TIFF Investment Management

TIFF operates as an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer, distributing decision-making across a Member Strategy team. Matt Hoehn, Co-Head of Custom Asset Allocation, works directly with arts and cultural institutions on portfolio construction. The firm takes a bespoke approach, assigning senior strategists to each client rather than centralizing authority in a single CIO.

TIFF accesses venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds through a combination of primary fund commitments, co-investments, and customized separate accounts. The firm selects fund managers across stages, from early-stage VC to large buyout, but does not disclose specific manager names publicly. Its sourcing relies on longstanding relationships with GPs who align with the nonprofit investment timeline and liquidity constraints.

Neither. TIFF is structured as an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer serving institutional clients—primarily endowments, foundations, and charitable organizations. It does not manage a single pool of proprietary capital nor operate as a standalone fund. Instead, it functions as a client’s dedicated investment office, designing and overseeing portfolios tailored to each institution’s mission and spending policy.

TIFF’s private-markets activity includes both fund commitments and co-investments. The firm constructs diversified alternative portfolios for each client, blending fund-of-funds access with opportunities to invest directly alongside established GPs. The exact mix varies by client mandate and liquidity needs.

TIFF’s alternative programs span private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds. Sector exposure is determined by underlying fund managers, but the firm targets strategies that meet the long time horizons and distribution requirements of nonprofit institutions. Specific early-stage venture exposure is included, though TIFF tags this broadly as venture capital without publicly naming sector concentrations.

TIFF operates under a purpose-aligned, client-embedded model — its investment team works as if it were an in-house CIO for each foundation or endowment. Unlike commercial managers optimizing for asset accumulation or fee revenue, TIFF’s mandate ties directly to each client’s financial and charitable objectives, with portfolio design reflecting payout needs, board governance, and mission constraints.

TIFF primarily serves endowments, foundations, and other charitable organizations, but its own website lists family offices and RIAs among the institutional organizations it works with. The firm’s core expertise and marketing remain heavily oriented toward nonprofit investment governance.