The Role of Mercer Advisors in Supporting Nonprofit Missions

As the leader of a nonprofit organization, you understand that you’re operating in a unique financial landscape — one where you strive to achieve mission-driven goals with limited and sometimes unpredictable funding. Macroeconomic factors such as interest rates, inflation, trade, and GDP growth can impact both your earned and contributed income.  These same factors can also impact endowment and cash reserve returns.

Financial partners — specifically trained in the unique nuances of nonprofits’ investment needs — can play a crucial role in helping nonprofits navigate this complexity, ensuring that every dollar supports both immediate needs and long-term sustainability.

At Mercer Advisors, our seasoned team of endowment and foundation professionals is made up of individuals who have spent decades partnering with endowments and foundations and serving on the nonprofit boards in their own communities. And as nonprofit board leaders, we’ve faced many of the same decisions as you.

Making a difference in 3 key areas

Here is how we help support organizations’ missions now and for the long-term:

1. Designing and implementing an institutional grade investment portfolio that truly aligns with your investment policy statement.
   
   Most advisors offer a cookie-cutter approach to investing, often at a high cost. As a fiduciary with more than $72 billion in client assets, Mercer Advisors has more assets than any Ivy League endowment and a similar amount to the country’s largest nonprofits. This means access for our institutional clients to some of Wall Street’s greatest minds and resources. Additionally, our firm’s investment costs are among our industry’s lowest.

   Whether your investment policy allows for alternative investment strategies such as private equity or private credit, hedge funds, or real estate, or if the policy has social mandates such as Shariah compliance or ESG, we can build a custom portfolio to meet your needs. Our best-of-breed technology allows customization of your quarterly performance reporting to help you and your board discharge your fiduciary duty.

   Our goal for our nonprofit clients is simple: To achieve better investment outcomes so you can stay focused on your mission.

2. Balancing infrastructure needs with donor expectations.
   
   One of the most persistent challenges nonprofits face is balancing the need to invest in internal infrastructure, such as staff, technology, and systems, with the expectation that donations go directly to programs. Donors often prefer to see their contributions used for visible impact, not overhead. However, without a strong operational backbone, even great programs can falter.

   The Mercer Advisors Endowment and Foundation Services team works with nonprofit leadership to help you articulate the value of infrastructure investments. In one case, we helped a mid-sized nonprofit create a financial narrative that linked overhead expenses to improved program delivery. This transparency led to increased unrestricted giving and allowed the organization to invest in a new donor management system that ultimately boosted fundraising efficiency.

   Mercer Advisors also provides fiduciary support and cash flow modeling to help nonprofits plan for infrastructure upgrades while maintaining program funding. By creating detailed cash flow forecasts, Monte Carlo simulations, and budget models, we can demonstrate to you and to your constituents how strategic investments in infrastructure lead to greater efficiency and impact over time.

3. Prioritizing and allocating resources effectively.
   
   Resource allocation is another area where we bring immense value. Nonprofits often juggle multiple programs, each with their own funding sources, goals, and reporting requirements. Without a clear strategy, it’s easy to misallocate resources or overlook high-impact opportunities.

   During our 2025 Sun Valley Endowment & Foundation Conference, Mercer Advisors shared how we helped a community foundation reallocate resources after a major donor shifted their giving priorities. By using scenario modeling and performance dashboards, our advisor team guided the foundation through a strategic pivot that preserved core services while launching a new initiative aligned with emerging donor interests.

   In times of crisis or opportunity, such as a sudden drop in donations or a new grant opportunity, we can model different scenarios to guide decision-making. This proactive approach helps ensure that your nonprofit remains agile and mission-focused, even in uncertain environments.

   Additionally, we offer board education workshops on topics like investment and spending policy construction, best practices in board fiduciary responsibility, and timely fundraising strategies through legacy giving.

Getting started

Your financial partner should be more than just an investment manager — they should be your strategic partner who helps your organization. Whether it’s building better and lower cost portfolios, helping donors understand the importance of funding overhead, or optimally allocating resources, your partner should bring clarity, discipline, and long-term vision.

Real-world partnerships, like those facilitated by Mercer Advisors, show how tailored financial guidance can empower nonprofits to fulfill their missions with confidence and resilience.

If you’re ready to partner with an experienced fiduciary team to help with achieving your mission, let’s talk.

Mercer Advisors Inc. is a parent company of Mercer Global Advisors Inc. and is not involved with investment services. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. (“Mercer Advisors”) is registered as an investment advisor with the SEC. The firm only transacts business in states where it is properly registered or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements.

All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the author as of the date of publication and are subject to change. Some of the research and ratings shown in this presentation come from third parties that are not affiliated with Mercer Advisors. The information is believed to be accurate but is not guaranteed or warranted by Mercer Advisors. Content, research, tools and stock or option symbols are for educational and illustrative purposes only and do not imply a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell a particular security or to engage in any particular investment strategy. For financial planning advice specific to your circumstances, talk to a qualified professional at Mercer Advisors.