Unforseen

ok, cool. thx guys. that sort of was my take reading this question. i was like, ok, i won't fight you if you want to use a LT FI index, but with literally the 1 sentence i wrote you up there and no more details about the foundation, i think i could make a fairly compelling argument to have the same foundation benchmark to the S&P or something more equity oriented, especially if it were a fairly large one or had donors that continue to contribute, etc. i guess with the 5% rule, perhaps you go for a bit more of the stable income approach than an endowment... both are similar in a lot of ways, but still the books say "total return" approach for both foundations and endowments mostly with a longer time frame. yeah, i guess given the 5% + mgmt + inflation, maybe thinking about a FI benchmark would make sense esp given you have to have that 5% as liquid so managing liabilities and cash is a bit more important.