The University of Connecticut Foundation was recently recognized as one of the top small non-profits of the year by Institutional Investor magazine.

The awards, through Institutional Investor’s Foundation & Endowment Money Management, recognize the foundations, endowments, consultants, markets, and investment managers who stood out for their successes over the past year. The publication’s editorial team selects the nominees and winners, following industry-wide due diligence.

“Our approach to risk and asset allocation allowed us to weather the downturn of May and June exceedingly well,” says Kevin Edwards, associate vice president for treasury services at the UConn Foundation. “The portfolio dropped only 3 percent in the June quarter, compared to a 12 percent loss in global equity markets.”

The magazine’s editors noted that the University of Connecticut Foundation “may have just $265 million in endowment assets, but its asset allocation rivals that of a much larger institution.

“Half of the fund’s assets sit in alternatives, which include private equity, venture capital, natural resources, real estate, and hedge funds,” they said. “Over the past year, [the Foundation, with its investment] led by Edwards, has boosted its international equity mandates and targeted opportunistic private equity investments. The Huskies divide their investments into three categories, something not common for even much larger endowments: return-enhancing investments for growth, risk-minimizing investments for stability, and hedges against inflation. Thanks to that approach, UConn has returned 13 percent for the fiscal year to date.” [At the time the report was written, fiscal year to date was the end of March 2010.]

Winners are chosen on a number of factors including innovation, market impact, uniqueness of approach, and how well they met other criteria established by the editors for their award category.