a de facto back office, handling a range of administrative tasks to make life easier for your staff.

This includes preparation of manager subscription documents, cash flow assistance (manager transitions, rebalancing, and raising cash for spending), private asset capital call oversight and funding assistance, audit support, regulatory compliance support, communication with custodians, and any other client requests or requirements.

Let this Team become your full integrated investment office

Experienced long-term investors with a track record of success
Benefit from the global networks that have been developed over decades.
Investment Coordination team that can prepare and execute all the investment activity required to run a successful institutional portfolio
Performance Reporting team that delivers accurate and timely performance and attribution reports

We provide clients with the tools for outperformance to ensure the perpetuity of their mission.

Simply put, all advisors are not alike.

In our long history

Private Asset Research

Differentiated Asset Allocation

A proven investment philosophy fueled by niche managers.

Impact/ESG Investing

An increasingly important part of investing for clients who want their portfolio to reflect their institution’s values.