Working with Virginia:
Chief Financial Officer's Report

Mary Jane Rynd
Executive Vice President and CFO

When Virginia Piper switched from her Chicago certified public accountant to one here in the Valley, I became her CPA upon the recommendation of another of my clients, Virginia's sister, Carol. The decade I served Mrs. Piper was very inspiring; she was a gracious role model who always made people feel better about themselves and their capabilities.

We usually met at her dining room table. Virginia was always well-organized: She color-coded her checkbook and kept a file box of her investments so she could easily prepare information at tax time. Virginia was meticulous in her philanthropy-and her recordkeeping; the numbers were always perfect, and she loved doing it all herself.

It was an honor to work directly with Virginia Piper, and it is a continuing honor to help shepherd her legacy. Our goal from the beginning has been to create sufficient return on our investments to maintain the level of grantmaking in real terms year to year. To date we have been able to accomplish that goal, awarding grants totaling $236.2 million as of September 30, 2008.

Piper Trust's portfolio returned 11.6 percent in fiscal year 2007 and 0.4 percent in fiscal year 2008, in line with returns of other foundations of similar size. Over the two years, the Trust's total assets reached a high fair market value of $645 million, before slipping below that level as the economy faltered.

Piper Trust staff and board continue to take seriously their stewardship of the assets entrusted to them by Virginia Piper. The investment committee of the board of trustees is committed to maintaining the integrity of the investment process and works hard to exercise due diligence on each investment-related decision. In 2006, the Piper board contracted with investment consultant Cambridge Associates to help implement a more robust asset allocation and advise staff and the investment committee on a range of topics including performance monitoring and benchmarking, manager selection and best practices.

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