Trustees of Donations to the Protestant Episcopal Church

Trustees of Donations to the Protestant Episcopal Church

The Trustees of Donations to the Protestant Episcopal Church was established in 1810 as a Massachusetts non-profit corporation, making it one of the oldest continuously operating endowment structures in the United States. Its founding mission centered on stewarding financial gifts and bequests for Episcopal churches, primarily within the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. President Elizabeth M. Westvold, a managing director at the Los Angeles-based fixed-income manager Payden & Rygel, brings institutional portfolio-construction discipline to the trusteeship — a pattern of hiring working investment professionals as fiduciaries rather than retired clergy. The core investment vehicle is the Diocesan Investment Trust, a commingled fund that consolidates endowments and trust assets from member parishes, diocesan entities, and affiliated Episcopal organizations. Asset-class exposure spans global public equities accessed through manager relationships, private credit, real estate, and hedge fund strategies — deliberately avoiding the high-volatility, illiquid venture capital allocations common among university endowments. The investment coordinator, Bill Boyce, also serves as a trustee for the Church Pension Group, creating a direct governance link to a much larger $47 billion Episcopal retirement fund. Confirmed co-investment relationships include shared board memberships between TOD and CPG that facilitate manager due diligence. The organization's activist investment posture traces to its membership in the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, where it participates in shareholder advocacy alongside other faith-based institutional investors. In September 2023, the Trustees deepened their commitment to binding ESG screens by joining the Investor Alliance for Human Rights. The board includes Thatcher L. Gearhart, retired from Bain Capital, reflecting a recruitment pattern of private-equity-operating talent for volunteer oversight. Philanthropic affiliates include the Sears Charitable Trust and the Trustees of Donations for Education in Liberia — indicating a geographic footprint beyond New England. Structurally, TOD operates as a hybrid fiduciary entity — not a single-family office, not a foundation, and not a commercial OCIO. It is a Massachusetts non-profit corporation governed by a board of unpaid trustees who are all active or retired investment professionals. This governance model means every allocation decision passes through a working investor lens rather than a charitable or clerical one, a structural edge that shapes manager selection, fee negotiation, and liquidity management across the $330 million portfolio.